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Harley MS 1060

Record Id:

040-002046889

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046889

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000236

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 1060

Title:

A German manual for making gunpowder, rockets and bombs

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-11v: Instructions for making rockets, pyrotechnic maces and pole weapons, beginning: ‘Wie man die Ragethen stök machen soll'.

ff. 12r-15v: Instructions for making gunpowder for rockets, beginning: ‘Wie man den Zeug oder sätz Damitt man die Ragethen füllett, machen soll’

ff. 16r-60r: A manual with instructions for making bombs for a siege, in 95 chapters, beginning: ‘Volgen nun allerhandt Feurwerke [...] ausserhalb ainer besatzung Ind sturmen [...] gegen den feindt mögen gebraucht werden, zu defendiren’.

ff. 61r-77v: Instructions for making gunpowder for canons, beginning ‘Volgen nun die sätz, und irstlich von allerleij guten sätzen und Zeugen do mitt öhl angefuchtett werden’.

The manuscript contains several additions:

ff. 2*recto, 2*verso, 6*recto, 6*verso: A (?) commentary on the psalms in German; written in the 17th century.

ff. 3*recto-5*recto, 78r-78v: Fragments of a 16th-century printed almanac in German, perhaps based on the Calendarium perpetuum et sex libri oeconomici that Johannes Colerus (d. 1639) published around 1590; featuring two proverbs below: ‘Bad nicht / Lasz nicht / dich nicht Curir / Meyd Gewürtz / Wein / trinct gut alt Bier / Sallat mit Essig / Spargeln / Kressig / Drauff Eyer/ Würst / Rosen Essig’ (f. 3*recto); and ‘Der Weinmon uns gut Wildbrat gibt / Isz Gänsz und Vögel hab dich lieb / Mässig Weinbeer / Obst isz / trinck Most / Pflanz Bäum / bewahr den Leib für frost (f. 3*verso); an unfoliated fragment of the almanac is pasted on f. 80r.

ff. 79r-80v: Fragments of a lectionary or other liturgical manuscript from Germany; written in the 15th or 16th century.

Decoration:

Drawings of rockets, maces and pole weapons, bombs, and canons in brown ink throughout the manuscript.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046889", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1060: A German manual for making gunpowder, rockets and bombs" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046889

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 1060 : A German manual for making gunpowder, rockets and bombs

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[1060]/040-002046889

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

German

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1600

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper; parchment (ff. 79-80).

Dimensions: 315 x 200 mm.

Foliation: ff. 1*-6* + 80 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); f. 1* and f. 2* are paper leaves; f. 3* and f. 78 are smaller paper leaves with printed text; and f. 79 and f. 80 are smaller parchment leaves.

Script: 16th-century script.

Binding: Post-1600.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Germany.

Provenance:

‘Henry Colthurst’, owned in the (?) 17th century: name inscribed on f. 1*recto: ‘Colthurst [? Ingender]’ and f. 15v: ‘Finis Henry Colthurst’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

John Bagford (b. 1650/41, d. 1715), bookseller and antiquary: Harley MS 5998, recording the names of books acquired via Bagford, lists a ‘A German Mss: of Makeing of Gunpowder & fireworks 0-2-6’ that almost certainly can be identified as Harley MS 1060 (see Tite, ‘Manuscripts Supplied to Robert Harley’ (2012), p. 2; for other Harleian manuscripts from Bagford see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 59).

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. 527.

Collin G. C. Tite, 'Manuscripts Supplied to Robert Harley by John Bagford: Further Information from BL, Harl. MS 5998', Electronic British Library Journal (2012), 1-8 (p. 2).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)