Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 2110

Record Id:

040-002047941

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002047941

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x00026a

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2110

Title:

Cartulary of Castle Acre Priory

Scope & Content:

ff. 4*r–5*v: Fragment of Ælfric, Homilies, first series, for St John and St Stephen (1st half of the 11th century, Old English, written in insular minuscule); with a large initial and title in display capitals in red (f. 4*r); 220 × 150 mm. One bifolium, missing four lines of text in the upper part and incorrectly bound: f. 5* should precede f. 4*.

ff. 1r–137r: Original section of the cartulary, arranged mainly topographically, with some added sheets. Opens with charters of the earls of Warenne (ff. 1r–7r), and also includes royal and episcopal charters (occurring mostly after f. 112r).

ff. 137r–152r: Miscellaneous additions from the 14th to late 15th centuries.

f. 152v: Pen trials, including drawings of a goat and a man in late medieval dress.

For a more detailed list of contents, see the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, ii, 501–02.

Decoration:

Initials in green or red, some with penwork decoration in blue and/or red. Marginal rubrics in red. Small initials highlighted in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002047941", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2110: Cartulary of Castle Acre Priory" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002047941

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2110 : Cartulary of Castle Acre Priory

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2112]/040-002047941

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
English, Old
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1230

End Date:

1270

Date Range:

Mid 13th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 315 × 225 mm (written area 250 × 165/170 mm).

Foliation: ff. 5* + 152, including some inserted deeds (ff. 1*–3* are early modern paper additions; + 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 5 at the end).

Script: Gothic, written above top line.

Binding: British Library, rebound 1974.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Cluniac priory of St Mary, St Peter, and St Paul, Castle Acre, Norfolk.

Provenance:

? John Wynchelsea , prior of the Cluniac priory of Castle Acre, c. 1510: his inscription 'Iohannes Wynchelse' (f. 5* verso; see Ker 1957).

The Cluniac priory of Castle Acre, Norfolk (see Ker 1957; Wright 1972). With additional notes, 14th- to 16th-century.

The office of the King's Remembracer: excerpts from it copied by Roger Dodsworth in 1638 in what is now Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Dodsworth 110, ff. 29 ss (see Watson 1966).

? Roger Dodsworth (bap. 1585, d. 1654), antiquary: mentioned as in his hand by William Dugdale in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Dugdale 48, f. 60 (see Watson 1966).

Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Watson 1966, Wright 1972): mentioned as 'in bibl. Duevesiana anno 1644' by Dugdale (see Dodsworth and Dugdale 1655; Wright 1938; Watson 1966).

? Sir Thomas Widdrington (b. c.1600, d. 1664), politician and speaker of the House of Commons: mentioned as in his hand by William Dugdale in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Dugdale 48, f. 60 (see Watson 1966).

Randle Holme (b. 1601, d. 1659): possibly lent to him by D'Ewes or given by Widdrington: the Holme pressmark 'GGGG / Deeds of several places and countyes' (f. 1*verso; see Wright 1938; Watson 1966).

Randle Holme (b. 1627, d. 1700), herald painter: his table of places mentioned in the cartulary (ff. 2*-2*v; see Wright 1938).

? A member of the Holme family, Chester, arms painters and antiquaries: possibly acquired with other Holme manuscripts by Robert Harley in 1710 through the mediation of Francis Gastrell, bishop of Chester, as suggested by Humfrey Wanley in A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, II (1808), no. 2044, art. 57 (see Watson 1966; Wright 1972).

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Robert Nares and others, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808–12), ii, 501–02.

William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. by John Caley, Henry Ellis, and Buckeley Bandinel, 6 in 8 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1817–30), v, 46–48 (e).

H. H. C. Craster, 'Migrations of Historical Manuscripts', Historical Research, 3 (1925–26), 70–72 (pp. 71–72).

C. E. Wright, ‘Two Ælfric Fragments’, Medium Ævum, 7.1 (1938), 50–55, https://doi.org/10.2307/43626070.

Neil R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), p. 308, no. 235.

G.R.C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison, and David M. Smith, 2nd edn (London: British Library, 2010), no. 215.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 333-34, no. X133.

Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 97–98, 131, 194, 364, 404.

Joyce Hill, 'The Preservation and Transmission of Ælfric's Saints' Lives: Reader-Reception and Reader-Response in the Early Middle Ages', in The Preservation and Transmission of Anglo-Saxon Culture: Selected Papers from the 1991 Meeting of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, Studies in Medieval Culture, 40 (Kalamazoo: Western Michigan University, 1997), pp. 405-30 (p. 409).

Helmut Gneuss and Michael Lapidge, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Toronto Anglo-Saxon Series, 15 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), no. 428 [ff. 4* and 5*].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Cluniac priory of St Mary and Sts Peter and Paul, Castle Acre, Norfolk, 1089-1537