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Harley MS 2248
- Record Id:
- 040-002048079
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048079
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0002f4
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2248
- Title:
-
The Prose Brut
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-17r: A table of contents for the Prose Brut.
ff. 19r-290v: The Prose Brut; the Common Version to 1419.
The manuscript contains a later addition:
f. 18v: A pangram: 'Equore cum gelido Zephirus fert exennia kymbus'; added in a 15th-century hand.
Decoration:
Guide letters in red. Rubrics in red. Paraphs in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048079", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2248: The Prose Brut" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048079 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2248 : The Prose Brut - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2250]/040-002048079
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 290 x 200 mm (text space: 210 x 110 mm).
Foliation: ff. 290 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment leaf between ff. 17-18 and ff. 18-19).
Collation: Indicated by catchwords.
Script: Gothic cursive; copied by the so-called 'Double-v Scribe' (see 'London, British Library, MS Harley 2248', in Late Medieval Scribes <[accessed"https://www.medievalscribes.com/index.php?nav=off> [accessed 26 February 2022].
Binding: Post-1600: blind-stamped and gold-tooled brown speckled leather.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
William Thomas, owned in the 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. 1r: 'Iste lyber constat Wyllyam Thomas' [2x] and his name in another inscription on f. 1r: '[W]yllyam Thomas ys a knafe' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1927), p. 327).
Edmund Knyvet, 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 17r: 'Ave moye ne mote - Edmunde Knyvet' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 212); unidentified, but perhaps Sir Edmund Knyvet (b. c. 1508, d. 1551), son of the courtier Sir Thomas Knyvet, or his uncle Edmund Knyvet (d. 1539), serjeant porter to King Henry VIII.
'John Symons', 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 17r (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
'Wyllyam Frost', 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 17r (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
'John Hurd', 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 17r (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
Nathaniel Noel (b. 1681, d. 1753), bookseller: acquired from him for the Harley Library on 13 August 1724 (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), II, p. 306 n. 6 or n. 8; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 255).
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, inscribed as usual by their librarian Humfrey Wanley '13 August A.D. 1724' (f. 1r).
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 forms 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. 577.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 306 n. 6 or n. 8.
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. 212, 255, 327.
Lister M. Matheson, The Prose Brut: The Development of a Middle English Chronicle, Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 180 (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1998), pp. 69 and 109.
Julia Boffey, and A. S. G Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (The British Library: London, 2005), pp. 130, 137, 237.
'London, British Library, MS Harley 2248', in Late Medieval Scribes [accessed 26 February 2022].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)