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Harley MS 3763

Record Id:

040-002049595

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049595

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000110

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3763

Title:

Scope & Content:

Miscellany of documentary materials created at Evesham Abbey (ff. 3–57 from the 13th–14th century; ff. 95–198 from the late 14th century):

f. 1r: Letter from Henry Fleetwood requesting to consult the manuscript, 2 June 1721.

f. 2r: Memorandum by Humfrey Wanley on acquisition of the manuscript and explanation of letter.

ff. 3r–44v: Proceedings relating to the church of Ombersley (Worcerstershire) in 1284.

ff. 45r–57v: Copies of miscellaneous 14th-century letters and papers relating to churches, pensions and other matters, mainly contemporary to Abbot William de Chiriton (1316–44)

ff. 58r–94v: Miscellaneous register from Evesham Abbey. Written in the last quarter of the 12th and first half of the 13th century in similar hands and format to Cotton MS Vespasian B XXIV, and with some duplication of material.

ff. 95r–149v: Compilation of 13th–14th century papal and royal charters.

ff. 150r–198v: Copies of papers and memoranda relating to churches and pensions.

ff. 199v, 201r: 17th-century accounts.

f. 200r: 17th-century table of contents

Decoration:

Initials and paraphs in red; rubrics in red or green (ff. 58–94).

Some rubrication and many letters touched with red (ff. 95–198). Two initials in ink and red, historiated with the bust of a bishop and a face (ff. 95r, 169r). 14 initials with penwork and foliate decoration in ink and red (ff. 127r, 128r, 130v, 133v, 134r, 150r, 175r, 176v, 180r, 181r, 183r, 193r), one decorated with bird (f. 141r). Initials with penwork decoration in ink, one decorated with cadel with face (f. 96r), another with fish (f. 121v). Initial in red with pen-flourished decoration in red and ink (f. 115v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049595", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3763: Register of Evesham Abbey" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049595

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3763 : Register of Evesham Abbey

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3764]/040-002049595

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1200

End Date:

1399

Date Range:

1st half of 13th century-Late 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Dimensions: 260 × 190 mm.

Foliation: ff. 201 with medieval foliation ‘i–ccxiiii’ from f. 3 (+ 6 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and the end, and original blank leaves after ff. 179, 182, included in the medieval foliation).

Script: Gothic; gothic cursive.

Binding: British Library, rebound September 1989.

Custodial History:

Origin: The Benedictine abbey of St Mary and St Ecgwine, Evesham, Worcestershire.

Provenance:

Henry Fleetwood of Penwortham (b. 1667, d. 1746), M.P. for Preston: presented by him to Edward Harley on 20 June 1721 on the terms that he could borrow it back whenever it could prove useful in a public trial, as recorded by Harley's librarian, Humfrey Wanley (see ff. 1 and 2; see Wright 1962; Wright and Wright 1966; Wright 1972).

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 by Humfrey Wanley, '21 die Junij, A.D. 1721' (f. 3r).

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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

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, 59.

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), ii, 10.

W. A. Hulton, Documents Relating to the Priory of Penwortham, Chetham Society, 30 (Manchester, 1853).

Cyril E. Wright, 'Portrait of a Bibliophile VIII: Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, 1689–1741', The Book Collector, 11 (1962), 158–74 (p. 168; pl. Bb).

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 81.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715–1723, pp. 94 n. 3, 113 and n. 1, 115 n. 7.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts Preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 152.

Jane Sayers, 'An Evesham manuscript containing the treatise known as "Actor et Reus" (British Library Harley MS 3763)’, Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, n.s., 6 (1976), 75–81.

Jane Sayers, ‘“Original”, Cartulary and Chronicle: The Case of the Abbey of Evesham’, in Fälschungen im Mittelalter, iv, Diplomatische Fälschungen (II), Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Schriften 33.iv (Hanover, 1988), p. 374.

Margaret Laing, Catalogue of sources for a linguistic atlas of early medieval English (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 1993), p. 97.

David Roffe, 'The Historia Croylandensis: A Plea for Reassessment', English Historical Review, 110 (1995), 93–108 (p. 10 and n. 4).

Thomas of Marlborough, History of the Abbey of Evesham, ed. and trans. by Jane Sayers and Leslie Watkiss, Oxford Medieval Texts (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), pp. xiv, lxxi–lxxvii, 332.

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. 382.

S.E. Kelly, Charters of Evesham Abbey, Anglo-Saxon Charters [forthcoming].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Benedictine abbey of St Mary the Virgin and St Egwin, Evesham, Worcestershire, ? 995-? 1539