Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 4003

Record Id:

040-002049840

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049840

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000203

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4003

Title:

Gerald of Wales, Topographia Hiberniae and Expugnatio Hibernica; Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae; and other historical texts

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a number of historical works, including Topographia Hiberniae and Expugnatio Hibernia by the historian Gerald of Wales (b. 1146, d. 1223) and the Historia regum Britanniae of the chronicler Geoffrey of Monmouth (b. c. 1095, d. c. 1155).

The former binding of the manuscript is now stored separately as Harley MS 4003/1.

Contents:

ff. 3r–37r: Gerald of Wales, Topographia Hiberniae.

ff. 37-78: Gerald of Wales, Expugnatio Hibernica.

ff. 78r–80v: Table of years from 1167 to 1384.

ff. 81r–141v: Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae, imperfect.

ff. 142r–153v: Chronicles of the Anglo-Saxons from the death of Cadwalader to c. 1200, imperfect.

Decoration:

Large puzzle initial in green and red with pen-flourishing in the same colours (f. 3r). Large puzzle initial in red and blue (ff. 37r, 56v, 78r), combined with 'j-border' (f. 39r). Large coloured initials in blue or red, occasionally with reserved designs. Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing (from f. 81r). Smaller coloured initials and paraphs in alternating green and red (ff. 3r–7r only), or blue and red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049840", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4003: Gerald of Wales, Topographia Hiberniae and Expugnatio Hibernica; Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae; and other historical…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049840

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4003 : Gerald of Wales, Topographia Hiberniae and Expugnatio Hibernica; Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia regum Britanniae; and other…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3996]/040-002049840

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1375

End Date:

1424

Date Range:

4th quarter 14th century-1st quarter 15th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 210 × 150 mm (written area 170 × 110 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 163 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf after f. 1* + 8 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end). ff. 1-2 are paper flyleaves with later inscriptions. f. 1* is also a paper flyleaf. Catchwords written horizontally. Leaf signatures. Lacking the beginning of book 7 in the Historia regum Britanniae (after f. 113). ff. 152-53 are partially destroyed. A composite manuscript.

Script: Gothic and Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Library, 1982.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Including a table of years from 1167 to 1384 with original entries on the wars in Ireland (ff. 78-80v): 'Hic corruit Symon comes Leycestrie in bello apud evesham...' for the year 1265, written in the scribe's hand over an erasure (f. 79r).

Annotated throughout in various medieval hands.

Added marginal drawing of a face in brown and red ink (ff. 86v, 99r), a tower (f. 120r), in a medieval hand.

Added entries in the chronology, 14th or 15th century: death of Edward I in 1306 (f. 79v), death of Piers Gaveston (adoptive brother of Edward II; 1311) and death of Robert Winchelsey, archbishop of Canterbury (1313) (f. 80r).

Added circular diagram with the Heptarchy (f. 1r) and extracts from John Mair, De gestis scotorum, on paper, 16th century (ff. 154r–163v), 16th century.

Added list of contents, 17th century (f. 2v).

William Cecil (b. 1520/21, d. 1598), 1st Baron Burghley, royal minister: his library sold on 21 November 1687, lot 94 [sold to 'E.' of Stamford for £1.13.0] (Wright 1972), inscribed 'Gul: Cecil' (f. 3).

Thomas Grey, 2nd earl of Stamford (b. 1653/4, d. 1720), conspirator and politician: bought at the Cecil sale in 1687 (Wright 1972).

Thomas Jett, son and heir of Thomas Jett, of St. Margaret's, Westminster, admitted to Middle Temple 1705 (called 1715) and to Gray's Inn 1722: his sale, 11 May 1731, lot 7, inscribed in Edward Harley's hand 'This book was mr Thomas Jetts sold on his auction' (f. 1*). Added press-mark '8º. R. 2', 18th century (f. 80v).

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.

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, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III (1808), no. 4003.

H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), pp. 244-45.

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. 99, 205.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Geoffrey of Monmouth, historian and Bishop of St Asaph, c 1100-c 1154,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000123212370,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/89028232
Gerald of Wales, author and ecclesiastic, ?1146-1223,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000457817353,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/219992833

Related Material:

The manuscript's former binding is now stored separately as Harley MS 4003/1.