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Harley MS 930

Record Id:

040-002046759

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046759

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0001b4

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 930

Title:

Modus tenendi parliamentum (in English); Treaty of Troyes (imperfect)

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains one of the earliest surviving copies of the Modus tenendi parliamentum (Method of Holding Parliaments), a 14th-century work that outlines an idealised version of English parliamentary procedure. The volume also contains an imperfect copy of the Treaty of Troyes, an agreement that King Henry V of England (r. 1413–1422) and his heirs would inherit the French crown upon the death of King Charles VI of France (r. 1380–1422).

It has been suggested that the manuscript was in the possession of the clerk of the English parliament during the 16th century (see Pronay & Taylor, 'The Use of the Modus Tenendi' (1974), p. 16).

Contents:

ff. 1r-27v: Modus tendi parliamentum, written in English;

ff. 31r-36v: Treaty of Troyes, imperfect at the beginning.

[ff. 17v-18r, 28r-v, and 29v-30v are blank].

Decoration:

Large initial in gold, badly rubbed (f. 1r). Numerous large initials in blue with red pen-flourishing; small initials in red and blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046759", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 930: Modus tenendi parliamentum (in English); Treaty of Troyes (imperfect)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046759

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 930 : Modus tenendi parliamentum (in English); Treaty of Troyes (imperfect)

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0930]/040-002046759

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:

1450

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

2nd half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 125 x 75 mm (text space: 100 x 55 mm).

Foliation: ff. i + 36 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

Peter Le Neve, (b. 1661, d. 1729), herald and antiquary: inscribed 'Liber Petri Le Neve Rouge Croix prosecutoris armorum anno domini 1696' as well as a description of the manuscript's contents (f. i recto); sold to Harley (see Catalogue (1808), I, no. 930).

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. 930.

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. 910.

Dorothy K. Hodnett and Winifred P. White, 'The Manuscripts of the Modus Tenendi Parliamentum', English Historical Review, 34 (1919), 209-25 (p. 210, 212-15).

Maude Violet Clarke, Medieval Representation and Consent: A Study of Early Parliaments in England and Ireland, with Special Reference to the Modus Tenendi Parliamentum (London: Longmans and Company, 1936), pp. 222, 350-51.

John Taylor, 'The Manuscripts of the 'Modus Tenendi Parliamentum'', The English Historical Review, 83 (1968), 673-88 (p. 685).

Nicholas Pronay and John Taylor, 'The Use of the Modus Tenendi Parliamentum in the Middle Ages', Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research, 47 (1974), 11-23 (p. 16).

S. J. Ogilvie-Thomon, The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist VIII: A Handlist of Manuscripts containing Middle English prose in Oxford college libraries (Cambridge: D S. Brewer, 1991), p. 35).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Le Neve, Peter, herald and antiquary, 1661-1729

Places:

England