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Harley MS 2169

Record Id:

040-002048000

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048000

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0002a5

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2169

Title:

Heraldic collection

Scope & Content:

This heraldic manuscript contains a collection of arms compiled in the time of Henry VI or Edward IV. The collection focuses on English arms, as is indicated by its opening pages which feature verses on and drawings of William of Normandy (f. 1r), King Henry V (f. 2r), and King Henry VI (f. 3r). Alongside the arms of English kings, earls and lords, nobility and gentry, saints and bishops, the collection contains the arms of emperors, kings, and magnates from other countries.

Especially noteworthy is its proportion of imaginary or attributed arms, including those of Sir Gawain ['Sir Gawayne the good knyght' and 'Sir Gawayne the gentyll'] (ff. 4v, 5r, 32r), Uther Pendragon (f. 4v), the Sultan of Babylon (f. 5r), the Three Magi (f. 5r), the Nine Worthies (f. 5v), Prester John (f. 6r), the Kings of the Heptarchy (f. 9r), Guy of Warwick (f. 32r), and Bevis of Hampton (f. 32r). Also noteworthy are the sacred arms of the Virgin Mary (f. 32r), St Bartholomew's Hospital (f. 32r), and Christ (ff. 66r, 67r). The latter's arms are shown in two full-page drawings of a knight whose helmet, lance and shield represent or contain the instruments of the Passion (arma Christi). The drawings, entitled: 'The armys of owre lord Jesew cryst after the forme of the passyoun' (f. 66r) and 'The armys of owre lorde drawe out of the passyoun' (f. 67r), were copied from the Hyghalmen Roll, a mid 15th-century German roll of arms now preserved at the College of Arms [see Kress, Divine Diagrams (2014), p. 224 fn. 282].

Contents:

ff. 1r-71r: A heraldic collection, containing the coats of arms of emperors, kings, saints, bishops, earls and lords, nobility and gentry, worthies and legendary kings and knights, drawn in shields of brown ink (typically 9 per page), tricked, but sometimes painted.

A few heraldic and other original items can be highlighted from the collection:

ff. 1r-2r: John Lydgate, Verses on the Kings of England (to Henry VI), beginning: 'Thys Wylyam dewke of normandye / As bokys olde makyth mencyun' [DIMEV 5731-21].

f. 4r: 'The pedegrewe be reyght lyne ffownd and prewyd by anerytaunce how kynge herry the sexyth nowght coleyne ys trewe kynge of ffraunce' [DIMEV 5431-1].

f. 21v (lower margin): An instruction for prayers: 'Every daye by twene thys and owre lady day sey matynys pryme and ewry .vij salmys and letteny and xv salmys allso onys of the daye sey .v. p[ater] nosteres awe and Crede yn the worshep of [the] passyoun'.

f. 22r (lower margin): An instruction for prayers: 'Allso for my spensacyoun for my wauye of ffastynge all way as the daye fallyth every daye daye [sic] seye sey [sic] ewre lady matynys . pryme and owrye .vij salmys and letteny and .xv salmy with owre lady sawter mawdelene ewyn . Esty daye . Seynt Stewene day . Seynt Andrew the evyn and daye att thye clene sponseyd'.

f. 71v: A plaster for Sciatica, entitled: 'ffor the syetyka'.

f. 71v: An ointment for Sciatica, entitled: 'ffor the syetyeke'; ending: 'Thys medesyne wat wret to a kynge of yngelonde fro the unewersyte of selaren [Salerno] thys ys a presyos oynement allso for the gowte'.

f. 71v: 'The som of thys queyre of armys ys .CCCCCC. ij skore. And [...]'.

f. 76v: Poem on Lady Fortune, beginning: 'O lady fortune qwo enhawnces many creatur / By the gyfftes of divers worshippes and dignite / Qwy art þi variant to sum that doose indure / In þi service in hoope þat þow wolle see / þam to avance and sett in prosperite'; written out three times [edited by Moll, ''O Lady Fortune'' (2009), 192-194].

The manuscript contains several additions:

f. iiiverso: Instructions for fasting: 'Seynt Antoni day fallyth on the xxiiij daye after Crystemesse than fest the evyn [be]for the pestylence and the nex thwrsday and saterdaye that fallyth next after And afterwarde to be [fowre] of thys fast to one of the thursdays that fallyth bytwene the two lactys seynt mary days'; added in the 15th century.

f. iii verso: A personal note on daily prayers started on All Hallow's Eve: 'I began the prayoure ffyrste appoun all halowyn ewyn W[e] sey dayly .lx. pater nosterys .lx. Aveys . And .lx. Credys Thys .xl. yere with goddys grace and mercy'; added in the 15th century.

f. 1r: A foliation of the manuscript: 'Ther is in this boke leves to the number of [? 77]'; added in the (?) 16th century.

f. 1v: 'To the right Constable the Lorde Boyle Erle of Corke [? Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork]'; added in the late 16th or 17th century.

f. 2*recto: A paper pastedown with a knight on horseback, inscribed: 'Trevanion'; added in the (?) 17th century.

f. 43v: A prayer: 'The lord is only my suport and hee that doth mee feed hou can I then lacke aney thinge whereof I stand in neede hee doth me foald in cot[?o] moste'; added in the (?) 16th or 17th century.

ff. 72r-75r: Indices of names included in this manuscript, organised by saints, kings, worthies, and nobility, followed by an alphabetical index of family names; begun by Jacob Chaloner (b. 1586, d. 1631) and finished by Randle Holme II (b. c. 1601, d. 1659), according to Humfrey Wanley in the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1808), II, p. 541).

Decoration:

3 tinted drawing in ink and colours of Kings William the Conqueror, Henry V and Henry VI with heraldic shields on horses with heraldic caparisons. Kings Henry V and Henry VI are flanked by the Garter inscribed with the Order's French motto (ff. 1r, 2r, 3r). Coats of arms in brown ink, generally nine shields per page, a few with added colours (ff. 4r-71r). Full-length figures in brown ink (arms of Christ), holding banners and surrounded by shields (ff. 66r, 67r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048000", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2169: Heraldic collection" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048000

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2169 : Heraldic collection

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2171]/040-002048000

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
French, Middle

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1475

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 290 x 210 mm (text space: 255 x 175 mm).

Foliation: ff. i-iii + 2* + 75 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves the the beginning + 4 at the end); f. i is a parchment strip and f. ii is a paper strip that both have been pasted onto the fifth unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning (f. [v]recto); f. iii is a parchment leaf; f. 2* is a modern paper leaf after f. 2 containing a paper pastedown with a heraldic drawing; 1 unfoliated modern paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto (bibliographical notes); 15th-century paper pastedowns with coats of arms, replacing or correcting earlier drawings, throughout the manuscript; significant damage to ff. 1, 2, 3, 71 has caused loss of text and drawings; minor damage to leaves throughout the manuscript; repaired with modern blank paper.

Collation: Each leaf has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house; tan leather with gold-tooling and the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

'Edmund Brindenes', (?) 16th century: his name [erased and previously unnoticed, but legible with UV light] inscribed on f. iiiverso: 'Edmundus Brindenes armiger / How I most earnestly live [...]' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

'Phyllepe Bowth,' 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 1r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 79).

Holme family, Chester, arms painters and antiquaries: acquired with other Holmes manuscripts by Robert Harley in 1710 through the mediation of Francis Gastrell, bishop of Chester: inscribed, 'Randle Holme' (f. 1r), their pressmark on f. iirecto: 'B. 4. 20', and perhaps also theirs on f. irecto: '6 Aunciant Coates' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 194-195).

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. 541 [no. 2169].

Oswald Barron, 'A Fifteenth Century Book of Arms', The Ancestor: A Quarterly Review of County and Family History, Heraldry and Antiquities, 3 (1902), pp. 185-213 [with descriptions of many of the blazons].

Robert Cooke and Joseph Foster, Two Tudor Books of Arms (London: London Colour Printing Company, 1904) [a compendium of the blazons in Harley 2169 and Harley 6163].

A Catalogue of English Medieval Rolls of Arms, ed. by Anthony Wagner (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1950), pp. 101-102.

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. 79, 194-95.

Stephen R. Reimer and Pamela Farvolden, ‘Of Arms and the Manuscript: The Date and Provenance of Harley 2255’, Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing History, 8 (2005), 239-60 (fig. 3, p. 251 n. 25).

Richard J. Moll, ''O Lady Fortune': An Unknown Lyric in British Library MS Harley 2169', Notes and Queries, 56:3 (2009), 192-194.

Berthold Kress, Divine Diagrams The Manuscripts and Drawings of Paul Lautensack (1477/78-1558), Library of the Written Word, 34; The Manuscript World, 34 (Leiden: Brill, 2014), p. 224 fn. 282.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Lydgate, John, poet, monk of the Benedictine Abbey of Bury St Edmunds and Prior of Hatfield Regis Priory, c 1370-1449/50?,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000108778237

Places:

England