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Harley MS 2013
- Record Id:
- 040-002047844
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047844
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000209
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161514068.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2013
- Title:
-
The Chester Cycle
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
f. 1*recto: William Newall, Clerk of Chester, Proclamation for Whitsone Playes (1531/2); claiming that the Chester cycle was written by 'Sir Henry Frances sometyme Mooncke there'.
ff. 1r-3v: The Banns (‘The Banes which are Reade Bee Fore The Beginninge of the playes of Chester 1600’); ending ‘Finish deo gracias per me georgium Bellin 1600’.
ff. 4r-205r: The Chester Plays (24 plays); ending with ‘To hym this booke belonges / I wishe contynuall health / in daily vertues for to flow / with flondes of godly wealth’.
Decoration:
Decorated black and red lines with zoomorphic heads at the opening of each play.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047844", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2013: The Chester Cycle" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047844 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2013 : The Chester Cycle - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2015]/040-002047844
- 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_100161514068.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1600
- End Date:
- 1600
- Date Range:
- 1600
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 295 x 195 mm.
Foliation: ff. 1* + 204 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); f. 1* is a smaller paper leaf (200 x 155 mm) mounted on a paper guard; 1 paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto (bibliographical notes).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
‘George Bellin’, professional scribe at Chester, copied the manuscript in the year 1600: his name with this year throughout the manuscript; also copied the Chester cycle in Add MS 10305 in 1592 (and Play 16 in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley MS 175).
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), no. 716/4.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), pp. 398-99.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)