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Harley MS 746

Record Id:

040-002046575

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046575

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0000fc

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 746

Title:

Legal tracts including the Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus Regni Angliae and the Leges Willelmi

Scope & Content:

A compilation of various legal tracts, including the Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus Regni Angliae (Treatise on the laws and customs of the kingdom of England), attributed to Ranulf Glanville (d. 1190). The Leges Willelmi, a late-12th-century translation of the French treatise known as Leis Willelme, survives only in this copy (see the Early English Laws online project).

Contents:

ff. 1v-3r: Added folios with the Prophecy of Merlin in French in a cursive hand.

f. 3v: Assisa panis and Assisa Cerviste (Judicial assizes).

ff. 4r-48r: Ranulf Glanville, Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus Regni Angliae.

ff. 49r-55r: Lex gloriosi Anglorum Regis Edwardi Confessoris.

f. 55r: De Libertate civium lundoniensum.

ff. 55v-58v: Leges et consuetudines quas Willelmus Rex.

f. 59: De Libertatibus quas Rex Anglie Henricus primus.

ff. 59v-64r: Carta Regis Johannis.

ff. 64r-65v: Carta prima Regis Henrici (the 'Forest Charter' of 1217).

ff. 65v-68r: Carta Regis Henrici (incorporates elements from both the 1217 and 1225 issues of Magna Carta; see Carpenter, Magna Carta project).

ff. 68r-70r: Breve Regis Henrici.

ff. 70r-74r: Collectio sive Registrum Brevium.

f. 75: De Regni Heptarchie Anglo Saxonum, etc.

f. 76: De longitudine et latitudine Anglie, etc.

f. 77r-84r: Lex que Anglice Danelage.

f. 84: Decreta Willelmi Regis.

ff. 84v-86r: Descriptio Geneaologie Ducum Normanorum.

ff. 87r-90v: Statuta de Marleberge.

ff. 91r-98v: Statuta Westmonasterii I. Gallice.

ff. 98v-100r: Statuta R. Edw. I. de Judaismo. Gallice (statue of Edward I in French, regarding the Jews).

ff. 100r-103v: Tractatus de Brevibus Regiis.

ff. 103v-104r: Canticum quoddam text written partially in Latin and partially in French.

f. 104v: List of goods and their values by Hugo of Obthorp.

ff. 105v-106r: Accord fait per le Seigneur le Counte de Angos.

f. 107. 'Wineratur (sc. Vulneratur) Karitas': first seven words of a poem on the degeneracy of the age (about 1300); with open square and diamond-shaped notes on a stave of 4 lines. Anonymous. The words of the poem, each verse followed by a French rendering, are given on f. 103v in the same hand as the body of the manuscript.

Decoration:

Puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in the same colours, some large, some mid-size. Mid-size initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in red with blue pen-flourishing. Small plain initials in red or blue. Rubrics in red. Added diagram of a chiromantic hand in brown ink (f. 107v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046575", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 746: Legal tracts including the Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus Regni Angliae and the Leges Willelmi" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046575

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 746 : Legal tracts including the Tractatus de legibus et consuetudinibus Regni Angliae and the Leges Willelmi

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0746]/040-002046575

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Anglo-Norman
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1250

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

2nd half of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 255 x 160mm (text space: 190 x 110mm), in two columns.

Foliation: ff. [i] + 107 (f [i] is an early paper flyleaf with watermark of an open-faced palm + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).

Script: Gothic, written below top line.

Binding: British Museum in-house, 1876; marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Hugh Obthorp of Boston, Lincolnshire: inscribed, late 13th century 'ego Hugo de Obthorp' with a list detailing goods received by him from a certain Ranulf, and their values (f. 104v).

John Warner, chaplain of Sutton, Lincolnshire: inscribed, 14th century 'Johannis Warner' (f. 104v).

Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1635, d. 1699), bishop of Worcester and theologian: see 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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 746.

Harry Leigh Douglas Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), p. 309.

Augustus Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, vol. 2 (London: British Museum, 1908), p. 465.

Charles L. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913; repr. New York: Franklin, 1972), p. 236.

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. 316.

Lesley A. Coote, Prophecy and Public Affairs in Later Medieval England (York: York Medieval Press, in association with Boydell & Brewer, 2000), p. 263.

David A. Carpenter, 'The Copies of Magna Carta: VII. A late thirteenth, early fourteenth-century statute book: BL Harley MS, 746, fos.65v-68', The Magna Carta Project (British Library, the University of East Anglia, King’s College London, All Souls College Oxford and Canterbury Christ Church University: 2015), URL: http://magnacarta.cmp.uea.ac.uk/read/magna_carta_copies/VII__A_late_thirteenth__early_fourteenth-century_statute_book__BL_Harley_MS__746__fos_65v-68 [Accessed 4 November 2016].

'MS Harley 746', Early English Laws Project (University of London - Institute of Historical Research / King's College London. 2016), URL: http://www.earlyenglishlaws.ac.uk/laws/manuscripts/s/?tp=d [Accessed 4 November 2016].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Related Material:

Description in Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music (1908), p. 465:

'f. 107. 'Wlneratur (sc. Vulneratur) Karitas ' : first seven words of a poem on the degeneracy of the age (about 1300) ; with open square and diamond-shaped notes on a stave of 4 lines. Anonymous. The words of the poem, each verse followed by a French rendering, are given on f. 103b in the same hand as the body of the MS.'