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Harley MS 653
- Record Id:
- 040-002046482
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046482
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x00009f
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 653
- Title:
- Henry Bratton [Bracton], De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 3r-212v: Henry Bratton [Bracton] (d. 1268), De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae, imperfect at the end.
The manuscript contains a few later additions:
ff. 1v-2r: A table of contents, added in the 14th century.
f. 2v: Notes about marriages, issue and obits concerning nine family members from North Yorkshire or the East Riding of Yorkshire, added in the 14th century.
f. 2v: Notes about the text, including a note that states ‘quod henricus breton non fecit hoc librum’.
ff. 213r-213v: A notarial deed dated to 1411, signed by Robertus Ayer, priest in the diocese of York.
Decoration:
1 large gold initial in a blue and purple frame [‘Champ’ initial] (f. 1r). Small blue and red initials with penwork decoration in the opposite colour throughout.
A tree of consanguinity in brown ink on f. 42r.
Marginal drawings in brown ink added to the lower margins of f. 81r (anthropomorphic and zoomorphic heads, and a hand) and f. 103r (a hand).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046482", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 653: Henry Bratton [Bracton], De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046482 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 653 : Henry Bratton [Bracton], De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0653]/040-002046482
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1300
- End Date:
- 1349
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 14th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 350 x 235 mm.
Foliation: ff. 213 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); parchment tabs on f. 65 and f. 84; ff. 1-2 and 213 originally served as flyleaves; all quires have been mounted onto paper guards.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house; re-bound in 1968.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
An unknown 14th-century owner from North Yorkshire or the East Riding of Yorkshire: added notes about marriages, issue and obits of nine family members to f. 2v; their names are listed above the notes: ‘Ricardus Walterus Robertus Ricardus Ricardus Ricardus Johannes Ricardus Johannes’. Several members have been buried near ‘Burton’, possibly Burton-upon-Ure [Burton-on-Yore] in North Yorkshire; this is indicated by the places of origin of their spouses, including places such as Easthorpe (? North Yorkshire), Driffield (East Riding of Yorkshire), Hedon (East Riding of Yorkshire), and Settrington (North Yorkshire); and by the religious houses that their daughters and sons entered: ‘Aliciam monialem in Watton’ [Watton Priory, East Riding of Yorkshire];‘William canonicum in Bridlyngton’ [Bridlington Priory, East Riding of Yorkshire]; ‘Johannam monialem in Killyng’ and ‘mergaret [sic] monialem in Killyng’ [Nunkeeling Priory, East Riding of Yorkshire]; and ‘Elizabet monialem in Yedingham’ [Yedingham Priory, North Yorkshire].
Robertus Ayer (fl. early fifteenth century), priest in the diocese of York, owned in 1411: his name inscribed in a notarial mark (‘R Ayer’) and in a quatrain (‘Et ego Robertus Ayer presbiter Eborum diocesis’) on f. 213r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 56).
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); bought either this manuscript or Harley MS 656 for 9s in 1625; perhaps added the title on f. 3r; recorded in his catalogues A.153, C.243, and ? B.46.
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:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 398.
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. 384.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)