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Harley MS 1481

Record Id:

040-002047311

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002047311

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0003dc

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 1481

Title:

Robert Glover, De Origine Antiquitate et Differentijs Armorum; coats of arms of English bishops and nobility

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1*recto: A title inscription: ‘De Origine Antiquitate et Differentijs Armorum sive Insigniorum R. Gloveri alias Somerset Fecialis regij observationes aliquot’.

ff. 2*recto-4*verso: An alphabetical index of surnames included in this manuscript.

ff. 1r-5r: A Latin treatise by Robert Glover (b. 1543/4, d. 1588), herald, entitled: ‘De Origine et antiquitate Armorum, sive insigniorum Gentilitium, eorundemque differentijs et distincionibus requisitis R. Gloveri Fecialis Regij observationes aliquot’.

ff. 5v-14v: A Latin treatise entitled: ‘De differentijs et distinctionibus in Armorum sive Insigniorum delatione requisitis’.

ff. 15r-89r: Pedigrees of English nobility with coats of arms illustrating the system of cadency.

ff. 90r-93v: Three leaves with English letters concerning interrogations with genealogies on their reverse, featuring coats of arms, tricked.

ff. 96v-104v: The coats of arms (4 per page) of English bishops in colours, entitled: ‘Ecclesiasticorum virorum iam sequuntur insignia: qui claris ac nobilibus orti parentibus, Arma paterna, distinctionibus et differentijs quibusdam variata, portabant’.

ff. 105r-108v: The coats of arms (4 per page) of English nobility in colours (no title), beginning with John Beaufort, 1st Earl of Somerset.

ff. 109r-111v: A descent of the earls of Pembroke and Clare from Norman ancestors with their arms, tricked; in the hand of John Withie; according to Humfrey Wanley in the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, II (1808), p. 71.

Decoration:

A tree of consanguinity with green roundels and red relationship lines, the first one, entitled ‘STIPES’, featuring the head of a bearded man (f. 7r). Coats of arms in colours or tricked in brown ink throughout the manuscript. Green roundels in genealogies with relationship lines in red, red and blue, or brown ink.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002047311", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1481: Robert Glover, De Origine Antiquitate et Differentijs Armorum; coats of arms of English bishops and nobility" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002047311

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 1481 : Robert Glover, De Origine Antiquitate et Differentijs Armorum; coats of arms of English bishops and nobility

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[1482]/040-002047311

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1600

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 365 x 230 mm.

Foliation: ff. 1*-4* + 111 (+ 6 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 8 at the end); 1 unfoliated blank paper leaf between f. 90 and f. 91; f. 92 and f. 93; f. 93 and f. 94; and f. 108 and f. 109; ff. 90 and 20 are paper leaves with fold-outs; ff. 91, 93, 109-111 are smaller paper leaves mounted onto paper guards.

Script: 17th-century script.

Binding: British Museum in-house; gilt fore-edge.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

John Withie (b. 1593, d. ? 1678), arms painter for the College of Arms, copied and painted the manuscript with his son Augustine Withie (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 357).

John Spicer: acquired from John Withie (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), p. 71.

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. 311, 357, 397.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Glover, Robert, herald, genealogist and antiquarian, 1544-1588

Places:

England