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Harley MS 927

Record Id:

040-002046756

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046756

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0001b1

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 927

Title:

Registrum brevium

Scope & Content:

The manuscript is the second volume of a two-volume set. The first volume is Harley MS 926.

f. 1v: List of contents.

ff. 2r-127v: Registrum brevium from the royal chancery of Edward III, written and illuminated after 1329 and before 1340 when Edward III changed his arms from England ancient into England ancient quartered with France ancient (see Provenance).

ff. 128r-133v: Added charter granted by Edward III to the monastery of the Augustinian canons in Edington, Wiltshire, on 20 September 1359: 'Datus per manus nostras in casto nostro de Ledes xx die Septembris anno regni Anglie xxxiii^o regni Francie xx^o'. There are two annotations relating to this charter:

a note recording the enrolment of this charter in the Exchequer in 1361: 'Irrotulat[us] in memorandis sc[accar]ii videlicet inter record[is] de termino pasche anno tricesimo quinto regis E[dwardii] r[er]cii a conquestu ex parte rememoratoris regis' (f. 128r).
a note recording the allocation of this charter in the Great Roll of 38 year of the reign of Edward III (1364): 'Item in magno R[otul]o de a[nn]o xxxviii^no Regis Edwardi in iterum Wiltes. sit allocatio pro rectore et fratribus de Edyndon[e] de ista carta ...' (f. 129r).

The manuscript also includes two parchment strips of a 15th-century document used as a reinforcement of the binding (unfoliated).

Decoration:

Large historiated initial in colours and gold of a king, attendants and a scribe, with a stag and a dog in the lower margin (f. 2r). Smaller initials in colours and gold combined with a partial foliate bar border or a foliate tendril (ff. 15r, 29v, 35v, 37r, 52v, 56v, 65r, 68r, 69r, 81r, 85r, etc.). Paraphs in pink/red or blue, sometimes with red penwork. Some ascenders decorated in brown ink. Some line-fillers in red ink. Spaces for initials left blank.

The illuminations are attributed to the Du Bois Master, an artist active c. 1325-30, according to Smith (2003, p. 28).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046756", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 927: Registrum brevium" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046756

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 927 : Registrum brevium

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0927]/040-002046756

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:

1329

End Date:

1369

Date Range:

1329-c 1364

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 135 x 90 mm (text space: 85-95 x 50-60 mm). The lower part of f. 127 has been excised.

Foliation: ff. 3* + 133 (+ 8 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 9 parchment flyleaves at the beginning; + 4 unfoliated parchment leaves and 40 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end). Bifolioum signatures and catchwords written horizontally.

Script: Gothic cursive. ff. 2r-127v written by 3 hands: ff. 2r-55v; 55v-94v; and 95r-127v.

Binding: Post-1600 binding of brown calf leather with gold fillets; edges tinted red.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Thomas Beauchamp, 11th Earl of Warwick (b. 1313/14, b.1369), soldier and magnate (knighted and given livery of his lands on 20 February 1329) possibly own by him: his arms with the royal arms of England ancient, and the royal arms of England ancient with a label of five point azure used by the future Edward III as Earl of Chester, probably both referring to Edward III, king of England (r. 1327-1377) (Harley MS 926, f. 9r).

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, née Cavendish 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.

Administrative Context:

England.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 927.

Michael A. Michael, 'The Artists of the Walter de Milemete Treatise', (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Westfield College, University of London, 1987), p. 293.

Kathryn A. Smith, Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England: Three Women and their Books of Hours, (London: British Library, 2003), p. 28 n. 71.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Beauchamp, Thomas, 11th Earl of Warwick, d 1369
Bentinck, Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Portland, née Harley, collector of art and natural history specimens and patron of arts and sciences, 11 Feb 1715-17 Jul 1785,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000115857160,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/2356861
Harley, Edward, second earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, 2 Jun 1689-16 Jun 1741,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000108078249,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/160524259
Harley, Henrietta Cavendish, Countess of Oxford and Mortimer, née Holles, patron of architecture, 4 Feb 1694-9 Dec 1755,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000030125833,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/6045563
Harley, Robert, first Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, 5 Dec 1661-21 May 1724,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000083423906