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Harley MS 853

Record Id:

040-002046682

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046682

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000167

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 853

Title:

English historical and alchemical miscellany

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-21v: George Ripley, The Twelve Gates or The Compende of Alkemye; ending with an added Latin poem written and signed by Thomas Knight (d. 1618).

ff. 22r-25r: ‘A Compend upon the Phylosopher's Stone, sent unto Kinge Edward the IV from Lovayne’.

ff. 25r-26r: An alchemical tract, beginning ‘I shall tell it to yow openly our medecine is a stonne that is not stonne and it is one thinge in kinde and not divers thinges of whome all mettalles be made’.

f. 26r: An alchemical tract, beginning ‘In the beginnige thow shalt know that no common Quisilver is profitable, but our Quicksilver is made of the best mettall by spargerick art’.

ff. 26v-65r: Thomas Norton, Ordinal of Alchemy (beginning with the Latin prologue).

f. 65v: A Latin tract entitled ‘De Signis Elementorum’; beginning ‘Martialem te adminiftrare debere calorem lentissimum admoneris’.

ff. 66r-73v: An alchemical treatise entitled ‘liber quintae essentiae’; beginning ‘With the mighte wisdome and grace of the holye Trinite I write to yow the ffive treties in Englyshe brefely drawne owte of the booke of quinte essence beinge in latine that Hermes the prophet mad kinge off Egipt after the floude of Noe ffather of philosophers had by revelacion of an Angell of God to him’; ending with the date ‘August .22. 1589’; perhaps a translation of Jean de Roquetaillade [John of Rupescissa], Liberde considerationequintae essentiae.

ff. 74r-106v: An account of the nobility of England from 1066 to 1580, beginning ‘Edgar Etherling sonne to Edward the Owtelawe’.

ff. 107r-112r: Lists of kings, dukes, marquises, earls, viscount, and barons of England, from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth I; followed by a list of the Knights of the Garter.

ff. 112r-112v: A list of the order in proceeding to Parliament on 8 May 1572, first to St Peter’s church and then the Parliament Chamber.

ff. 113r-122v: Lists of and documents relating to descendants of the Earls of Warwick, Salisbury, Northumberland, and the Neville family.

ff. 123r-124v: Edmund Neville, Poem on the Latimer peerage, beginning ‘Since all thinges heere are slipper and unsure / why should I spurne against such falce reporte’; signed ‘1588 Edmund Latimer’.

ff. 124v-126v: The Acts of Resumption of Henry VI; features a genealogical tree on f. 125v.

ff. 127r-128v: Thomas Knight, alchemical treatise on making the Philosophers Stone, beginning ‘God with the magnitude and influent goodnes I beginne to wryte this volume that thou maist be magnified glorified loved praysed and honoured in whose Custodie I commende this volume as supreame’; signed by Thomas Knight at the end.

ff. 129r-130v: Copies of administrative documents relating to the Neville family.

ff. 131r-132r: The Testament of Elizabeth Latimer (née Beauchamp), spouse of George Neville, 1st Baron Latimer.

ff. 132v-151v: Copies of administrative documents relating to the Neville family.

Decoration:

1 unfinished half-page presentation miniature (? Thomas Norton presenting his work to Edward IV) with foliate borders, partially in colours (29r). The frame of a miniature in black ink with figures drawn in lead point on f. 41r.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046682", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 853: English historical and alchemical miscellany" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046682

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 853 : English historical and alchemical miscellany

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0853]/040-002046682

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1570

End Date:

1580

Date Range:

c 1575

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 305 x 195 mm.

Foliation: ff. 1* + 152 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at hte beginning + 5 at the end); f. 1* is a paper leaf that originally served as a flyleaf.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. British Museum binding: re-bound on 28 September 1966.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Edmund Neville (b. before 1555, d. in or after 1620), peerage claimant to the barony of Latimer, owned in the 2nd half of the 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. 1*verso: ‘Edmonde lorde Latimer me possidet’; his name on f. 152r: ‘Ed[mund] Latym[er]’ and (crossed out) ‘Edm[und] Nevill’.

‘Sr Browne’, owned in the 2nd half of the 16th century: his name inscribed in a note on f. 1*verso: ‘Sr Browne after Dr Homferies Sird J.G.B. beinge of maudlin Colledg in Oxford in the Time of Dr Humferies’; the latter is Lawrence Humphrey (b. 1525x1527, d. 1589), who became president of Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1561.

? Thomas Knight (d. 1618), Rouge Croix Pursuivant 1592; Chester Herald 1603; owned in the 2nd half of the 16th or early 17th century: perhaps added a poem on f. 21v that has been inscribed with the name ‘ut voce, sic vultu ac vita – Thomas Knight’; also wrote or copied the alchemical treatise on ff. 127r-128v (for Thomas Knight see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 210; although he does not discuss the provenance of Harley MS 853).

William Adderton (fl. c. 1650), London bookseller, owned in or after 1653: his note (f. 1*verso) about books sent to him, one entitled ‘an introduction to meditacion’, with the date 1653 and signed: 'by me William Adderton'.

Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1635, d. 1699), Bishop of Worcester: his manuscripts were bought for £175 in 1707 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), pp. 456-57.

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.

Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), nos 595/16, 3772/12.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)