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Harley MS 2251

Record Id:

040-002048082

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048082

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0002f7

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100161507343.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2251

Title:

Collection of poems by John Lydgate, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Benedict Burgh

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains poems by some of the most renowned poets from Late Medieval England, including John Lydgate (b. c. 1370, d. c. 1451), Geoffrey Chaucer (b. c. 1340s, d. 1400), and Benedict Burgh (b. 1413, d. 1483). The collection of poems by John Lydgate is believed to be derived from a lost Shirley manuscript (see Pearsall, John Lydgate (1997), p. 82).

Contents:

ff. 1r-1v: A prayer to Jesus, beginning: ‘O Ihesu Crist kepe oure lyppes from pollucioun / As thow suffredist deth for almankynd’ [see NIMEV 1682; DIMEV 5731-22].

ff. 1v-2r: A prayer to the Virgin Mary, beginning: ‘Al hayle Mary ful of grace / Oure lord of heven is with the’ [see NIMEV 183; DIMEV 332-2].

ff. 2v-4r: John Lydgate, Verses on the Kings of England, beginning: ‘This myghti William Duk of Normandye / As bokes old makith mencioun’ [see NIMEV 3632; DIMEV 5731-22].

ff. 4v-5v: John Lydgate, Dietary, beginning: ‘FOr helth of body couer for cold thyn hedeEte no raw mete take good heede therto’ [see NIMEV 824; DIMEV 1356-29].

ff. 6r-7r: John Lydgate, Letter to Gloucester for money, beginning: ‘Right myghty prince and it be youre wille / Condescende leyser for to take’ [see NIMEV 2825; DIMEV 4500-3].

ff. 7r-8v: Epitaphium eiusdam Ducis Glowcestrie, A.D. 1447, beginning: ‘Souerayne Immortal everlastyng god / Almyghti most mercyful verray well of grace’ [see NIMEV 3205; DIMEV 5013-1].

ff. 9r-9v: John Lydgate, On Kissing at ‘Verbum caro factum est’, beginning: ‘Ye devoute people whiche kepe one obseruaunce / Mekely in chirche to kysse stone or tree’ [see NIMEV 4245; DIMEV 6819-9].

ff. 9v-10r: John Lydgate, Stella Celi extirpauit, beginning: ‘Thow heuenly quene of grace oure loodesteree / with thy chast mylke pentevous of plesaunce’ [see IMEV 3673; DIMEV 5826-3].

ff. 10v-11r: John Lydgate, A Prayer for King Henry VI and his Queen and the People, beginning: ‘Most souerayne lord o blesful crist Ihesu / ffrom oure enemyes defende vs of oure foon’ [see NIMEV 2218; DIMEV 3563-4].

ff. 11v-13r: John Lydgate, Consulo quisque eris, beginning: ‘I counceile what so euer thow be / Of pollicye foresight and prudence’ [see NIMEV1294; DIMEV 2156-6].

f. 13v: John Lydgate, A dyte of womenhis hornys, beginning: ‘Off god and kynde prodeithe al beaute / Crist may showe aforeyn apparence’ [see NIMEV 2625; DIMEV 4169-8].

ff. 14r-14v: John Lydgate, A Satyrical Ballad against Jack Hare, beginning: ‘A froward knawe plainly to discryve / And a sluggard plainly to declare’ [see NIMEV 36; DIMEV 45-2].

ff. 15r-16v: John Lydgate, Midsomer Rose, beginning: ‘LAte noman boste of konnyng nor vertu / Of tresour richesse nor of sapience’ [see NIMEV 1865; DIMEV 3058-5].

ff. 17r-18r: John Lydgate (?), An aureate prayer to the Virgin Mary, beginning: ‘REx Salamon summus of sapience / The whiche the sterrid cercle hath set in substaunce’ [see NIMEV 2816; DIMEV 4474-2].

ff. 18r-18v: Veni coronaberis, beginning: ‘Surge mea sponsa so swete in sight / Com se thy sone that soke so shene’ [see NIMEV 3225; DIMEV 5059-2].

f. 19r: John Lydgate, Rammeshorne, beginning: ‘Ipocrise chaunged hath his weede / Taken anabite of vertuous gladnesse’ [see NIMEV 199; DIMEV 359-7].

ff. 19v-22r: John Lydgate, Everything draweþe to his semblable, beginning: ‘Trete euery man like as he is disposed / with holy men trete of parfitnesse’ [see NIMEV 3800; DIMEV 6063-2].

ff. 22r-24v: John Lydgate, On the Mutability of Man’s Nature due to the Seasons, the Elements, the Complexions, and the Planets, beginning: ‘The world so wyde the ayre so removable / The cely man so litel of stature’ [see NIMEV 3503; DIMEV 5533-4].

ff. 26r-27r: John Lydgate, Rime without Accord or On the Inconsistency of Men’s Actions, beginning: ‘All thyng in kynde desirith thyng Ilike / But the contrary hatis euery thyng’ [see NIMEV 223; DIMEV 390-1].

ff. 26v-27r: John Lydgate, Verses against Haste, beginning: ‘The hasty man failith neuer woo / Hast contrarious enmy to sadnes’ [see NIMEV 186; DIMEV 335-4].

ff. 27v-28v: John Lydgate, A song of Iust Mesure, beginning: ‘BY witte of man al thyng that is contrived / Standith in proporcioun plainly to conclude’ [see NIMEV 584; DIMEV Number 951-2].

ff. 29r-30r: On the mysteries of Creation, beginning: ‘O man thow marrest in thy mynd / To muse how god hath marked and made’ [see NIMEV 2503; DIMEV 3983-1].

ff. 30r-32v: John Lydgate, Ave Iesse Virgula, beginning: ‘HAile blissed lady the moder of crist Jhesu / Of pees and concorde haile fresshest on lyve’ [see NIMEV 1037; DIMEV 1698-3].

ff. 33r-34r: Mystical invitation of the Virgin Mary to man, beginning: ‘REgina celi qwene of thy sowth / A fourmed by Salamon his sapience’ [see NIMEV 2803; DIMEV 4455-1].

ff. 34v-35r: John Lydgate, Ave regina celorum, beginning: ‘HAile luminary and benyng lantern / Of Ierusalem the holy orders nyne’ [see NIMEV 1056; DIMEV 1725-3].

ff. 35v-36r: John Lydgate, Regina celi letare, beginning: ‘O thou Ioieful light eterne ye shyne / In glory with laureat coronall’ [see NIMEV 2570; DIMEV 4074-3].

ff. 36v-37v: John Lydgate (?), Birds’ matins, beginning: ‘As I me lenyd vnto a Ioyful placeLusty phebus to supervive’ [see NIMEV 357; DIMEV 611-3].

ff. 37v-38v: Tyed with a Line, beginning: ‘The more I go the further I am behynde / The further behynd the nere the weyes end’ [see NIMEV 3436; DIMEV 5410-3].

ff. 39r-39v: John Lydgate, Riȝt as the crabbe goth forward, beginning: ‘This world is ful of stabilnesse / There is therin no variaunce’ [see NIMEV 3655; DIMEV 5792-3].

ff. 40r-42r: John Lydgate, Testament, beginning: ‘BEholde o man lift vp thy eye and se / What mortal peynes I suffre for thy trespas’ [see NIMEV 2464; DIMEV 3937-9].

f. 42r: John Lydgate (?), The uncertainty of worldly honour, beginning: ‘Worldly worship is Ioye transitorye / Vnsure assuraunce highnes declynable’ [see NIMEV 4228; DIMEV 6787-2].

ff. 42v-44v: John Lydgate, A lamentacioun of our lady Maria, beginning: ‘Who shal gyve vnto my hede a welle / Of bitter teeris my sorw to compleyne’ [see NIMEV 4099; DIMEV 6561-4].

ff. 45r-46r: Geoffrey Chaucer, Balade of Fortune, beginning: ‘This wrecchid worldis transmutacioun / As weele and woo now poore and now honour’ [see NIMEV 3661; DIMEV 5803-9].

f. 46r: Geoffrey Chaucer, Complaint of Venus [from the French of Sir Oton de Graunson], beginning: ‘Princis receyvith this complaynt in gree / Vnto yowre excelent benyngnite’ [see DIMEV 5590-10].

ff. 46v-48v: John Lydgate, Amor et Pecunia, beginning: ‘Eche man folwith his owne fantasye/ Liche as it fallith in his oppinioun’ [see NIMEV 698; DIMEV 1160-3].

f. 48v: Geoffrey Chaucer, Gentilesse, beginning: ‘The first stok was fader of gentilnes / And who that claymeth gentil for to be’ [see NIMEV 3348; DIMEV 5277-6].

ff. 49r-51v: Geoffrey Chaucer, ABC hymn to the Virgin, beginning: ‘Al myghti and al merciable qwene / To whom that al this world fleeth for socour’ [see DIMEV 414-10].

ff. 52r-54v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Craft of Lovers, beginning: ‘To moralise asymilitude who list these balettes fewe / The craft of lovyers curyous argument’ [see NIMEV 3761; DIMEV 5990-3].

ff. 55r-70r: John Lydgate, Fabula duorum mercatorum, beginning: ‘In Egipt whilom as I rede and fynd / Ther dwellyd a Merchaunt of hye and grete estate’ [see NIMEV 1481; DIMEV 2490-4].

ff. 70v-72r: John Lydgate, Legend of Dan Joos, beginning: ‘O welle of swetnes replete in euery veyne / That almankynd preserued hast fro deth’ [see NIMEV 2579; DIMEV 4089-3].

ff. 72v-73r: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prioress’s Prologue, beginning: ‘O lord oure lord thyn name how mervelous / Is in this large world I spred quod she’ [see DIMEV 3970-31].

ff. 73r-76v: Geoffrey Chaucer, The Prioress’s Tale, beginning: ‘There was in Asye in a grete Citee / Amonges cristen folke a Iewrye’ [see DIMEV 5601-33].

f. 76v: John Lydgate, A praise of St Anne, beginning: ‘HE that intendith in his hert to seke / To love the doughter of any womman fre’ [see NIMEV 1152; DIMEV 1869-2].

f. 76v: On removing spots made by wine, water, and milk, beginning: ‘Of wyne awey the moles may ye wasshe / In mylkes white the fletynge oyle spot’ [see NIMEV 2668; DIMEV 4240-2].

f. 77r: The Monk of Paris, beginning: ‘REmembryd by scriptures we fynde and Rede / Holsum and holy it is to thynke and pray’ [see NIMEV 2810; DIMEV 4465-1].

ff. 77v-78r: Legend of Wulfryk the priest, beginning: ‘In Wiltshire of England two priests there were’ [see NIMEV 1590; DIMEV 2667-1].

f. 78r: Jesus to the Virgin Mary, the Rose of Womanhood, beginning: ‘My fader above beholdyng thy mekenesse / As dewe on Rosis doth his bawme sprede’ [see NIMEV 2238; DIMEV 3595-1].

f. 78v: On the folly of heaping up riches, beginning: ‘LOng wilbe water in a welle to kecheA vessell made of yerdis that wil nat holde’ [see NIMEV 1936; DIMEV 3168-1].

ff. 78v-79r: John Lydgate, On the Mutability of Man’s Nature due to the Seasons, the Elements, the Complexions, and the Planets, beginning: ‘The Sangwyne man of bloode hath hardynes / Made to be lovyng and large of expence’ [see NIMEV 3503; DIMEV 5533-5].

ff. 79r-79v: Of the Four Complexions, beginning: ‘Off yiftes large in love hath grete delite / Iocunde and gladde ay of laughyng chiere’ [see NIMEV 2624/5; eVK2, no. 3875.00; DIMEV 4168-5].

ff. 79v-80v: Lines for a mumming, spoken by Law, beginning: ‘The high Astrapotent auctor of all / Vnder whos clayme conciste the clymates’ [see NIMEV 3376; DIMEV 5324-1].

f. 80v: Devoute & vertuos wordes, beginning: ‘There is non so wise a ManBut he may wisdam leere’ [see NIMEV 3538; DIMEV 5584-3].

ff. 81v-125v; ff. 126-143; ff. 143-145v: John Lydgate, The Fall of Princes, beginning: ‘SOdeyne departyng from this felicyte / In to myserye and mortal hevynesse’ [see NIMEV 1168; DIMEV 1904-24].

ff. 146-147v: John Lydgate, Song of Vertu, beginning: ‘AS of hony men gete oft swetnes / Of wyne and spicis is maad ypocras’ [see NIMEV 401; DIMEV 663-6].

ff. 148r-149r: John Lydgate (?), Stans Puer ad Mensam, beginning: ‘BE symple of chiere cast nat thyn ye aside / Agenst the post lete nat thy bak abyde’ [see NIMEV 2233; DIMEV 3184-3].

ff. 149v-150r: Beware of deceitful women, beginning: ‘LOke wele aboute ye that lovers be / Late nat youre lustis leede yow to dotage’ [see NIMEV 1944; DIMEV 3184-3].

ff. 150r-150v: The Pain and Sorrow of Evil Marriage, beginning: ‘After this story tellith also / In confirmatioun of wymmens fragilite’ [see NIMEV 919; DIMEV 1525-3].

f. 150v: John Lydgate (?), Four things that make a man fall from Reason, beginning: ‘Worship wymmen wyne and vnweldy age / Make men fonde for lak in theyr Reason’ [see NIMEV 4230; DIMEV 6798-5].

ff. 151r-152v: John Lydgate (?), A wikked tong wol alway deme amis, beginning: ‘COnsidre wele with euery circumstaunce / Of what estate euer that thow be’ [see NIMEV 653; DIMEV 1070-5].

f. 152v: Geoffrey Chaucer (?), On the Evils of Prosperity, beginning: ‘Right as pouerte causith sobrenes / And febilnes enforchith continence’ [see NIMEV 2820; DIMEV 4490-3].

f. 153r: The Abuses of the Age, beginning: ‘Yift is made domesman / Gyle is made chapman’ [see NIMEV 906; DIMEV 1506-11].

ff. 153v-156r: Henry Scogan, Scogan’s Moral Balade, beginning: ‘My noble sones and eke my lordis dere /I yowre fader vnworthily’ [see NIMEV 2264; DIMEV 3645-3].

ff. 156v-167v: Sayings of Old Philosophers, beginning: ‘The tyme approached of necessite / To reherse the marshal sentence’ [see NIMEV 3487; DIMEV 5502-2].

ff. 168r-168v: Seven Wise Counsels, beginning: ‘BY sapience tempire thy corage / Of hasty Ire daunt thy passiouns’ [see NIMEV 576; DIMEV 939-5].

ff. 169r-169v: Benedict Burgh, Parvus Cato, beginning: ‘Whanne I aduerte to my remembraunce / And see how feele folkis erren greuously’ [see NIMEV 3955; DIMEV 6321-11].

ff. 170r-178r: Benedict Burgh, Cato Major, beginning: ‘FOr that god is inwordly the wit / Of man and yevith hym vnderstandyng’ [see NIMEV 854; DIMEV 1418-20].

f. 178v: Henry Scogan, Scogan’s Moral Balade, beginning: ‘I compleyne sore whan I remembe me/ The sodayn Age that is vpon me falle’ [see NIMEV 2264; DIMEV 3645-4].

ff. 179r-188r: John Lydgate, Interpretacio Misse, beginning: ‘YE that beth of goode deuocyoun / To here youre masse with al your cure’ [see NIMEV 4246; DIMEV 6820-9].

ff. 188v-224r: John Lydgate and Benedict Burgh, Secrees of old Philisoffres, beginning: ‘GOd almyghti save and conferme ouer kyng / In al vertu to his encrese and glory’; Poetical translation of the Pseudo-Aristotelian Secretum Secretorum for Henry VI; imperfect [see NIMEV 935/10; eVK2, no. 2037.00; DIMEV1544-16].

ff. 224v-227v: John Lydgate, Procession of Corpus Christi, beginning: ‘THis high feste for to magnifye / Now fest of festis most hevenly and devyne’ [see NIMEV 3606; DIMEV 5697-2].

ff. 228r-228v: John Lydgate, Of the Sodein Fal of Princes in oure Dayes, beginning: ‘BEholde this grete prynce Edward the secunde / Whiche of dyuers landes lord was and kyng’ [see NIMEV 500; DIMEV 813-3].

ff. 229r-234v: John Lydgate, A Sayenge of the Nyghtyngale, beginning: ‘IN Iune whan Titan was in Crabbes hede / Towardes Even the Saphyre huwed sky’ [see NIMEV 1498; DIMEV 2525-2].

ff. 234v-235r: John Lydgate, Gaude virgo mater christi, beginning: ‘BE gladde mayde moder of Ihesu / Whiche conceyvedest only be heryng’ [see NIMEV 464; DIMEV 757-3].

ff. 235v-236r: John Lydgate’s, Criste qui lux es et dies, beginning: ‘CRist that art both day and light / And sothfast sonne of al gladnesse’ [see NIMEV 614; DIMEV 1005-2].

ff. 236r-238v: John Lydgate, Paraphrase of Psalm 102, beginning: ‘O thow my soule gyf lawde vnto the lord / Blesse hym and preyse and forgete hym nought’ [see NIMEV 2572; DIMEV 4078-4].

ff. 239-242v: John Lydgate, Gloriosa Dicta sunt de Te, beginning: ‘IN holy hilles whiche bien of grete Renoun / Reysed on heyght from the valeys lowe’ [see NIMEV 2688; DIMEV 4271-2].

ff. 242v-244v: John Lydgate, Valentine to Our Lady, beginning: ‘SEynt Valentyne of custom yeere by yeere / Men have an vsaunce in this Regioun’ [see NIMEV 3065; DIMEV 4769-4].

ff. 244v-246v: John Lydgate, Bycorne and Chychevache, beginning: ‘O prudent folkes takith heede / And remembrith in youre lyves’ [see NIMEV 2541; DIMEV 4032-3].

ff. 246v-249v: John Lydgate, Thoroughfare of Woe, beginning: ‘Lyft vp the Ieen of your aduertenceYe that beth blynde with worldly vanyte’ [see NIMEV 1872; DIMEV 3080-2].

ff. 249v-250v: John Lydgate, Balade on a New Year’s Gift of an Eagle presented to King Henry VI in 1428, beginning: ‘THis hardy sowle this bridde victorious / This stately sowle most Imperial’ [see NIMEV 3604; DIMEV 5693-2].

ff. 250v-251v: John Lydgate, A Gentlewoman’s Lament, beginning: ‘Allas woful creature / Lyveng betwene hope and drede’ [see NIMEV 154; DIMEV 283-3].

ff. 251v-253v: John Lydgate, To King Henry VI on his Coronation, beginning: ‘MOst noble prince of cristen princes alle / fflowryng in yowth and vertuous Innocence’ [see NIMEV 2211; DIMEV 3554-3].

ff. 253v-256v: John Lydgate, On the Duke of Gloucester’s approaching marriage to Jacqueline of Hainault, beginning: ‘Thurgh gladde aspectis of the god Cupide / And ful accorde of his moder deere’ [see NIMEV 3718; DIMEV 5913-2].

ff. 257-270v: John Lydgate, Isopes Fabules, beginning: ‘Wysdom is more of pris than gold in cofres / To theym that have savour in letture’ [see NIMEV 4178; DIMEV 6701-3].

f. 271r: Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer’s ‘Complaynt to his Empty Purse’, beginning: ‘TO yow my purse and to nonother wight / Compleyne I for þow my lady dere’ [see NIMEV 3787; DIMEV 6044-10].

ff. 271r-273r: Complaint of a Prisoner against Fortune, beginning: ‘Allas fortune alas what have I gilt / In prison thus to lye here desolate’ [see NIMEV 860; DIMEV 1432].

ff. 274r-276v: John Lydgate, The Order of Fools, beginning: ‘THe order of foles ful yore ago bigonne / Newly professed encresith the covent’ [see NIMEV 3444; DIMEV 5428-7].

ff. 277r-287r: John Lydgate, Hors, Goose and Shepe, beginning: ‘COntrouersies plees and al discorde / Betwene persones bien yit of ij or iij’ [see NIMEV 658; DIMEV 1075-8].

ff. 287v-293v: John Lydgate (?), The Court of Sapience, beginning: ‘All busy swymmyng in the stormy floode / Of fruytles worldly meditacioun’ [see NIMEV 3406; DIMEV 5365-3].

Decoration:

Late initials (2-4 lines) in blue with red pen-flourishing including floral motifs. Paraphs in red. Scribal marginalia underlined in red. A monogram painted in blue and red in the lower margin of f. 170r.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048082", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2251: Collection of poems by John Lydgate, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Benedict Burgh" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048082

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2251 : Collection of poems by John Lydgate, Geoffrey Chaucer, and Benedict Burgh

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2253]/040-002048082

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100161507343.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)

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Languages:

English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

1460-1483

Era:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 295 x 210 mm (225 x 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. 293 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 1 unfoliated leaf after f. 178; ff. 1-293 has old foliation in pen '1-322' (omitting nos 125-127, 140, 209, 302),

Collation: i^20-1 (nineteenth missing), ii-vii²⁰, viii^20-1 (seventeenth missing or cancelled), ix-xii²⁰, xiii²², xiv^16-2 (first missing, sixteenth excised), xv²⁰, one gathering of 20 leaves missing between ix and x; with horizontal catchwords and traces of quire signatures in the lower right corners.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house: 19th-century dark green leather, blind-stamped and –tooled; and the Harleian armorial bookplate and motto gold-stamped at centre of the upper and lower covers; gilt fore-edge.

Custodial History:

Origin: London.

Provenance:

Written in a cursive Gothic English book-hand by the ‘Hammond Scribe’, perhaps John Multon, a stationer active in London between circa 1460 and 1483-for his patron John Vale. Multon mentions John Vale in his will of 1475 (see Christianson, A Directory (1990), p. 136).

John Vale, secretary of Sir Thomas Cook the younger [fl. 1440s), perhaps commissioned the manuscript: a monogram of the letters ‘VAL’, surrounded by the letters ‘Q[uod]’ and ‘I J’ on f. 170r. This monogram occurs in two other manuscripts produced by the Hammond Scribe: Cambridge, Trinity College, O.3.11 and R.14.25 (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

? ‘Nycolas Skyn’, owned in the 15th century: inscribed his name on f. 9r (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

Marginal annotations by 15th-17th-century owners: one is a 16th-century owner who provides instructions to another reader: ‘Reade [this] agayne [and agayne]’ (ff. 4v, 19v, 22v, 25r, 26v, 27v, 37v, 39r, 46v, 78v, 81r, 83v, 111r, 114r, 146v, 148r, 168r, 246v); ‘Reade and go onne’ (f. 92v) ‘Reade thys oftyne tymes’ (f. 107r); ‘Reade oftyn this [place]’ (ff. 89v, 109r, 134v, 143r); ‘Reade [onne]’ (ff. 114r, 126r, 151r); ‘Reade thys as ye lyke’ (f. 148r); ‘Do not Reade thys / but hyde your eyes’ (f. 149v); ‘Reade on in gods name’ (f. 156v); ‘Remember thys: Arthemyse is mugworte – Apius is Smalege – Achen is Sanicle - Attracies is the blyssed thyslle’ (f. 213v); ‘Remember thys’ (f. 214r); ‘Good Readyng’ (f. 257r).

? An unknown English owner, owned in the (?) 16th century: an untranscribed inscription in the lower margin of f. 26v could be the name of an owner (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

‘John’, owned in the16th century: his name inscribed on f. 76v (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

‘John G/C[…]’, owned in the 16th century: inscribed his name (‘Jo: G/C[…]’) on f. 76v; and his initials (‘J. G./C.’) on f. 155v (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

John Stow (b. 1524/1525, d. 1605), historian: his notes on ff. 210r, 229r, 260v, 293v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 318).

'Adam Andre [Andreas]', owned in the 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 170v and f. 106v (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

Richard Jones (d. 1722), bookseller in Little Britain: sold the manuscript to Harley, according to the Catalogue of Harleian Manuscripts (1808), II, p. 578 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 207).

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. 578.

Lydgate and Burgh's Secrees of old Philisoffres: A Version of the 'Secreta Secretorum', ed. by Robert Steele, Early English Text Society, Extra Series, 66 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1894), p. xv.

Henry Noble McCracken, The Lydgate Canon: Appendix to the Philological Society's Transactions 1907-1909 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner for the Philological Society, 1908), pp. iii-xlvi (pp. x-xxii, xxiv-xxvii, xxix, xxxi, passim).

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. 207, 319, 405.

C. Paul Christianson, A Directory of London Stationers and Book Artisans 1300-1500 (New York: Bibliographical Society of America, 1990), p. 136.

Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Miller, 1996), II, p. 337.

Derek Pearsall, John Lydgate (1371-1449): A Bio-Bibliography, ELS Monograph Series, 71 (Victoria, B.C.: University of Victoria, 1997), p. 82.

Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), p. 304.

L. E. Voigts and P. D. Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference, CD-ROM, 2nd edn (Ann Arbor, MI, 2006), nos 2037.00, 3875.00 [=eVK2].

Catalogued for the Harley Medical Manuscripts Project , accessed 29 May 2008.

'London, British Library Harley 2251', The Digital Index of Middle English Verse [=DIMEV] , accessed 2 September 2019.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Notes:

The cataloguing of the medical items in this manuscript was funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Names:

Burgh, Benedict, Master translator of Cato, prebendary of St Paul's
Chaucer, Geoffrey, poet and administrator, c 1340-1400,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000375840787
Jones, Richard, bookseller in Little Britain
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
Stow, John, chronicler

Places:

London, England