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Harley MS 2252
- Record Id:
- 040-002048083
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048083
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0002f8
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100163436000.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2252
- Title:
-
The Commonplace Book of John Colyns, including Ipomydon, B version, and the stanzaic Morte Arthur
- Scope & Content:
-
This composite manuscript comprises two booklets of Middle English poetry and prose (ff. 54-85, 86-133) that were compiled into one volume in the early 16th century by John Colyns (d. c. 1542), mercer, of the parish of St Mary Woolchurch Haw, London.
The manuscript contains the unique copies of the Middle English poems Ipomydon, B version (ff. 54r-84r), and the stanzaic Morte Arthur (ff. 86r-133v). Both texts were copied in the second half of the 15th century. Aside from personal memoranda by another owner, most of the other items in the manuscript were copied by John Colyns in the early 16th century. These include a large number of Middle English poems, including works by the poet John Lydgate (ff. 1v, 2r), the 'poet laureate' John Skelton (ff. ff. 133*v-140r, 153v, 158r-159v), and Edward North (b. c. 1504, d. 1564), first Baron North (ff. 25r-28r, 33v-34r). The manuscript also contains Middle English prose, including texts relating to weights and measures (f. 2r), annals of London for the years 1399-1539 (ff. 3r-8v), regulations and prohibitions for foreign merchants in London (ff. 14r-16v), and recipes for glue, dyes and pigments, and book production (ff. 142r-146r).
Contents:
f. 1v. John Lydgate, Dietary, abridged version [DIMEV 1356-30]; Published from this manuscript in Frost, Das Commonplace Book (1988), pp. 102-12.
f. 1v: Two Middle English couplets attacking the friars [DIMEV 1858-1].
f. 1v: A number riddle: ‘In ‘vij [? g] xiiijd et iiijd ys all my Truste’ .
f. 1v: An anagram riddle: ‘Latonias deligibs[no] Spell Backward and [...] ys begyled’.
f. 1v: A (?) riddle: ‘Bullyscampe ecce dyes tunctus sangurae fyes’ [written vertically].
f. 2r: Proverbial rhymes in Middle English on ‘Nought’ [DIMEV 1893-3].
f. 2r: A Middle English poem known as Don’t cry wolf [DIMEV 514-1].
f. 2r: A memorandum on different weights, beginning with ‘troye weyghte’.
f. 2r. A Middle English medical recipe, entitled: 'A specyall medsyn for the colycke and the stone'; Published from this manuscript in Frost, Das Commonplace Book (1988), pp. 130-31.
f. 2r: John Lydgate, The Nine Properties of Wine [DIMEV 6697-4]; Published from this manuscript in Frost, Das Commonplace Book (1988), pp. 132-134.
ff. 2v-3r: A farewell poem by Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, executed in 1521 [DIMEV 301-1].
f. 3r: A Father’s Counsel to his Son [DIMEV 712-1].
f. 3r: On Erring Wives [DIMEV 132-1].
ff. 3v-8v: A chronicle of London, beginning: ‘The Namys of the Mayres of London in Kyng Herrys dayes the iiijth whyche was Crownyd the xiiijth day of July the xxiijth yere of the Rayne of kyng Rychard the second And the yere of ower lord god 1399’.
f. 9r: Payments of ‘The Wardys of London exsepte occidentalys’; and ‘The Wardys of London ex[se]pte orientali’.
f. 9r: A note on Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond and Somerset, and the appointment of his counsellors.
f. 9v: ‘These Rate folowynge was had owte of the gyldes hall Cowrte the xxvijth day of marche the ixth yere of the Rayne of Kynge Edward the iiijd By the labor of Rychard golofyr mercer unto John herte then Clerke of the Mayres Cowrte owte of the Regyster Rately as hye foloweth uppon every warde of london’.
ff. 10r-10v: A list of ‘All the parysshe Chyrches withyn the gates of thys Cete of London’.
ff. 11r-11v: Lists of the ‘Monistarys and Pleges withyn the gates of London’.
ff. 12r-13v: ‘A determynacion for a ajorarance apon enquestes devysed by xxv persons Electe By the xxv Aldyrmen in there wardes Concludyd in the monythe of fdecembre Anno 1519. And awtorysed by Acte of Comen Councell the xxth day of Janyver Beyng Fryday then inmedatlye folowyng to endure for a hole yere as feleweth’.
f. 14r: Ordinances for ‘mercatores extraneos’ (marchaunte[s] Stranger[s]’) and Londoners in Latin and English.
f. 14v: A letter from Henry VII to the mayor of London concerning ‘galymen’; followed by an ordinance from the mayor in Latin.
ff. 15r-16r: A petition to the king for prohibitions for foreign merchants
ff. 16r-16v: A tract on prohibitions for foreign merchants.
f. 17r: Notes on the children of King Edward III, and his parents, Isabella of France and Edward II.
ff. 18r-21r: A petition to the lords of the King’s council on the misuse of weights.
ff. 21v-22r: ‘Thys ys the Copye of the ordynaunce in the Boke of ower ladye of wolchyrche hawe By the Stocke in London for the good Rule of the same parysshe made by all the Body of the same parysshe with the Consente of Syre John Benet then parson Wylliam pynder Brewer at the [wgyte] Cocke and water Rede grocer Made the secand day of Januarius the yere of ower lord god Ml cccc lvijti. And Kyng herry the vjth xxxvjti’.
ff. 22r-23r: An exemplum concerning a pope who teaches his chaplain to pray three Paternosters dedicated to Christ for his soul after death, and the subsequent use of these prayers for the souls of the dead.
ff. 23r-24v: De Profundis in Middle English verse with Latin headings [DIMEV 4002].
ff. 25r-28r: Edward North, The Ruyn of A Ream.
ff. 28r-32v: A list of ‘The namys of the knyghtes . Cetezens barons of the v pactes . And Burgesses. Comyng to the parleamente. Summond at Westmynster on monday The xvijth day of octobre. The vijth yere of the Rayne of Kyng herry the vijth’ [1491-1492].
ff. 32v-33r: An accusation against Edmund Grey, ‘Anno xvij Ricardi secundi’.
ff. 33v-34r: Edward North, The Complaynte of Northe to þe Card[i]nall Wolsey.
ff. 34v-36r: ‘The actes of parlement passyed in feverer and marche The xxvth yere of the Rayne of Kynge Hery the viijth Anno domini 1534’.
f. 36r: A petition concerning a parsonage to King Henry VIII.
f. 36r: A petition for pardon by Sir John Trevelyan to King Henry VIII.
f. 37v: ‘A Brefe Cronekell of the grete Turke declaryng whan they Began to Reyne and whate Actys or Feates of warre they dyd in there tyme of the lynyall dessendyng of them from Ottoman the laste duke and fyrste Turkysshe keyser whych cam of the howse of Tartary to thys Soleman the laste’.
f. 38r: A note on law, beginning: ‘For Fayturys and penaltees to ffall and be / And that the deffendaunt yn any such action be not amytted to wage or do hys lawe’.
ff. 38r-38v: ‘The progeny of the Erle of Arundell’.
ff. 39r-40v: A letter from King James IV to Henry VIII, beginning: ‘A letter send by Kyng James of Scotland be Kyng Herry the viijth at suche tyme as he laye at the Sege of Curwyn in Fraunce by Ilay the Scottyshe herald of Armes’.
ff. 41r-41v: An account of a meeting between the Scots herald and King Henry VIII in 1513, entitled: ‘The mesage that was don by Ilay [lyon] Scottyssh herald to þe Kyng ower Soverayn lord Kyng Herry the viijth when he laye at the Sege of Curwyn by the seyd herald and the ansswere of the Kyng to hym ayen Anno 1513’.
ff. 42r-43r: ‘The Ansswere of the Kyng of Scottes letter sente by lyon the Scottyshe herawld from ower Soverayne lord Kyng herry the viijth’.
ff. 43v-45r: The Lamentacion of the Kyng of Scottes (on the misfortunes of Flodden) [DIMEV 366.8-1].
ff. 45v-48v: A Middle English poem on the House of Stanley, The Battle of Brampton, or Flodden Field [DIMEV 4040-1].
ff. 48v-50r: ‘The Composysyon of all offrynges within the Cete of London and Subbarbes of the same’.
ff. 50v-51v: A miracle concerning a relic of the True Cross in Cornwall, entitled: ‘A grete myracle of a knight caleyd Syr Roger Wallysborow[gh]’.
ff. 51v-53v: A chronicle of English kings, entitled: ‘Cronekell – Thys brefe tretis ys compyled to brynge the pepyll owte of dowte that have not hard of the crenekylles and of the lynyall dessente unto the crownes of Inglond Fraunce Castyll and of legyons and unto the dowchye of Normandy sythe hyt was Conqueryd’.
ff. 54r-84r: Ipomydon (Version B) [DIMEV 3462-1]; published from this manuscript in The Lyfe of Ipomydon, ed. by Ikegami (1983).
f. 84v: A Middle English poem, beginning: ‘O mestres, whye’ [DIMEV 3997].
f. 84v: A Middle English poem, beginning: ‘Som do entende’ [DIMEV 4958-1].
f. 84v: A fictional account of an English merchant in a foreign country who is questioned about the voracity of the English and gives three explanations, beginning: ‘There was a merchaunt of ynglond whyche aveturyd into ferre Contres’ [partially written vertically on the page].
f. 85r: A Middle English prose account about a wise jester’s testament.
ff. 86r-133v: Stanzaic Morte Arthur [DIMEV 3252-1]; published from this manuscript in Le Morte Arthur, ed. by Hissiger (1975); and in Le Morte Arthur, ed. by Noguchi (Tokyo, 1990).
f. 133*recto: A Middle Enlighs poem, beginning: ‘Thowghe I be bonde, yette am I ffree’ [DIMEV 5872-1].
ff. 133*v-140r: John Skelton, Speke, Parrot [DIMEV 3644-1].
f. 140r: A Middle English poem, beginning: ‘Mornyng, mornyng’ [DIMEV 3572-1].
ff. 141r-142r: Middle English Prognostics for the year according to the day on which New Year falls, entitled: ‘Ezechyelys prophete’ [DIMEV 6829-1].
ff. 142r-146v: A collection of about fifty Middle English recipes for preparing colours, silver and gold for illuminating manusripts, entitled: ‘The Crafte of lymniyng’.
f. 146v: A letter ‘By the Kyng’ concerning an accusation against certain merchants.
ff. 147r-153r: John Skelton, Colyn Cloute [DIMEV 6226-2].
f. 153v: Colinus Cloutus, quanquam mea carmina multis; copy of a Latin epilogue to Colyn Cloute.
f. 153v: Middle English prognostics from the day on which Christmas falls [DIMEV 2353-1].
ff. 154r-154v: Middle English Prognostics from the day on which Christmas falls [DIMEV 3245-4].
f. 155r: Final words before (?) an execution: ‘They seyd nothyng else savyng desyryng the pepyll to pray for them 5 pater nosters 5 Aves and iije Credes and Cry apon Jhesus as hother before god save the Kyng Amen – fynis’.
ff. 155r-155v: A Middle English poem, beginning: ‘In a ffresshe mornyng among the flowrys’.
ff. 156r-156v: Middle English payer for Henry VIII, and against Cardinal Wolsey [DIMEV 1578-1].
ff. 157r-157v: 'Consilium domini in eternum manet' (I) [DIMEV 4001-1].
ff. 158r-159v: A Middle English poem, beginning: ‘Thomas, Thomas all halye sythe’.
f. 159v: Middle English prognostics for the weather in the ensuing months according to the day of the week on which the Prime occurs [DIMEV 6450-1].
f. 159v: Middle English poem for calculating the new moon [DIMEV?].
ff. 160r-161r: 'Consilium domini in eternum manet' (II) [DIMEV 4001-2].
ff. 161v-162r: An excerpt of the Secreta Secretorum.
f. 162r: A fragmentary sentence: ‘Whate I spende on my selfe þat I have’.
f. 162v: A Middle English text on casting lots.
f. 162v: Memorandum (English) of a contract between Robert Farrer and Thomas Daviston.
ff. 163r-165rv: English tracts concerning the St Mary Woolchurch Haw, London.
f. 165v: A Middle English note warning for struggle for the crown in England.
f. 165v: A medical recipe, entitled: ‘A precyowus Restoratyfe for a man that ys weke and lackes natura’; Published from this manuscript in Frost, Das Commonplace Book (1988), pp. 331-332.
f. 165v: A note on the ‘xij propartees’ of women.
f. 165v: A list of items and their (?) values.
f. 166r: A Middle English note on the circumference of the earth, beginning: ‘The compas of the worlde’ [here calculated to 20.600 miles].
f. 166r: A Middle English poem, beginning: ‘A specyall glasse to loke in daylye’ [DIMEV 4444-1].
f. 166r: A Middle English number poem, beginning: ‘Kepe well and fflee from vij’ [DIMEV 2988-5].
f. 166r: A Middle English prose text on sortilege, entitled: ‘The lotte of S[aint] Thomas of Caunterbery’.
f. 166r: A Middle English note on the number of English kings until Henry VIII.
Decoration:
Dedicated spaces for initials left blank; minor initials occasionally touched in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048083", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2252: The Commonplace Book of John Colyns, including Ipomydon, B version, and the stanzaic Morte Arthur" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048083 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2252 : The Commonplace Book of John Colyns, including Ipomydon, B version, and the stanzaic Morte Arthur - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2254]/040-002048083
- 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_100163436000.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1460
- End Date:
- 1540
- Date Range:
- Late 15th century-Early 16th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 280 x 190 mm.
Foliation: ff. i + 133* + 166 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto and 2 on f. [iii]recto (bibliographical notes); for the watermarks in the paper see Meale, The Social and Literary Contexts (1984), pp. 9-30; Frost, Das Commonplace Book (1988), pp. 350-53.
Collation: i-ii16, iii5 (single leaves), iv-vii16, viii16-1 (second leaf missing), ix12, x5(single leaves), xi16, xii8, xiii6, xiv4.
Script: English Gothic cursive scripts (littera cursiva media-currens - Secretary with Anglicana features).
Binding: British Museum in-house; gold-tooled binding of brown leather with the Harleian armorial bookplate and motto gold-stamped at centres of the outsides of the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
John Colyns (d. c. 1542), mercer, of the parish of St Mary Woolchurch Haw, London, bought in 1517 and added texts until his death: his ownership inscription on f. 1v: ‘John Colyns Boke ys thys late of London [...] mercer and dwellyng in wolechyrche parysh [...]’; his merchant mark (a monogram of his name) on f. 2r; his acquisition note and merchant mark on f. 133v: ‘Thys Boke belongythe to John Colyns mercer of london dwellyng in the parysshe of our lady of wolchyrche hawe anexid the Stockes in þe Pultre yn Anno domini 1517’; his ownership inscription and merchant mark on f. 166r: ‘John colyns bok [...]’; (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 110).
‘Robert Farrer’, owned in 1570: inscribed his name on ff. 1v [erased] and 166r [erased], and his initial ‘R’ on f. 162v; his name features in a memorandum on f. 162v (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie: sold to Edward Harley on 13 August 1724 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 254-55).
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; a note on f. 33v (‘This belongs to the former’) was added by Humfrey Wanley, Keeper of the Harleian Library.
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:
-
Lawrence L. Besserman, Gail Gilman and Victor Weinblatt, ‘Three Unpublished Middle English Poems from the Commonplace-Book of John Colyns (B. M. MS. Harley 2252)’, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 71 (1970), pp. 212-38 [contents].
Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), nos 432.1, 824.21, 1163.3, 1817.5, 1905.9, 1994.1, 2142.1, 2152.1, 4175.1.
Julia Boffey, Manuscript and Print in London c. 1475–1530 (London: The British Library, 2012), pp. 38, 50, 54, 85, 113, 158.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), pp. 582-85.
Ulrich Frost, Das Commonplace Book von John Colyns. Untersuchung und Teiledition der Handschrift Harley 2252 der British Library in London, Europäische Hochschulschriften, 14; Angelsächsische Sprache und Literatur, Series 14, 186 (Frankfurt am Main: Lang, 1988), pp. 29-33 [contents], 57-87 [provenance].
Gisela Guddat-Figge, Catalogue of Manuscripts containing Middle English Romances, Münchener Universitäts-Schriften: Philosophische Fakultät, 4 (Munich: Fink, 1976), pp. 188-194 [contents].
'Harley MS 2252', Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700 [accessed 12 March 2020].
Le Morte Arthur: A Critical Edition, ed. by P. F. Hissiger, Studies in English Literature, 96 (The Hague; Mouton, 1975).
Le Morte Arthur, ed. by Shunichi Noguchi, Medieval English Text Series, 1 (Tokyo: University of Tokyo, 1990).
‘London, British Library Harley 2252', The Digital Index of Middle English Verse [=DIMEV] [accessed 12 March 2020].
The Lyfe of Ipomydon, ed. by Tadahiro Ikegami, 2 vols (Tokyo: Seijo University, 1983).
Carol M. Meale, 'Wynkyn de Worde's Setting-Copy for Ipomydon', Studies in Bibliography, 35 (1982), 156-71.
Carol M. Meale, ‘The Compiler at Work: John Colyns and BL MS Harley 2252’, in Manuscripts and Readers in Fifteenth-Century England: The Literary Implications of Manuscript Study. Essays from the 1981 Conference at the University of York, ed. by Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: Brewer, 1983), pp. 82-103.
Carol M. Meale, The Social and Literary Contexts of a Late Medieval Manuscript: A Study of BL. MS. Harley 2252 and its Owner John Colyns, 2 vols (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of York, 1984), pp. 31-65 [contents].
Carol M. Meale, ‘London, British Library, Harley MS 2252, John Colyns' "Boke": Structure and Content’, English Manuscript Studies, 15 (2009), 65-122.
David R. Parker, The Commonplace Book in Tudor London: An Examination of BL MSS Egerton 1995, Harley 2252, Lansdowne 762, and Oxford Balliol College MS 354 (Lanham: University Press of America, 1998), pp. 89-127 and passim.
L. E. Voigts and P. D. Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference, CD-ROM, 2nd ed. (Ann Arbor, MI, 2006 = eVK2), nos. 1765.00, 1863.00, 1961.00, 2586.00, 3417.00, 4877.00, 6871.00, 8046.00, 8047.00, 8171.00
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: Pitman, 1883–1910), I: (1883), pp. 405-406, 755-757.
Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley (London, 1966), I, p. 181, no. 21 and n. 7.
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. 110, 225, 405.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)