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Harley MS 1005

Record Id:

040-002046834

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046834

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0001ff

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 1005

Title:

Bury St Edmunds customary (‘Liber albus’)

Scope & Content:

Register known as ‘Liber albus’ (‘The White Book’): an inventory of charters, arranged under the headings Regum, Privilegia, Celeraria, Sacristia, de Camera, Elemosinar., De hospitali, Pitanciaria, De domo hospitum, De infirmaria, and Abbatia, each with numbered topographical subdivisions. Bound with miscellaneous rentals, notes of tithes, and the chronicle of Jocelin de Brakelond. Includes the customary of the royal abbey of St Edmund at Bury in Suffolk, with texts relating to the history of the abbey, its customs, offices and benefactors.

ff. 1r–24v: Assessment of church tithes in Norwich and Suffolk archdeaconries by Walter Suffield, bishop of Norwich, 1254.

ff. 24v–34v: Assessment of tithes by Richard, rector of Snailwell, 1291.

ff. 35r–35v: Notes on Cnut’s foundation of Bury; the convention between Bury and Hulme.

f. 35v: ‘Ordo legendi in mensa’, a list of books to be read in the refectory in a three-year cycle in Kirkestede’s hand.

ff. 36r–37v: Pittances for the year.

ff. 38r–38v: Two notes, one on the town of Bury, extracted from Domesday Book, the other a charter of Henry IV, 1401.

ff. 39r–40v: After an erased 14th-century charter, a 15th-century note on Archbishop Arundel’s visitation in Ely diocese, 1400.

ff. 41r–41v: (Cellarer’s?) accounts, c.1300, bound in sideways.

f. 42r: Bull of Nicholas III, 1278, followed by a charter of Henry I confirming the division by Abbot Robert II of the possessions of the abbot and convent, and a later memorandum on the consecration of an altar.

f. 42v: Charter of Henry IV, 1401, confirming the abbey’s liberties.

ff. 43r–43v: List of abbey servants.

ff. 44r–44v: ‘Onera feretrarii’ and customary extract.

ff. 45r–45r: List of customs and possessions of obedientiaries.

ff. 51v–54v: Grosseteste’s Rules of Husbandry.

ff. 54v–62r: Customs of officials, etc.

ff. 62v–64v: Pittancer’s customs, taxation of the abbot’s churches, list of abbey officials.

f. 65r–v: Rents and duties of various manors and officials.

ff. 65v–66v: Golden Bull of King John.

ff. 67r–67v: Notes by Kirkestede on altars and on three priors’ visitations.

ff. 68r–68v: Rents in Cockfield, etc.

ff. 69r–80v: Rental.

ff. 81r–83r: List of benefactors.

ff. 83v–87r: Foddercorn and knights’ fees.

f. 87r: Charter of Abbot Robert of Thorney (Memorials, ii, pp. 133–4).

ff. 87v–89v: ‘Ces sunt les chapitres de la canine’; notes on the assize of bread and beer and tables of land-measurement.

f. 90r: ‘La manere delaver cum ben u’ despendez par an’, a table.

f. 90v: Blank.

f. 91r: Added slip with a 14th-century note on pittances.

f. 91v: 14th-century notes

f. 92r: Charter of Abbot Hugh I, and 14th-century note on Pakenham.

ff. 92v–94v: ‘Ordo redendi compotum’ etc.

ff. 95r–95v: Geographical details of England.

f. 95v: Pittancer’s rents.

f. 96r: Interpretations of Old English legal terms.

ff. 96r–96v: Extract on Britain from Caesar, De bello Gallico 4.

f. 96v: Added charter of Edward III.

ff. 97r–99v: Added slips, of which only 97 has medieval foliation.

f. 97r–97v: Note on Hecuba.

f. 98r: Blank.

f. 98v: A diagram of eight winds in Old English (end of the 12th century).

ff. 99r–99v: Notes on various feasts.

ff. 100r–101v: Vills of St Saviour’s Hospital; list of chapters to the following customary (Gransden, Customary, p. 112).

f. 101v: ‘De quodam leproso’ (1360s), note relating to the care of lepers added by Kirkestede (Gransden, Customary, p. 113).

ff. 102r–120r: ‘Traditiones Patrum’ (written soon after 1234), including rules relating to the infirmary (ff. 105–106) and bloodletting customs (f. 116), followed by Alexander IV’s bull of 1256 confirming them (ed. Gransden, Customary). Note added by Kirkestede to the foot of ff. 117v–118v (Gransden, Customary, pp. 121–2).

f. 115r: Added slip with a 15th-century note ‘Isti sunt dies quibus conuentus bis reficitur …’.

ff. 120v–122r: Gesta sacristarum (Memorials, ii, pp. 289–296).

f. 122v: Letter of Henry III, 1230–1, and note on customs, 15th-century additions.

ff. 123r–125v: Cellarer’s rights in the town, and names of the towns in the abbey’s liberty.

ff. 126r–126v: Memoranda, 14th century: seneschal’s oath, agreement between Abbot Samson and the master of the Bury Grammar School, charter added by Kirkestede.

ff. 127r–170v: Jocelin of Brakelond, Cronica de rebus gestis Samsonis abbatis (ed. Butler).

ff. 171r–192v: Electio Hugonis (Memorials, ii, pp. 29–130; Thomson).

f. 192v: Added list of Bury abbots to John Tymworth (1379–89).

ff. 193r–195r: Extract adapted from the Liber Eliensis, on the kingdom of the East Angles.

f. 195r: Notes on the foundation of some East Anglian churches, in English.

f. 195v: Two notes on conventual events, the second by Kirkestede, the first dated 1372.

f. 196r: Charter of Edward IV (Anglo-Norman).

f. 196v: Blank.

ff. 197r–199v: Historical notes relating to the abbey.

f. 198r–v: Inserted leaf of a smaller book, in a rough 12th-century hand: 12th-century annals, concerning 11th-century English events, and a story about Dunstan, summarizing an episode in Osbert of Clare, Vita Dunstani.

f. 199v: Note on observances.

ff. 200r–202v: Customary (Gransden, Customary, pp. 68–81; after 1248), including rules for bloodletting (ff. 201v–202r) and the abbey infirmary (f. 202v); another copy in Harley 3977 (ff. 5r–6v).

ff. 203r–210r: Liber de signis monachorum.

ff. 210v–211v: Customs (early-13th-century; Gransden, Customary, pp. 100–07). A leaf that followed f. 211 (originally f. 204) is now in Harley MS 743, f. 1.

ff. 212r–217r: Customs (after 1268; Gransden, Customary, pp. 82–95), and ‘liberaciones cere’.

ff. 217v–218v: Notes on chapel dedications (Gransden, Customary, pp. 114–121).

f. 219r: ‘De monetario’.

ff. 219v–220v: Historical and other notes.

ff. 221r–221v: Customs (Gransden, Customary, pp. 108–13).

ff. 222r–222v: Customs.

ff. 223r–272v: Index of charters.

ff. 273r–279v: Rental of various manors, 1282–84.

f. 280r: Blank.

ff. 280v–281v: 12th-century abbatial charters.

f. 282r (now foliated as Harley 498, f. 1r): Notes on payments(?) with three parchment fragments pasted to the page, presumably from former flyleaves.

f. 282v (Harley MS 498, f. 1v): Medical note relating to plague and fever (14th century). Title 'Ad plagam valet et ad omnia [...]', inc. 'Omnes lapides', expl. 'febris tollit'. Described in the Harley Catalogue as 'Medicamenta futilia'.

List of contents based on Thomson, Archives, no. 1293.

Decoration:

ff. 1–34: large capitals (2 lines; f. 1r) in red and sentence capitals touched in red throughout.

ff. 35–126: capitals (1–2 lines; ff. 102r–121r, 123r–124r) in red, sentence capitals touched in red (ff. 45r–61v, 69r–89r, 90r, 92r, 102r–121r, 123r–124r).

ff. 127–170, 171–192: capitals (1–3 lines; ff. 127–171) in red, sentence capitals (ff. 127–171) touched in red.

ff. 193–281: capitals (2 lines on f. 193r; 1 line on ff. 223r–272v) in red, sentence capitals (ff. 197r–202v, 212r–220v, 222r–222v) touched in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046834", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1005: Bury St Edmunds customary (‘Liber albus’)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046834

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 1005 : Bury St Edmunds customary (‘Liber albus’)

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[1005]/040-002046834

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Anglo-Norman
English, Middle
English, Old
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1100

End Date:

1440

Date Range:

Early 12th century-Early 15th century

Era:

Access:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 225 × 140 mm.

Foliation: ff. 282 (including last endleaf). Kirkestede's foliation ‘1’–‘279’ (repeating no. 88, omitting one leaf after no. 147 and no. 277; leaves foliated 35, 46, 204-207, 276 missing; corresponding to ff. 1-89, 92-97, 100-211, 212-279, 281, and f. 1 of Harley 498 of the modern foliation). Modern foliation in pencil ff. '1-281' mistakenly foliating last endleaf as f. 1 of Harley 498 (followed here; ff. 90v, 98, 196v, 264v, 280 blank).

Collation: Composite manuscript, built around the core of two mid-13th cent. texts (ff. 127–192; see Thompson, Archives, pp. 142–144). Original composition of gatherings probably altered by the later binder. First unit, circa 1300, ff. 1-34: i⁸, ii¹⁰, iii–iv⁸, ruled in ink (double vertical lines) for triple columns of 33 lines, text below top line, written space circa 172 × 112 mm. Second unit, third quarter of the 13th cent.–early 15th cent., ff. 35–126 (missing 2 original leaves; including 9 leaves inserted later): v⁴, vi⁵⁺¹ (gathering composition not original), vii-ix¹², x¹⁰⁺⁴, three singletons, xi², xii¹², xiii¹²⁺¹, variously ruled and laid out for single or double columns. Third and Fourth units, third quarter of the 13th cent., ff. 127–170, 171-192: xiv-xvi¹², xvii⁸, xviii¹²⁺¹, xix⁸⁺¹, ruled in ink and hard point (single vertical bounding lines) for double columns of 35 and 46 lines respectively, texts below top line, written space circa 160 × 100 mm and circa 178 × 113 mm. Fifth unit, 12th–14th centuries, ff. 193-281, plus original back flyleaf, now Harley 498 f. 1 (composition not original for gathering xxi and from f. 265 onwards; missing at least 2 original leaves; one inserted leaf): xx⁴, xxi⁶ (gathering composition not original, including added leaf, i.e. fl. 198), xxii⁴, xxiii^6-1 (sixth cancelled), xxiv^12-1 (fifth missing before medieval foliation took place), xxv⁸, xxvi⁴, xxvii⁶, xxviii-xxx⁸, xxxi⁴, xxxii⁴, 1 singleton, xxxiii-xxxvi², 1 singleton (now Harley MS 498, f. 1), ruling, layout and script as in II.

Script: Gothic cursive; Gothic: ff. 1–34 in a cursive Anglicana hand (cursiva libraria/Anglicana); ff. 35–126, ff. 193-281, written by several hands in cursive English secretary and Anglicana scripts (cursiva libraria currens/Anglicana, secretary); ff. 127–170, 171–192 written by two or possibly three scribes in Gothic book script of varying degree of formality (littera textualis semiquadrata formata), main scribe possibly Prior Robert Russel (Thomson, Archives, p. 17) from circa 1268 to circa 1280. Additional texts and annotations (ff. 35v, 101v, 118v, 126v, 195v, 217v–218v, 221r–221v, 280v–281v) by Henry de Kirkestede from circa 1361 to circa 1372 throughout; later additions by John Gosford, in particular ff. 38r–38v (Thomson, Archives, p. 142).

Binding: British Library.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Benedictine abbey of St Edmund, King and Martyr, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: inscribed, ‘Liber monachorum sancti Edmundi’ and pressmark ‘C.68’ (f. 1r).

Provenance:

Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1635, d. 1699), bishop of Worcester and theologian: his MS. 234, 'MSS. de Monasterio Sancti Edmundi. MS. in pergameno', in the catalogue of his manuscripts. drawn in 1685, now Harley MS 7644. Bought with other manuscripts from the Stillingfleet library in 1707 from his son, Edward Stillingfleet (d. 1708), physician and Church of England clergyman, by Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician.

Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), Old English scholar: Valued '15.0.0.' in Harley 7055, f. 78, no. 234, and described by him in 1710-11 in the third volume of his 'Catalogus Brevior' (Add MS 45703, ff. 219–226).

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.

Harley shelfmarks (f. 1r) '63.D.6 / 1005' in black ink and '3/V B' in pencil.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Robert Nares and others, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808–12), i, 502–06.

Memorials of St. Edmund’s Abbey, ed. by Thomas Arnold, Rolls Series, 96, 3 vols (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1890–96).

M.R. James, On the Abbey of S. Edmund at Bury (Cambridge: Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1895), i, 111–12.

The Chronicle of Jocelin of Brakelond concerning the acts of Samson, abbot of the monastery of St. Edmund, ed. and trans. H.E. Butler (London: Nelson, 1949).

Neil R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 307, no. 233.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley, 1715–1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), i, pp. xix, xxviii.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts Preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 316.

The Customary of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk: from Harleian MS. 1005 in the British Museum, ed. Antonia Grandsen, Henry Bradshaw Society, 99 (Chichester: Regnum Press, 1973), with pl. (f. 102).

The Chronicle of the Election of Hugh, Abbot of Bury St. Edmunds and later Bishop of Ely, ed. and trans. by R.M. Thomson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974).

Rodney M. Thomson, The Archives of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk Records Society, 21 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 1980), pp. 17-19, 142-145, no. 1293.

Donatella Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda, ‘Les listes médiévales de lectures monastiques. Contribution à la connaissance des anciennes bibliothèques bénédictines’, Revue Bénédictine, 96.3–4 (1986), 271–326 (at 301–4, no. 7), https://doi.org/10.1484/J.RB.4.01156.

Richard Sharpe and others, English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), pp. 87–89, B14.

Richard H. Rouse and Mary A. Rouse, Henry of Kirkestede. Catalogus de libris autenticis et apocrifis, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 11 (London: British Library, 2004), pp. xxxv n. 28, xxxix, xlvii, xlix, lxxii-lxxiv, 372 no. 405.6, pls. 3a, 6b (ff. 35v, 115).

Richard Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540, Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin, 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997), pp. 172, 259.

G.R.C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison, and David M. Smith, 2nd edn (London: British Library, 2010), no. 105.

Neil R. Ker, Richard Sharpe, and James Willoughby, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 2015, http://mlgb3.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Benedictine abbey of St Edmund, King and Martyr, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, 1020-1539
Brakelond, Jocelin of, OSB, Monk at Bury St Edmunds
Kirkestede, Henry, prior of Bury St Edmunds and bibliographer, c 1314-c 1378
Nicholas of Dunstable, of Bury St Edmunds, monk and chronicler, fl Early 13th century
Northwold, Hugh of, Bishop of Ely
Stillingfleet, Edward, Bishop of Worcester, 1635-1699

Related Material:

Bound with Harley MS 498, the ‘Asphall’ cartulary.

Related Archive Descriptions:

Harley MS 498
Harley MS 743