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Harley MS 1859

Record Id:

040-002047690

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002047690

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x00016f

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 1859

Title:

Registrum brevium

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 2r-217r: Registrum brevium.

The manuscript contains several additions:

f. 1*verso: 'Sacramentum Servientis ad legem', beginning: 'Ye shall swere that well and truly ye shall serve the kynges People as one of the Sergeantes at the Lawe'; added in the 16th century.

f. 1r: Latin sayings, beginning: 'Quid loqueris et ubi de quo cui quomodo quando'; added in the 16th century.

f. 1r: Note on measurements: 'Tailloures yardes and a half make a land yard [...] xiij furlonges make a myle'; added in the 16th century.

f. 218v: Copy of an indulgence from Nicholas, suffragan bishop of Salisbury, referring to Ralph Roberts of Willesden and Johanna his wife, beginning: 'Universis sancte matris ecclesie filijs ad quos presentes littere pervenerint Nicholaus miseracione divina Christopolitanus Episcopus ac Sarum' dated Salisbury, 1 February 1395; added in the 16th century.

f. 218v: Notes on Thomas Roberts: 'Memorandum quod in Crastino aliarum anno R.R. henrici Septum decimo Thomas Robertz de Willesdon Gent. Admissus est in Societatem Hospicij vocatur Clementis Inne et in Societate illa Continuant usque Primum die in mensis Augusti Anno R.R. Henrici Octavi quartodecimo quo quidem primo die Augusti Anno xiiij supradicti. Idem Thomas Robertz admissus est in Societatem Interioris Templi ad instanciam et requisicionem Johannes Baldwyn Gent. tunc ibidem Thesaurarij eiusdem Templi et Johannis pakyngton Gent. de eodem Templo'; added in the 16th century.

ff. 219r-219v: Quindecim Signa ante Judicium, beginning: 'Johannes Evangelista interrogavit Dominum de fine mundi'; added in the 16th century.

Decoration:

Historiated initial in colours and gold with king Richard II, combined with a foliate bar border ending in a hand holding a scroll at the beginning of the text (f. 2r). Large (3-line) initials in blue with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing, sometimes with motifs in red on the initials (f. 114r, 169r, 207, 215r), or large (3-line) plain blue initials without decoration. Paraphs (with a face on f. 64v) and line-fillers in red or blue ink. Some large marginal paraphs with decoration (e.g. ff. 146v, 148r, 150v, 157v, etc.), with a human head pulling its tongue (f. 155r), an animal head (f. 210v). Decorated by Morrys Stafford, 15th century: scroll inscribed in gold 'Morrys Stafford me fecit' (f. 2r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002047690", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1859: Registrum brevium" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002047690

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 1859 : Registrum brevium

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[1861]/040-002047690

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:

1400

End Date:

1424

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 265 x 195 mm (text space: 190 x 120 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 219 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end); 2 ruled unfoliated leaves after f. 1; 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 217; 1 unfoliated parchment pastedown on f. 219v; f. 1* is a parchment leaf that originally served as an endleaf; ff. 1, 218, and 219 are parchment leaves that originally served as flyleaves.

Collation: Indicated by leaf signatures and catchwords.

Script: Gothic cursive (Secretary).

Binding: Post-1600; gold-tooled brown mottled calf with gold fillets and the initials 'M. B.' (Museum Brittanicum) gold stamped on the upper cover.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Thomas Roberts of Willesden (b. 1470, d. 1542), member of Clement's Inn and Inner Temple, 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. 2r: 'Thome Robertz pertinet', and f. 129v (parchment pastedown): 'Constat T. Robertz'; and the name 'Robertz' written in the same hand on ff. 1r, 25r, 50r, 51r, 83r, 105r, 129r, 151r, 156r, 186r; a memorandum about him is inscribed on f. 218v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 288).

Edmund Roberts of Willesden (b. 1520), son of Thomas Roberts [above] and Katherine Sadler, owned the manuscript between 1555 and 1582: his ownership inscription on f. 1*verso: '1582 Edmundus Robertz me jure possidit'; and f. 82r: 'Edmondz Roberts me jure possidet. 1555' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 87).

'Mr Noble', 18th century: inscribed by Humfrey Wanley, librarian of Robert and Edward Harley, on f. 1r: 'Bought of Mr Noble' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 253).

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. 269 (no. 1859).

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. 253, 287, 288.

Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Miller, 1996), I, pp. 65 n. 4, 78 n. 66.

Margaret Connolly, Sixteenth-Century Readers, Fifteenth-Century Books: Continuities of Reading in the English Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 18-47.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England