Harley MS 2181

Origin:

England (not in A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English, ed. by McIntosh and others, 4 vols (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1986).

Provenance:

Large quantity of erased and partially erased inscriptions, 15th century (f. 94v): 'Amen dico vobis' (? possible scribal colophon); 'W M'; 'A W I' (?); 'Iste liber constat [...] Qui librum furi per collum pendere debetis A quo furatur de Christo maledicatur' (? anathema); 'preciis iiii s' ('for the price of four shillings').

Randle Holme (b. c. 1659, d. 1707), herald painter: collection of manuscripts assembled by the Holme family (of whom Randle Holme was the last male survivor). Purchased by Robert Harley in 1710, through Francis Gastrell, bishop of Chester (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 194).

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.