Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Harley MS 682
- Record Id:
- 040-002046511
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046511
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0000bc
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161517463.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 682
- Title:
- Charles of Orléans, Collected poems
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a collection of English poems by Charles, Duke of Orléans, composed during his captivity in England (1415-1440). The manuscript was probably produced under the Duke's supervision at the end of this period, as it includes Ballades 111 and 113, which were rewritten by the author in 1439 (see Arn, Fortunes Stabilnes (1994), p. 37 and Arn, 'Two Manuscripts, One Mind’ (2000). The authorship of the poems by Charles of Orleans has been questioned by Calin, ‘Who Wrote the English Poems in Harley 682?’ (1994).
Contents:
ff. 1r-147v: Charles, Duke of Orléans, collected poems. The text is imperfect at the beginning, incipit: '[T]he god Cupide and venus the goddes'; and includes several corrections. For the list of contents and edition of the text see Arn, Fortunes Stabilnes (1994), and The English Poems of Charles of Orleans, ed. by Steele and Day (1941-1946).
The manuscript contains a later addition:
f. 103v: Excerpts from the Eclogue of Theodulus: 'Ethyopum terras iam feuida torruit estas / In cancro solis dum voluitur aureus axis / Silva prata virent frondent nunc omnia rident'; added in the 15th century.
Decoration:
Space left for initials throughout the manuscript, several with guide letters, and perhaps for larger illumination or headings (ff. 4v, 15v, 61r, 61v-99v, 102v-103v, 105r, 107r, 107v-111r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046511", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 682: Charles of Orléans, Collected poems" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046511 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 682 : Charles of Orléans, Collected poems - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0682]/040-002046511
- 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_100161517463.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1439
- End Date:
- 1440
- Date Range:
- 1439-1440
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 195 x 140 mm (text space: 130 x 70 mm).
Foliation: ff. 74* + 148 ( + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); a photographic reproduction of f. 148v has been inserted on a paper guard after f. [149].
Collation: i-xii8 (ff. 1-95); xiii8-1 (ff. 96-102; 1 folio excised after f. 101); xiv-xviii8 (ff. 103-142); xix6 (ff. 143-148); 2 quires (1 at the beginning and 1 after quire xiii) are lacking according to Arn (2000, p. 63). Catchwords; bifolium signatures.
Layout: Written in one column of 31 lines.
Script: Gothic hybrid (Bastarda).
Binding: British Museum in-house; rebound in 1969.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
Charles, Duke of Orléans (b. 1394, d. 1465), perhaps produced under his supervision (see Arn, ‘Two Manuscripts, One Mind’ (2000)).
Thomas Wyssedune, owned in the 16th century: inscribed his name with a macaronic poem inscribed on f. 75r: 'Non conturbetur cor vestrum neque / for my dethe spyrytum verytatys / et gravde be the cor vestrum allelya alleya / Thomas Wyssedune' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 365).
An unknown 16th-century owner: added a note to f. 95v with a reference to John Halesby or John Halowy: 'My live (?) relyond for John Halesby [or Halowy?] a [...]' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 177, who states that the name ‘Peter Ody’ can be read in another inscription on f. 95v that is in the same hand; this has not been verified).
An unknown 16th-century English owner: wrote a draft letter to a certain Elizabeth Gelle (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 160) on f. 101v: ‘Ryght welbeloffed Elisabethe gelle I hartely and loffyngly recummend me unto yow glad to her off yowr welffar in trustyng yn hall myty god that yow be yn good helthe the caus of my wrytyng to yow at thys tym I pray yow send me word whether yow be wyllyng hor no or ells I porpos hanother waye ther ffor I do yow to war for I dout nate for to be spedfull well and I tarre a whylle for hefare body moste tarre a spas and therfor I pray yow let me haff sum word agen shortly [etc.]’.
Joanna Tredecrofft [? Tredecrosset], (?) wife of Richard Holt, owned in the 16th century: her name inscribed on f. 111r: 'Johanne Tredecrofft de Richardi Holt' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 331, who reads the name as ‘Tredeceset’).
An unknown 16th-century owner: added a memorandum to f. 148v: ‘[...] [? Jamas] Pryo[? rows] / me ffor ii elles off hollond clothe / the pr[ice] þerof a nell [...] viiid the / summe yer of all [...] xvid'.
Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1635, d. 1699), Bishop of Worcester: shelf-mark no. 713 in his library; included in his catalogue as '173 MS in Old English Poetry (incip.) The God Cupid and Venus the Goddess MSS in Perga'; his manuscripts were bought for £175 in 1707 by Robert Harley (see Arn, Fortunes Stabilnes (1995), p. 117; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 316).
Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1661, d. 1708), physician and Church of England clergyman, son of the former; in 1707 acquired by Robert Harley (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 316).
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:
-
Mary-Jo Arn, 'Charles of Orleans and the Poems of BL MS, Harley 682', English Studies, 74 (1993), 222-35.
Fortunes Stabilnes: Charles of Orleans's English Book of Love: A Critical Edition, ed. by Mary-Jo Arn, Medieval anf Renaissance Texts and Studies, 138 (Binghampton: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1994).
Mary-Jo Arn, 'Two Manuscripts, One Mind: Charles d'Orléans and the Production of Manuscripts in Two Languages (Paris, BN MS fr. 25458 and London, BL MS Harley 682)', in Charles d'Orléans in England (1415-1440), ed. by Mary-Jo Arn (Cambridge: Brewer, 2000), pp. 61-78.
William Calin, 'Will the Real Charles of Orleans Please Stand! or, Who Wrote the English Poems in Harley 682?', in Conjunctures: Medieval Studies in Honor of Douglas Kelly, ed. by Keith Busby and Norris J. Lacy (Amsterdam, 1994), pp. 69-86.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), I (1808), p. 406.
A. E. B. Coldiron, 'Translation, Canon, and Cultural Capital: Manuscripts and Reception of Charles d'Orléans's English Poetry', in Charles d'Orléans in England (1415-1440), ed. by Mary-Jo Arn (Cambridge: Brewer, 2000), pp. 183-214 (pp. 183, 185, 187-89, 201, 207).
Chris Fletcher, Roger Evans, and Sally Brown, 1000 Years of English Literature: A Treasury of Literary Manuscripts (New York: Abrams, 2003), pp. 38-39.
The English Poems of Charles of Orleans, ed. by Robert Steele and Mabel Day, 2 vols, Early English Text Society, Series 215 and 220 (Oxford: Early English Text Society, 1941-1946), II [edition of the text].
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 160, 177, 196, 260, 316, 331, 384.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)