Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Harley MS 1245
- Record Id:
- 040-002047074
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047074
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0002ef
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161513497.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 1245
- Title:
- John Lydgate, The Fall of Princes; Defence of Holy Church
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-182v: John Lydgate, The Fall of Princes [Books 1-9], imperfect; an English translation of Laurent de Premierfait’s Des Cas des nobles hommes et femmes, which is a French translation of Giovanni Boccaccio’s De Casibus Virorum Illustrium (‘On the Fates of Famous Men’).
ff. 182v-183r: John Lydgate, Defence of Holy Church, imperfect.
The manuscript contains several additions:
f. 1*v: A table of contents for The Fall of Princes; added in the 15th century.
ff. 182v: Receipts dated to the 30th year of reign of Henry VIII (1539-40).
f. 183v: Receipts; added in the 16th century.
f. 183v: The beginning of the Nicene and part of the Apostle's Creed in Latin; added in the (?) 15th century.
Decoration:
Full border and initial with foliate decoration in gold and colours (f. 1). Initials in blue with penwork decoration in red. Rubrics in red. Paraphs in red and blue. Cadels in brown ink in the upper and lower margins of leaves.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047074", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1245: John Lydgate, The Fall of Princes; Defence of Holy Church" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047074 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 1245 : John Lydgate, The Fall of Princes; Defence of Holy Church - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[1245]/040-002047074
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100161513497.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1474
- Date Range:
- 3rd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper and parchment.
Dimensions: 380 x 270 mm (250/260 x 200/205 mm).
Collation: Gatherings mostly of 12, with outer and inner bifolia in parchment and other leaves on paper, with horizontal catchwords in the lower margin of the last verso of gatherings, and traces of quire signatures in the lower margins of rectos in the first half of gatherings. First three gatherings imperfect.
Foliation: ff. 1* + (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. 1*recto.
Script: Gothic cursive (Secretary).
Binding: British Museum in-house; red speckled fore-edge.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
Unknown English owners in the 16th and 17th century: added marginal notabilia throughout.
Henry Gale, owned in the 16th century: inscribed his name ('Henry Gale') on f. 153r and f. 154r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 159).
Francis Harington, owned in the 17th century: his ownership inscription on f. 1r: 'Franciscus Harington est verus possessor huius liber' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 179).
Thomas Baker (b. 1656, d. 1740), nonjuring Church of England clergyman and antiquary (deprived of his fellowship at St John's, Cambridge in 1717): inscribed his name ('Thomas Baker') on f. 140r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp 6-7).
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.
- Publications:
-
Lydgate's Fall of Princes, ed. by Henry Bergen, 4 vols, Early English Text Society, 121-24 (London: Early English Text Society, 1924-1927), I, p. xxiii; IV, p. 15 (as 'H').
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 625.
Henry Noble McCracken, The Lydgate Canon. Appendix to the Philological Society's Transactions 1907-1909 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner for the Philological Society, 1908), pp. iii-xlvi (pp. xii, xiv).
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 60, 159, 179, 393.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)