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Harley MS 1704
- Record Id:
- 040-002047535
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047535
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0000d4
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100181358423.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 1704
- Title:
-
Collection of works in Middle English and Latin, including Chaucer's Prioress's Prologue and Tale
- Scope & Content:
-
This English manuscript is made up of four parts that were separately produced at different moments in time.
The first part (ff. 1r-12v) was written in the first half of the 14th century and contains a number of legal texts, including the sole witness to the complete text of the Consiliatio Cnuti, a 12th-century translation of several early English law-codes, most notably Cnut's Winchester code.
The second part (ff. 13r-75r) was written in in the 1460s (based on the evidence of the watermark) and contains a number of works in Middle English verse and prose, including The Abbey of the Holy Ghost, The Three Kings of Cologne, and The Prioress' Prologue and Tale from The Canterbury Tales of Geoffrey Chaucer (b. c. 1340s, d. 1400).
The third part (ff. 76v-143r) was made in the early 17th century and consists of a copy of the Fragmenta Regalia or Observations on Queene Elizabeth her tymes and Favorites, an account of the reign of Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) by the English writer and politician Sir Robert Naunton (b. 1563, d. 1635).
The fourth part (ff. 144r-166r) can be dated to 1649-1652 (ff. 144r-166r) and contains an ABC poem in English, with large decorated letters accompanied by verses and legal texts.
Contents:
ff. 1r-7v: Consiliatio Cnuti, written in Latin prose, with a prologue beginning, 'Quoniam apud antiquos ut auctoritate priorum didicimus...'; the text beginning, 'Hec est conciliation quam Cnutus...'
ff. 7v-12v: Leges Edwardi Confessoris, a treatise in Latin prose, beginning, 'Post quartum annum adquisitionis regis Willelmi...'
f. 12v: A prologue to Magna Carta (1225), written in Latin, beginning, 'Postea tempore Henrici regis...'
ff. 13r-17v: Thomas Brampton, The Seven Penitential Psalms, written in Middle English verse, imperfect, comprising stanzas 62-116 (DIMEV 2668).
ff. 18r-26v: Life of Adam, written in Middle English prose, beginning ‘In the begynnyng of the worlde god made of nought heuy[n] & herth...' (IPMEP 25); ff. 19-22 are 16th-century replacements of lost folios.
ff. 26v-27v: 'Do Merci bifore thi Judement', written in Middle English verse, beginning ‘There is no creature bot one...' (DIMEV 5577).
f. 28r: Geoffrey Chaucer, Prioress’s Prologue, written in Middle English verse, beginning, 'O lord thy name howe precious...' (DIMEV 3970).
ff. 28r-31r: Geoffrey Chaucer, Prioress’s Tale, written in Middle English verse, beginning, 'There was in Azie in a great Cite...' (DIMEV 5601).
ff. 31r-32v: Chanson d’aventure, written in Middle English verse, beginning ‘As I fared in a frith / in somer to hure fowlis syng...’ (DIMEV 598).
ff. 32v-48r: The Abbey of the Holy Ghost, written in Middle English prose, beginning, 'I se that many men would ben in Religion...' (IPMEP 39).
ff. 48v-49r: The Nine Virtues (Novem Virtutes), attributed to Richard Rolle, written in Middle English prose, beginning, ‘It was an holy man...’; followed by an instruction to a ‘leve brother’ on the Ten Commandments, Seven Deadly Sins and the Seven Contrary Virtues, beginning ‘Flee perile and doute of deth...’.
ff. 49v-75v: The Three Kings of Cologne, a Middle English prose translation of the Historia Trium Regum, imperfect due to loss of folios in chapter 26, 32 and at the end; the text beginning, 'Hereth of these iii worshipfull and glorious kyngs...' (IPMEP 290).
f. 76v: A table of courtiers described in Fragmenta Regalia.
ff. 77r-143r: Sir Robert Naunton, Fragmenta Regalia or Observations on Queene Elizabeth her tymes and Favorites, written in English prose.
ff. 144r-166r: An ABC poem in English, with large decorated letters accompanied by verses and legal texts; many of the separate entries also feature an alphabet.
Decoration:
23 large initials, decorated with knotwork, foliate elements, and birds in colours and gold (ff. 144r-166r).
Small red initials with blue penwork decoration (ff. 1r-12v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047535", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1704: Collection of works in Middle English and Latin, including Chaucer's Prioress's Prologue and Tale" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047535 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 1704 : Collection of works in Middle English and Latin, including Chaucer's Prioress's Prologue and Tale - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[1706]/040-002047535
- 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_100181358423.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1300
- End Date:
- 1652
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 14th century-mid 17th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper and parchment (ff. 1-12 only).
Dimensions: 265-290 x 200 mm (text space varies).
Foliation: ff. 166 (+ 4 unfoliated flyleaves at the beginning + at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [iv]recto (bibliographical notes).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather, tooled in gold, with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
‘John’, owned ff. 13r-75r in the (?) 15th century: his name inscribed on f. 24r.
Robert Clare of Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, owned between 1649 and 1652: his name and the year 1649 inscribed on f. 144r; his ownership inscription ('Robert Clare his Booke Anno Domini 1652’) and signature (‘Robert Clare’) on f. 145r.
Henry Worsley (b. 1675, d. 1747), scholar and manuscript collector, envoy at the Court of Portugal (1714-21) and governor of Barbados (1721-31); donated by him to Robert Harley together with other manuscripts from Worsley's collection (now Harley 1585-1747, 1811, 1812) before December 1712 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 361-62).
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:
-
Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), nos 345/1, 1129/4, 1591/2, 1856/3, 3533/1, 4019/71.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 177.
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. 400.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)