Harley MS 2338

Origin: Eastern England.

Provenance:

Copied by an English scribe working in the 1st half of the 15th century: a Merlin Prophecy was added later to f. 28v. It refers to ‘kyng hary’: ‘W[h]anne M and [? 'ccccc'] to gidre be knet / And xxxv and vi with hem are met’. The date is not entirely legible but may read '1536'. In this case, the prophecy refers to King Henry VIII and was added in the 1st half of the 16th century. If the date was 1436 [‘ccccor’], the prophecy would refer to King Henry VI and have been added shortly after the manuscript's production (on this prophecy see Perry, ‘Thynk on God’ (2011), p. 434 (n. 61)).

‘Thomas Breus’, owned the manuscript in the 15th century: his name inscribed in a 15th-century script on f. 1*recto: ‘Thomas Breus’; according to a colophon added to f. 28r (replacing another colophon, now erased), he was the author of the manuscript ('[Finis] passionis christi auctore [Tho]ma Breus (1422)’). This colophon was added in the 16th century, perhaps by an owner who mistakenly took the ownership inscription on f. 1*recto for the name of the author. He might be Thomas Brewes of Akenham in Suffolk, 15th-century member of the gentry (see Perry, ‘Thynk on God’ (2011), p. 434).

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.