Harley MS 4015

Origin:

The hospital of St-Giles-in-the-Fields, Holborn, London, dependent of the Hospital of the Virgin Mary and Lazarus, Burton Lazars, Leicestershire. Finished 2 March 1402 for Walter Lynton, master of Burton Lazars from 1401 to 1421, according to its opening inscription, ‘Frater Walterus Lynton’ magister Hospitalis de Burton’ sancti Lazari Ierusalem in Aug’ ordinauit istum librum fieri Cartarum et munimentorum Hospitalis sancti Egidii Leprosorum extra Earram Veteris Templi London’ Anno domni mellesimo CCCCᵐᵒ secundo Anno regni Regis Henrici quarti post conquestum quarto secundo die marcii’ (f. 5r). (Cotton MS Nero C XII includes a cartulary of Burton Lazars made for Walter in 1404.)

Provenance:

Thomas Rawlinson (b. 1681, d. 1725), book collector: binding with his crest; inscribed by Edward Harley, ‘Bought in mr Rawlinsons sale 1734’ (f. 1r).

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: inscribed in Edward Harley's hand, 'Bought in Mr Rawlinson's sale 1734, Oxford BH' (f. 1).