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Harley MS 1707

Record Id:

040-002047538

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002047538

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0000d7

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 1707

Title:

Polychronicon by Ranulf Higden (to 1340)

Scope & Content:

Contents:

1. (ff. 1r-223v): Polychronicon (to 1340) by Ranulf Higden (d. 1364). Incipit (f. 1r): 'Post preclaros arcium sc[ri]ptores'. Explicit (f. 223v): 'Sed tandem ob defectum pecunie quam sui segnes procuratores ab Anglia non miserant contractis treugis & inducijs inter Reges vtriusque discessum est'. An edition of the chronicle can be found in Polychronicon Ranulphi Higden, ed. by Churchill Babington and J. R. Lumby, Rolls Series, 9 vols (London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts and Green, 1865-1886). There are a large number of marginal Latin notes in a variety of hands, including those of the scribes. Numbers in the margins mark the progression of dates.

2. (ff. 224r-231v): Alphabetical index to the Polychronicon, in two columns. Incipit (f. 224r): 'Ad sub sequentis tabule noticiam considerentur'. Explicit (f. 231v): 'Uxor Mitridatis tonsis capillis virum Sequebatur . 87 . 1'. Numbers in the index are keyed to the medieval foliation.

Damage at the bottom of ff. 220-231 has been mended by the addition of more parchment, but some text on those pages has been lost.

Decoration:

Large capitals and paraph markers in alternating blue and red. On f. 231v are two schematic diagrams, one of the winds and the cardinal directions, in both English and Latin, and the other of the universe, with the earth at the center, surrounded by the celestial and planetary spheres.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002047538", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1707: Polychronicon by Ranulf Higden (to 1340)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002047538

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 1707 : Polychronicon by Ranulf Higden (to 1340)

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[1709]/040-002047538

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Dimensions: 260 x 165 mm (text space: 200 x 110 mm).

Foliation: 231ff. (ff. [i-iv] and [233-236] are unfoliated modern paper flyleaves, of which ff. [i] and [236] have marbling on one side; ff. [v] and [232] are unfoliated paper leaves).

Script: scribe 1 (ff. 1-149v, 224r-131r): Gothic cursive; scribe 2 (ff. 149v-223v): Gothic.

Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding, with marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Henry Worsley (1675-1747), scholar and manuscript collector, envoy at the Court of Portugal (1714-1721) and governor of Barbados (1721-1731): 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 1972).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (1689-1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Old Harley number written on f. [v] recto: 92. C. 19.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish Harley, née Holles (1694-1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (1715-1785), 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, 1808-1812), II (1808), no. 1707.

John Taylor, The Universal Chronicle of Ranulf Higden (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1966), p. 154.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, pp. xix-xx.

C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 361.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names: