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Harley MS 4222

Record Id:

040-002050059

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050059

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0002f2

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4222

Title:

Collection of orders and laws for the management of the Royal Mint

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-69r: Collection of orders and laws for the management of the Royal Mint, written in different hands.

Includes instructions for making money (ff. 1r-20r), 'An ordinaunce for measures and weightes owte of magna carta' (f. 21r); a document relating to Martin Bowes (b. 1496/7, d. 1566), goldsmith, entitled: 'A commicion graunted unto Sir Martin Bowes', dated 1541/2 (ff. 22r-22v); miscellaneous documents relating to the Mint in the time of King Henry VIII (ff. 23r-30r); 'A bref opppinion for the redusing of the coyne of the Realme to iijs iiijd the ounce Silver and the gold ratablie as it was before the warres to Boloigne' (ff. 31v-33r); 'The order of the taking of the assayes of the myntes in the realme of England by the Queens Majestiis most honorable councell in the starre chamber of olde tyme used', dated 1560/1 (ff. 32r-33v); copies of indentures and letters patent of the Mint during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, the latest one dating to 1572 (ff. 36v-60r); 'The Copye of the Comyssion for the taking of the accompte of Mr Sir Thomas Stanley for the Mynte for the tyme of King Edward Quene Mary and the Quenes Majestie that nowe is unto the xvth yere of her highness Reigne given out in the yere of her majesties reigne the xvth' [1572/3] (ff.61r-69r).

The manuscript contains a few additions:

ff. 1*recto-1*verso: A leaf taken from a 14th-century English liturgical manuscript, written in 2 columns, featuring large (2-line) blue initials with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing, small plain blue initials, rubrics in red, and paraphs in blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050059", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4222: Collection of orders and laws for the management of the Royal Mint" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050059

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4222 : Collection of orders and laws for the management of the Royal Mint

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4215]/040-002050059

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1525

End Date:

1574

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 16th century-3rd quarter of the 16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper; parchment (f. 1* only).

Dimensions: 410 x 290 mm (text space: approximately 340 x 195 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 69 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 24 between f. 22 and f. 23; 2 between f. 33 and f. 34; 18 between f. 35 and f. 36; 1 between f. 50 and f. 51; 1 between f. 51 and f. 52; 1 between f. 57 and f. 58; 2 between f. 59 and f. 60; 8 between f. 60 and f. 61; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [71]verso (conservation notes).

Collation: Quires mounted on guards.

Script: 16th-century Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house; brown half leather with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

? Sir Robert Harley (b. 1597, d. 1656), Master of the Mint: the manuscript comprises orders for management of the Mint (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 180).

Brampton Bryan, county Herefordshire, family seat of the Harleys: part of a batch of 42 manuscripts that Edward Harley sent up to London from Brampton Bryan after the death of his father, Robert Harley, for the Harleian Library, where it was received on 16 October 1725 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 81).

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 ‘16 October 1725’ (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:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 128.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 386 n. 2.

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. 81, 180.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England