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Harley MS 3660
- Record Id:
- 040-002049492
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049492
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0000a9
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3660
- Title:
-
Cartulary of Canonsleigh Abbey
- Scope & Content:
-
A general cartulary of Canonsleigh Abbey, Devon (founded originally as a priory for Augustinian canonesses), arranged topographically in sections, containing copies of royal and occasional episcopal charters. It has been suggested that the book was originally compiled in 1323-24 (see London, Cartulary of Canonsleigh Abbey (1965), pp. xxxiv–xxxv).
Contents:
f. i recto: A black-and-white photograph of f. 2r taken under an ultraviolet light.
f. 1r–v: A fragment of a record of fees in Latin, likely a roll in its original form, reused as a flyleaf, dating to the 14th century.
ff. 2r–16r: A contemporary table of contents, written in Anglo-Norman French, with the first page (listing papal documents) effaced.
f. 16v: An added grant in Latin, dated 1415.
ff. 17r–102v: Deeds relating to Canonsleigh Priory before its refoundation as an abbey in 1284 (sections 1–12), with later additions.
ff. 103r–140v: Deeds relating to the abbey (sections 13–17), with later additions.
ff. 141r–178v: Surveys of the abbey extents from 1323. A binder has misplaced gathering 14 (ff. 167–178) after gathering 16; it should be positioned before f. 141.
f. 179r: An added Latin charter and list of English kings up to the reign of Henry VII (r. 1485-1509).
f. 180r: An added parchment slip, bearing an inscription in Latin.
ff. i verso, 179v and 180v are blank.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049492", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3660: Cartulary of Canonsleigh Abbey" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049492 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3660 : Cartulary of Canonsleigh Abbey - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3662]/040-002049492
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Anglo-Norman
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1322
- End Date:
- 1337
- Date Range:
- 1322-1337
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 275 × 185 mm.
Foliation: ff. i + 180 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 1 + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); f. i is a photograph of f. 2r affixed to a modern paper flyleaf; f. 78 is a parchment slip mounted on a paper guard; f. 180 is a parchment slip affixed to a modern paper flyleaf.
At least one gathering is missing after f. 16, the table showing that it mostly consisted of papal documents that were deliberately excised, possibly by the cannonesses themselves in 1536–39.
Script: Gothic; Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Brown leather with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Devon, England.
Provenance:
The Abbey of St Mary the Virgin, St John the Evangelist, and St Etheldreda, of Augustinian nuns, Canonsleigh, Devon: owned the manuscript from the 14th century until its dissolution (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 94).
? Sir John St Leger (b. before 1516, d. 1596), English landowner and member of Parliament: likely acquired in 1543 together with the abbey estates following the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
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, ed. by Robert Nares and others, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808–12), iii, 49.
William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, ed. by John Caley, Henry Ellis, and Buckeley Bandinel, 6 in 8 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1817–30), vi, 333(t).
George Oliver, Monasticon Dioecesis Exoniensis, being a collection of records and instruments illustrating the ancient conventual, collegiate and eleemosynary foundations in the counties of Cornwall and Devon (Exeter: Hannaford, 1846–54), pp. 226–32.
Vera C. M. London, The Cartulary of Canonsleigh Abbey, Devon and Cornwall Record Society, n.s., 8 (London: Devonshire Press, 1965) [calendar, omitting ff. 141–178].
G.R.C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison, and David M. Smith, 2nd edn (London: British Library, 2010), no. 158.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Canonsleigh Abbey, Devon
- Places:
- Devon, England