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Harley MS 4011
- Record Id:
- 040-002049848
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049848
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00020b
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161515695.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4011
- Title:
-
An English miscellany including poems by John Lydgate; Craft of Dying; Duodecim Gradus Humilitatis; Counsels of Isidore; The Libel of English Policy; Osbern Bokenham, Mappula Anglie; John Skelton, Of the Death of the Noble Prince, Kynge Edwarde the Forth; John Russell, Book of Nurture
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
f. 1r: John Lydgate, So as the Crabbe Goth Forward; fragment.
f. 1r: John Lydgate, All riȝtwisnes doþe now proced.
ff. 1r-1v: John Lydgate, Translacyon by lydgate of Stans puer ad mensum.
ff. 1v-2r: John Lydgate, The Fall of Princes; Extract of Book III, here entitled: ‘Lenvoye to humfray late Duke of Glowcester whome god assoyle’.
ff. 1v-2v: John Lydgate, The Fall of Princes; Extract of Book II, here entitled: ‘The desolacyon of Rome made by lydgate in Balade wise’.
f. 2v: Mirror of the Blessed Life of Jesus Christ; Extract, here entitled: ‘A devoute oryson to þe holy sacrament’.
ff. 3r-16r: Craft of Dying.
ff. 16r-18v: Duodecim Gradus Humilitatis, beginning: ‘Seynt Gregor the doctor seith that with out mekenes it is vnlawfull to triste of forȝevenes of this synnes’.
ff. 18v-20v: Counsels of Isidore.
ff. 21r-119r: John Lydgate, The Life of Our Lady; with a table of contents.
ff. 120r-137v: The Libel of English Policy.
ff. 138r-142v: John Lydgate [attributed], 'A Kalendare'.
ff. 143r-143v: John Lydgate, The Dietary.
ff. 144r-163r: Osbern Bokenham, Mappula Anglie.
ff. 164r-169r: An Almanac.
ff. 169v-170v: John Skelton [attributed], Of the Death of the Noble Prince, Kynge Edwarde the Forth.
ff. 171r: John Russell [here attributed], Book of Nurture.
The manuscript contains a few additions:
f. 119v: A draft for a letter, beginning: ‘Welbeloved […] Wylyam I have me harty recommended unto you and to my aunt your bedfellow’; added in the 16th century.
f. 163v: A poem of eight quatrains, beginning: ‘my owne dere hart I grete yow well’.
Decoration:
Numerous initials with cadels and pen-flourishings in red and brown ink, sometimes including faces or animals and extending into the upper margin (see f. 44r). Coloured initials, sometimes with reserved designs (f. 98v) and line-fillers in red ink. Explicits written on scrolls (ff. 119r, 163r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049848", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4011: An English miscellany including poems by John Lydgate; Craft of Dying; Duodecim Gradus Humilitatis; Counsels of Isidore; The Libel of…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049848 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4011 : An English miscellany including poems by John Lydgate; Craft of Dying; Duodecim Gradus Humilitatis; Counsels of Isidore; The Libel… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4004]/040-002049848
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100161515695.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1445
- End Date:
- 1455
- Date Range:
- c 1450
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 280 x 190 mm (210 x 130 mm).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Foliation: ff. 189 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); each leaf has been mounted onto a paper guard.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound in 1885.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
‘William Woodward’, wrote part of the manuscript: name inscribed in an explicit on f. 2v: ‘Quod Wil[he]lmus woodeward’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘William Grauell’, wrote part of the manuscript: his name inscribed in an explicit on f. 119r: ‘Quod W. Grauell’; also on f. 163r: ‘Q. W. G.’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘William Brewyn’, wrote part of the manuscript: his name inscribed in a rubric on f. 145r: ‘Wil[he]lmus brewyn’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘John’, owned in the 15th or 16th century: his (?) ownership inscription on f. 20v: ‘Jhon [? onere] of [god]’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘William Potter’, owned in the 15th or 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. 125r: ‘This ys William pothar boke of [the haye]’; his name also inscribed on f. 98r: ‘Wyllyam potter of the haye’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘Arthur Lawley’, owned in the 15th or 16th century: his ownership inscription with an incomplete request to finders of the manuscript on f. 158r: ‘This is arttur lauleys boke / yff I hym los and you him [fynde]’; also added an address to his brother Richard on f. 159r: ‘Well beloved brother rychard’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘Harry Lawley’, owned in the 15th or 16th century: his ownership inscription with an incomplete request to finders on f. 161v: ‘this is hari laule boke he that ffinde him I [? pray]’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘Henry Lawley’, owned in the (?) 16th century: inscribed his name on f. 30r: ‘By me hendry lawle’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘Francis Lawley’, owned in the (?) 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 170v: ‘ffraunces lawley [? ouet] this bok / god make him a good mane’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘John Lawley’, owned in the (?) 16th century: inscribed his name on f. 181v: ‘John [l]awlle’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
? An unknown 16th-century owner associated with the Augustinian canons of Lilleshall Abbey: a reference to Lilleshall Abbey has been added below the title ‘The office of ussher and marshall’ on f. 186r: ‘my lord my master of lilleshall abbot’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
? An unknown 17th-century owner: their (?) pressmark on f. 1r: ‘Anne : st : 9:’.
John Batteley (b. 1647, d. 1708), Church of England clergyman and antiquary: sold to Edward Harley with the rest of his collection through his nephew John Batteley on 5 November 1723 (see Wright, Fontes Harleaini (1972), p. 67).
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:
-
Peter Brown, 'The Seven Planets', in Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England, ed. by Lister M. Matheson, Medieval Texts and Studies, 11 (East Lansing: Colleagues Press, 1994), pp. 3-21 (p. 7).
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III (1808), p. 103.
Anthony S. G. Edwards, ‘Lydgate’s “Fall of Princes”: Unrecorded Readings’, Notes and Queries, 216 (1969), 170-71.
P. S. Jolliffe, A Check-List of Middle English Prose Writings of Spiritual Guidance, (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1974), pp. 89, 110, 123-24.
Edward Donald Kennedy, XII: Chronicles and Other Historical Writing, A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, ed. by Albert E. Hartung, 8 (New Haven: Archon Books, 1989), p. 2878.
A Critical Edition of John Lydgate’s Life of Our Lady, ed. by Joseph A. Lauritis, Ralph A. Klinefelter, and Vernon F. Gallagher, Duquesne Studies Philological Series 2 (Pittsburgh: Dusquesne University Press, 1961), pp. 32-33.
Henry Noble McCracken, The Lydgate Canon. Appendix to the Philological Society's Transactions 1907-1909 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, and Trübner for the Philological Society, 1908), pp. iii-xlvi (pp. xiii, xvi, xvii, xxv).
Ryan Perry, 'London, British Library, MS Harley 4011' [accessed: 22 August 2019].
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 263 n. 1.
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. 439.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)