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Harley MS 542

Record Id:

040-002046371

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046371

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000030

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100151490474.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 542

Title:

English historical miscellany

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 1r: A note about the foundation of a hospital in Ingastone.

ff. 1v-10r: John Taxtor of Bury St Edmunds, excerpts from his chronicle.

ff. 11r-12v: A list of nobles who came to England with William the Conqueror.

f. 13r: John Lydgate, The order of Fools, extract only.

f. 14r: Chronicle of the Chancellors of England.

ff. 15r-27r: Peter of Ickham (d. 1295), genealogy of kings; excerpts from 'Petre de Yckham Monke of Cauntorberry, his boke of the genelogie of Kyngs'.

ff. 28r-30v: A collection entitled 'Notes gathered by Doctor Talbot out of the Boke of Brute'.

ff. 31r-33v: Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby, account of the Battle of Bosworth, here introduced as 'Richard the Third his deathe by the Lord Stanley from a book borowyd of Henry Savyll'.

ff. 34r-37v: The account of a murder, entitled ‘The History of a moste horible murder commyttyd at ffevershame in Kent’.

ff. 38r-48v: Unidentified materials from chronicles, including many obits.

ff. 49r-50r: Materials from a chronicle 'out of Mr Brawghton's boke'.

ff. 50v-53v: Henry Knighton, Chronicon, excerpts.

ff. 54r-57v: Materials from a chronicle, introduced as ‘out of a small pawmflet in parchement writen in latyn of the trayterous scotts’.

ff. 58r-77r: Materials from a chronicle, introduced as 'Richard Turpyn of Caleys and bourrges there'.

ff. 77r-77v: A list entitled ‘The noble men that were of the qwest that condemnyd Thomas Howard late duke of norfolke in westminstar hall Anno 1571’.

ff. 78r-96v: A historical account, introduced as 'John Bysshope of the Kyngedom of England [Added: with a Fragment of Ireland & Scotland]'.

ff. 97r-100r: Excerpts from John Rous, Historia regum Angliae.

ff. 101r-102r: John Lydgate, Pageant verses for Queen Margaret’s Entry into London (1445), excerpts only.

ff. 102r-104r: London Lickpenny, beginning ‘To London once my stepps I bent’.

ff. 105r-108r: 'Copy of an olde boke of mastar henry savell which he lent to lacy the .10. of february in anno .1577.'.

ff. 109r-116r: A historical account entitled ‘The Conquest of Britony, mad by Julius Caesar’.

ff. 117r-118v: Historical notes and memorandi; e.g. ‘Erasmus Roterodamus 1589’; the names of ‘John Chapman’ and ‘Robert Sherleye’; the date ‘1589’; and ‘Mr Vallans of ware in the countye of hartf[...]’.

ff. 119r-122v: A list of chroniclers, beginning ‘Annales Aquitaniae were written by [...]’.

ff. 123r-124v: An index of authors and works in John Stow’s chronicles, entitled ‘A brefe comentary uppon Mr Stows Catalogue gathered by William Vallans’.

ff. 125r-140r: ‘Treatise compiled by Sir John ffortescue kniht cheife Justice of England Tempore Regis H. 6 upon the Governance of the Kingdome of England tanscribed by Mr John Stow with his own hand’.

ff. 141r-166r: Materials from a chronicle, entitled ‘Out of a Cronicle of the Angles perteyninge to Master Rose Carrike, translatyd into Englishe for John Stowe, and by hym writen anno 1579’.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046371", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 542: English historical miscellany" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046371

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 542 : English historical miscellany

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0542]/040-002046371

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100151490474.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

English
English, Middle

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1575

End Date:

1599

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 205 x 165 mm.

Foliation: ff. 8* + 12* + 168 (+ 5 at unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); f. 8* and f. 12* are paper leaves; 1 unfoliated paper leaf between f. 11 and f. 12; f. 30 and f. 31; f. 33 and f. 34; f. 104 and f. 105; ff. 4-6 have foldouts; ff. 8-9, 39-42 are smaller leaves; f. 10 is a paper strip.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

John Stow (b. 1524/1525, d. 1605), historian, wrote the manuscript: written in his hand (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 318).

Ralph Starkey (d. 1628) of Darley Hall in Oulton, wrote item 3: acquired from him in 1628 by Sir Simonds D’Ewes (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 314).

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 131): wrote on f. 78r and added the title-page on f.125r; recorded in his catalogues A.450.viii.

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (d. 1722), 3rd baronet and grandson of the former: inherited and later sold the D’Ewes library to Robert Harley on 4 October 1705 for £450.

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), nos 2200/1, 3444/8, 3759/2.

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), pp. 346-47.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 387.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)