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Harley MS 1413

Record Id:

040-002047242

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002047242

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000397

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 1413

Title:

Albrecht of Prussia, Kriegsordnung (chapters 7-10)

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains the second half of a two-volume set of the Kriegsordnung (chapters 7-10), a treatise on managing large military campaigns composed by Albrecht of Prussia (b. 1490, d. 1568), first Duke of Prussia and grand master of the Teutonic Order. It is considered to be one of the most important military texts from the Renaissance. The first volume, containing books 1-6, was rediscovered in 2009 (London, Sotheby’s, 7 July 2009, lot 25) and is now Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, MS boruss. fol. 1254.

The two-volume set is one of the two surviving German copies of the Kriegsordnung. The other copy is Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz MS boruss. fol. 441. This manuscript contains a revised version of the Kriegsordnung that Albrecht finished in 1555 and presented to Sigismund II Augustus, King of Poland. Harley MS 1431 and its companion volume in Berlin represent the unrevised version, since it lacks the dedicatory letter to the King of Poland, is longer and more detailed, and contains additional materials concerning naval warfare (see Porter, ‘A Fresh Look at Harley MS. 1413’ (2009), 1-12).

A preliminary work to the Kriegsordnung by Albrecht of Brandenburg, entitled Kriegsbericht und Memorial (1550), was rediscovered in 2014 (London, Sotheby’s, 8 July 2014, lot 43) and is now Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, MS boruss. qu. 574.

Contents:

f. 1*recto: Two leather panel stamps from the manuscript’s original binding pasted onto a paper leaf.

ff. 1r-225r: Albrecht of Prussia, Kriegsordnung (Chapters 7-10), beginning: ‘Das sibende büch – Wie alle drei Regiment, mit samyt aller kriegs rüstüng, in güter ordnüng ins feldt gefürt sollen werden, Aüch wie man sich lagern, und in dem lager halten soll’.

Decoration:

85 full-page drawings of military formations, camps, battlefields, sieges, battle ships, interlocking boats (for a pontoon bridge), mechanical constructions (hydraulic devices, a cart with scythes, carts with ovens), and hand tools, drawn in colours inside black frames, and diagrams of military formations in black and red ink, either on large paper sheets folded into two pages (ff. 2r, 18v, 19v, 20v, 21v, 22v, 23v, 24v, 25v, 26v, 27v, 28v, 29v, 30v, 94v, 95v, 96v, 97v, 98v, 99v, 100v, 101v, 102v, 103v, 104v, 105v, 106v, 107v, 108v, 109v, 110v, 111v, 112v, 113v, 114v, 115v, 116v, 117v, 118v, 119v, 120v, 121v, 122v, 123v, 124v, 125v, 126v, 127v, 128v, 129v, 130v, 131v, 132v, 133v, 134v, 135v, 137v, 182v) or on a single page (ff. 69v, 71v, 72v, 73v, 74v, 75v, 78v, 79v, 80v, 81v, 181v, 212r, 213r, 214r, 215v, 216v, 217v, 218r, 219v, 220v, 221v, 222v, 223v, 224r, 225r). Large initials with cadels in black ink and marginal interlace knot-work in black ink at the beginning of each book (ff. 1r, 59r, 136r, 181r). Tables in red ink on ff. 32v-33v, 49r-49v, 50v, 51v-54v, 55v-56v, and 57v-58r.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002047242", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1413: Albrecht of Prussia, Kriegsordnung (chapters 7-10)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002047242

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 1413 : Albrecht of Prussia, Kriegsordnung (chapters 7-10)

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[1413]/040-002047242

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:

1550

End Date:

1560

Date Range:

c 1555

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 410 x 270 mm.

Foliation: ff. 1* + 225 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); 2 unfoliated blank paper leaves between f. 58 and f. 59; f. 214 and f. 215; 1 between f. 67 and f. 68; f. 89 and f. 90; f. 220 and f. 221; and f. 223 and f. 224.

Script: 16th-century script.

Binding: British Museum in-house; re-bound in 1968.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Königsberg [modern-day Kaliningrad, Russia].

Provenance:

Albrecht of Prussia (b. 1490, d. 1568), 1st Duke of Prussia: composed the text, and may have commissioned Harley MS 1413 and the Berlin companion volume for his private collection.

Albrecht Friedrich (1553-1618), 2nd Duke of Prussia, a member of the Ansbach branch of the Hohenzollern family resident in Königsberg: one of the panel stamps from the manuscript’s original binding on f. 1*recto feature his arms; they are by Hans Guttich, a bookbinder at Konigsberg court around 1575.

John Spicer: appears to have owned the manuscript (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 311).

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), II (1808), pp. 36-37.

Pamela Porter, 'A Fresh Look at Harley MS. 1413: ‘A Book … fairly written in the German or Switz language’', Electronic British Library Journal, 8 (2009), 1-12 [article 10].

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. 396.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Albrecht of Prussia, Duke of Prussia, 1490-1568,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/27084332

Places:

Kaliningrad, Russia