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Harley MS 2259

Record Id:

040-002048090

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048090

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0002ff

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2259

Title:

Richard Strangways, Tractatus nobilis de lege et exposicione armorum

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-5v: An introduction and table of contents, beginning ‘Pensa, Successor, in tui cordis oraculo de primo Predecestore, qui hoc nobile ex pluribus libris aggregatum si dici possit non minus se ipso predilexit’.

ff. 7v-10r: Lists of names of nobility that came with William the Conqueror to England; intersected with coats of arms.

ff. 10r-190r: Richard Strangways, Tractatus nobilis de lege et exposicione armorum; an English treatise on the origin and principles of heraldry, intersected with questions and rules, entitled ‘Tre noble comencer / pur lez armes blaser’, beginning ‘As kynges of herowdys Recordyn þe begynyng and grownde of armez was furst fownde at þe gret assege of nobyll Troye’; including numerous drawings of elements used for coats of arms; and examples of coats of arms of historical and legendary figures; including the arms of Sir Gawain (f. 73r); Eric of Pomerania (f. 85v); William the Conqueror (f. 95v); John Mandeville (f. 90r); Prester John (f. 147r); King Charles of France, followed by a legendary narrative that explains how the coat of arms (three toads) was changed after his successor King Louis received the fleur-de-lis from an angel (f. 164v): Brutus (f. 179v); King Arthur (f. 183r). The work’s author makes reference to the heraldic work of a certain ‘Bartholus’ (e.g. 38r), possibly De insigniis et armis of Bartolus de Saxoferrato (b. 1313, d. 1357). It also includes a poem on the Nine Worthies (f. 39v), beginning ‘Ector þat was of alle knyghtes flowr’; a poem on technical terms for ruler’s titles, beginning ‘A pope in hys solempnyte’ (f. 144v); and a French and English poem entitled Exposicio Armorum xvj Militum (ff. 162v-163r).

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 191r: Latin notes on bastardy, added in the 15th century.

Decoration:

Numerous coats of arms in colours.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048090", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2259: Richard Strangways, Tractatus nobilis de lege et exposicione armorum" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048090

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2259 : Richard Strangways, Tractatus nobilis de lege et exposicione armorum

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2261]/040-002048090

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1455

End Date:

1455

Date Range:

1455

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 275 x 195 mm.

Foliation: ff. 1* + 191 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + at the end); f. 1* and f. 191 are from parchment and originally served as flyleaves.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

Richard Strangways (d. 1488?), of the Inner Temple, eldest son of Sir James Strangways (d. 1480), of West Harlsey Castle and Whorlton, Yorkshire; Speaker of House of Commons 1461-1462; wrote the manuscript in 1455 (see f. 121v: ‘Iste libellus ffuit compilatus Anno xxxij^o h. vj^th’); his coat of arms on f. 53v; and blazoned in French (‘lez armes de Stranways’) on f. 1*verso (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 320); his ownership inscription on f. 1*verso: ‘Iste liber constat Ricardo [...]’; and f. 6r: ‘Iste liber Explicit quod Richard Strang ways’.

John Holles (b. 1672, d. 1711), 4th Earl of Clare 1689; Duke of Newcastle-on-Tyne 1694; father of Henrietta Cavendish Holles, wife of Edward Harley (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 193): his bookplate on f. 1*verso.

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 ‘5 die Novembris, A.D. 1723’ (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 form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), no. 86.5/1, 1181.5/1.

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), pp. 594-95.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 420.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)