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Harley MS 1879
- Record Id:
- 040-002047710
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047710
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000183
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100193759529.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 1879
- Title:
-
Catalogues of the books of Henry Savile of Banke, Robert Bruce Cotton, and John Dee
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-10r: Catalogue of the library of Henry Savile of Banke (d. 1617) in English and Latin, written in the hand of Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician.
f. 10v: List of books wanted by Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, headed: 'Books I want', from the library of John Lumley (b. c. 1533, d. 1609), 1st Baron Lumley, which passed to Prince Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (b. 1594, d. 1612). The list was made either shortly after Lumley's or Henry's death.
ff. 11r-18r: Catalogue of Greek books, written in Greek, transcribed by Constantine Palaeocappus at Paris (see Catalogue of Harleian Manuscripts (1808), II, p. 303); the text is a copy of Royal MS 16 C VI.
f. 19v: Description of a Register of St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, which 'book is now in the hand of on Mr Wilford of Kent an old Gentellman living in fette layn [Fetter Lane, London] a recusant'; written in the hand of Sir Robert Cotton. The manuscript described is not Cotton MS Claudius D X.
ff. 20r-92r: Catalogue of the library of John Dee (b. 1527, d. 1608 or 1609), written in the hand of John Dee, and headed, 'Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecae Mortlacensis D. Joh. Dee. 6 September 1583'.
ff. 93r-108r: Catalogue of John Dee's books not kept with his library at Mortlake, written in the hand of John Dee; ed. in Private Diary of Dr. John Dee, ed. by Halliwell (1842), pp. 65-87.
f. 108v: Notes on books, with the date 'August 1612'.
The manuscript contains a later addition:
ff. [iv]recto-[iv]verso: A fragmentary parchment leaf with parts of Psalms 87 and 88 printed on them, with large initials in black frames at their openings, small red initials for verses, and music notation in black and red ink; printed in the late 15th or early 16th century.
f. [iv]recto: A title inscription for the manuscript: 'Catalogue of Books and Manus[cripts]'; added in the (?) 17th century.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047710", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1879: Catalogues of the books of Henry Savile of Banke, Robert Bruce Cotton, and John Dee" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047710 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 1879 : Catalogues of the books of Henry Savile of Banke, Robert Bruce Cotton, and John Dee - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[1881]/040-002047710
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_1879 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
Greek, Ancient
Latin - Scripts:
- Greek
Latin - Start Date:
- 1578
- End Date:
- 1617
- Date Range:
- c 1583-c 1612
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 320 x 205 mm (text space: 280 x 110 mm).
Foliation: ff. 108 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated blank paper leaf after ff. 5 and 73 + 5 unfoliated blank paper leaves after f. 18 + 3 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown (bibliographical notes) on f. [iii]verso; the parchment flyleaf at the beginning (f. [iv]) is a leaf from another manuscript.
Script: 16th- and 17th-century script.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Brown half-leather binding with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers. Re-bound on 6 May 1966.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
John Dee (b. 1527, d. 1609), mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary, owned ff. 20-92: catalogues of his library in 1583 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 127).
Sir Robert Bruce Cotton (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician, owned ff. 1-10, 19: catalogues and notes written in his hand (see Tite, The Early Records (2003), p. 74).
Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), Old English scholar, palaeographer, and librarian of Robert and Edward Harley, earls of Oxford: according to his description in the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1808), II, p. 303: 'quem a me [H. W.] redemit […] Dominus meus' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 344).
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. 303.
Private Diary of Dr. John Dee, and the Catalogue of His Library of Manuscripts, from the Original Manuscripts in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and Trinity College Library, Cambridge, ed. by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps (London: Nichols, 1842), pp. 65-87.
Montague Rhodes James, Lists of Manuscripts Formerly Owned by Dr. John Dee, Supplement to the Bibliographical Society's Transcations, 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1921), p. 9.
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. 74, 127, 344.
Andrew G. Watson, 'John Twyne of Canterbury (d. 1581) as a Collector of Medieval Manuscripts: a Preliminary Investigation', The Library, 6, 8th series (1986), 133-151 (p. 149 n. 16).
Colin G. C. Tite, The Early Records of Sir Robert Cotton’s Library: Formation, Cataloguing, Use (London: The British Library, 2003), pp. 74-76.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)