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Harley MS 4021
- Record Id:
- 040-002049858
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049858
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000215
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4021
- Title:
-
Registrum brevium
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-199r: Registrum brevium, including a table of contents (ff. 2r-5v).
The manuscript contains several additions:
f. [ii]verso: An erased (? ownership) inscription.
f. 1v: Legal note in Law French added in the (?) 17th century.
f. 122r: Oonsteth'; added in the (?) 15th century.
Decoration:
Large (8-line) initial in blue in frame with acanthus leaves in colours on a gold ground combined with a partial bar border, acanthus leaves and foliate feathering (f. 6r). Large (2-line) initials in blue with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing. Paraphs in alternating red or blue. Spaces left for headings (one outlined on f. 119v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049858", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4021: Registrum brevium" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049858 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4021 : Registrum brevium - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4014]/040-002049858
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- French
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1449
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 270 x 195 mm (text space: 190 x 120 mm).
Foliation: ff. 200 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end); ff. 2 and 200 are former pastedowns; 4 unfoliated parchment leaves after f. 199.
Collation: Indicated by leaf signatures and catchwords.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600; binding of brown mottled calf with gold fillets and blind tooling; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
Henry Knyvett, late 16th century: inscription recording his gift to his brother-in-law Robert Bowyer on f. 1v: 'Liber Rob[er]ti Bowyer ex dono fratris sui Henrici Knyvett' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 212).
Robert Bowyer (b. c. 1560, d. 1621), parliamentary official and politician: given to him by Henry Knivett, according to an inscription on f. 1v [see above] (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 79).
Thomas Knyvett, 17th century: inscribed his name on f. 199r: 'Thomas Knyvett of the W' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 212).
William Petyt (b. 1636, d. 1707), antiquary, of Middle Temple, keeper of the Tower Records: his ownership inscription on f. 200r: 'Liber Wilhelmus Petyt Armiger' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 275).
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, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 104 (no. 4021).
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. 79, 212, 275.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- England