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Harley MS 753
- Record Id:
- 040-002046582
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046582
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000103
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 753
- Title:
- The Prose Brut Chronicle of England (Extended Version to 1430), including John Page's poem 'The Siege of Rouen'
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-191v: The Prose Brut Chronicle of England (Extended Version to 1430), including a poem by John Page (fl. 1418–1422), 'The Siege of Rouen'.
The manuscript contains several additions:
f. 90r: 'Item lent to mestres Boweyarr one pell of yuarne wylliam Satyllar […] ij bollys 1 washe betel 7 ledde'; added in the 16th century.
f. 165v: 'god that dyed on the cros and sooffred hys passion so mekely ffor us all bring us owt off [? seve] all temtacyons'; added in the 16th century.
ff. 177r (lower margin), 179v (lower margin): Pencil notes about the Prose Brut Chronicle added by the British Museum.
f. 190r: 'Item lent to g[e]orge parkar my […] and my bottyllar […]'; added in the 16th century.
f. 190v: 'Memorandum tat my endentor Idely […] to [? Mr guery wydo] the first twenty day of July […]'; added in the 16th century.
Decoration:
Large puzzle initial in red and blue with pen-flourishing in the same colours (f. 1r, damaged). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046582", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 753: The Prose Brut Chronicle of England (Extended Version to 1430), including John Page's poem 'The Siege of Rouen'" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046582 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 753 : The Prose Brut Chronicle of England (Extended Version to 1430), including John Page's poem 'The Siege of Rouen' - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0753]/040-002046582
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1430
- End Date:
- 1455
- Date Range:
- 1430-c 1450
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 265 x 190 mm (text space: 190 x 135 mm).
Foliation: ff. 191 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. 1r (inscribed 96'); parchment bookmarks on ff. 143, 151.
Collation: Indicated by catchwords (written horizontally) and leaf signatures.
Script: Gothic cursive
Binding: British Museum in-house: red half leather with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
An unknown library or individual: their pressmarks '96' and 'I7' on f. 1r.
An unknown 15th- or 16th-century owner: their merchant's mark in the lower margin of f. 167r
Henry Brayne (? Henry Brayne (d. 1558), London mercer and merchant taylor), 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 125r: 'Thys whas wryttyn bey me henry brayne the xli day off july and [?shortt] the xv day [off august]'; and his ownership inscription on f. 165v: 'Thys ys harry brayne hys boke bey the leyff off robartt Herdes and Ellen hys wyffes wryttyn the iiij day be ffore he whas maryed’.
Roland Shakerley (? Roland [Rowland] Shakerley (b. c. 1520, d. 1565) of Aynho, Northamptonshire, London mercer), 16th century: inscribed with his name on f. 48r: 'Rwland'; and on f. 65r: 'ffor Rowland'; his partially erased inscription on f. 81r: 'Rowland Shakerley'; and his name in an inscription on f. 126v: 'This was written by me Rowland Shakerley the fyrst day of Apriell in the xiiith yere of the raygne of our soferan lady quene Elizabeth [i.e. 1571] be twene viiith and ix of cloke in the fore nowne'; his name also inscribed on f. 133r: 'Rowland is my name'; and f. 134r: 'By me Rowland Shakerley' [2x] and 'Shakerley'.
Robert Heryng, 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 90r: 'Nota that Robart heryng […]' and f. 166v: 'let heverry man take \good/ hed att the begenyng what shall fall at the later ending' [3x], with the inscription: 'per me Robartus heryng'.
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.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 433 [no. 753].
The Brut or The Chronicles of England, Edited from MS. Rawl. B 171, Bodleian Library, &c., ed. by Friedrich W. D. Brie, 2 vols, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 136 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1906).
Charles L. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913; repr. New York: Franklin, 1972), pp. 132, 302.
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.
Lister M. Matheson, The Prose Brut: The Development of a Middle English Chronicle, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 180 (Tempe: Arizona State University Press, 1998), pp. xxiv, 71, 90, 92, 104, 145-48, no. 79.
'BL Harley MS. 753', Imagining History: Project Wiki [accessed 09 May 2008; link no longer active].
Ryan Perry, 'London, British Library MS. Harley 753', in The Imagining History Project (2006) [date accessed 19 October 2021].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- England