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Harley MS 2089

Record Id:

040-002047920

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002047920

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000255

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2089

Title:

Thomas Chaloner, An Alphabet of Arms of English, Irish and Welsh families

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 2*recto: An index for the Alphabet of Arms using alphabetically organised two-letter (‘Aa’, ‘Ab’, ‘Ac’, etc.); probably added at the British Museum [Humfrey Wanley, Keeper of the Harleian Library, only catalogued Harley MSS 1-2407] and the draft or copy of the same index printed in the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1808), II, pp. 457-58.

f. 3*recto: A title-page: ‘Coates and Creastes Alphabet wise in England Ireland and Wales Colected by Thomas Chaloner of Chester gentelman 1588 May 1 And in other yeares after by the saide Thomas Chaloner alias Olvester principall Herehaught and Kinge of Armes fort he Realme of Ireland’; with the added note: ‘After Conynued by Randle Holme of the Citty of Chester Alderman maior of the sayd Citty 1633 and by Randle his sonne also maior of chester 1643’; followed by three Latin wisdoms, including Psalm 140:3; ‘Digito compesce labellum / Loqui ignorabit, qui tacere nesciet’ [perhaps taken from an engraving of Harpocrates, Hellenistic god of silence, by Jan Harmensz. Muller (b. 1571, d. 1628) in 1593]; and ‘Gutta cavat lapidem non vi sed saepe cadendo’.

f. 3*verso: Fifteen coats of arms from the Molyneux by Randle Holme I.

f. 3*verso: The coats of arms of Sir John Spenser and Sir Charles Fox.

ff. 4*recto-4*verso: Blazons of the arms of English 'Auntient Earles'.

ff. 5*recto-5*verso: Blazons of the arms of 'Kinges and princes' of various countries, including the attributed arms of King Arthur.

f. 6*verso: Blazons of the coats of arms of English cities ('Arma Civitatum'); followed by those of cities in Europe (Granada, Nuremberg, and Toledo).

f. 7*recto: A list of the Earls of Chester ('Comitum Cestrie').

f. 7*recto: Blazons of the coats of arms of the Nine (Male) Worthies, including the traditional worthies save for the legendary English hero Guy of Warwick, who replaces Godfrey of Bouillon.

ff. 1r-193r: An Alphabet of Arms, with the coats of arms of English, Irish and Welsh families blazoned in French heraldic terminology.

Decoration:

Coats of arms and heraldic elements, tricked, drawn in brown ink.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002047920", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2089: Thomas Chaloner, An Alphabet of Arms of English, Irish and Welsh families" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002047920

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2089 : Thomas Chaloner, An Alphabet of Arms of English, Irish and Welsh families

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2091]/040-002047920

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
French
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1588

End Date:

1700

Date Range:

1588-1700

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 335 x 215 mm.

Foliation: ff. 1*-7* + 190* + 194 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown (pressmark: ‘B 4.23’) and three strips of leather pasted onto f. 1*recto; f. 190* is a small strip of paper.

Script: 16th- and 17th-century script.

Binding: British Museum in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Thomas Chaloner (d. 1598), of Bridge Street, Chester, painter, poet, antiquary, actor, wrote the manuscript in 1588 and following years according to a title inscription on f. 3*recto; also inscribed his name at the top of f. 3*recto; (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 100-101).

Randle Holme I (b. 1570/71, d. 1655), herald, apprentice of Thomas Chaloner, and mayor of Chester (1633): made some of the additions to this manuscript according to an added note on f. 3*recto; his name is also gold-stamped on a previous binding (‘.Randulph.Holme.Maior.MDCXXXIIII’) of which strips of leather are now pasted on f. 1*recto (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 194-95).

Randle Holme II (bap. 1601, d. 1659), herald, and mayor of Chester (1643): made some of the additions to this manuscript according to an added note on f. 3*recto (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 194-95).

Randle Holme III (b. c. 1627, d. 1700), herald painter: made some of the additions to this manuscript according to the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1808), II, p, 457.

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), pp. 457-58.

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. 470.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England