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 4413

Record Id:

040-002050250

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050250

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00030d

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4413

Title:

Coutumier d'Anjou et du Maine

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 2r-133v: Coutumier d'Anjou et du Maine (Customary of Anjou and Maine), beginning: ‘Rene par la grace de dieu roy de Jherusalem et de Sicile duc d'Anjou per de France duc de Bar et de Lorraine conte de Prouvence de Forcalquier et de Pymont’. René I of Anjou (b. 1408, d. 1480) was duke of Lorraine, Bar and Anjou, king of Naples, and count of Provence. At the end of the prologue by René of Anjou: 'Nous avons estably & ordonne establissons et ordonnons ce present livre estre mis & garde en nostre chambre des comptes de ceste nostre ville dangiers. Et que dicelluy soit baille coppie ou double a ch[acu]n qui le requerra ou vouldra avoir a ses despens qu[an]t bon luy semblera. Et affin que ce soyt chose ferme et estable a tousiours mais. nous avons signe ces presentes de n[ost]re main et fait mettre & apposer n[ost]re seel. Donne en nostre Chastel dangiers ou moys de Janvier. Lan de Grace mil quatre cens soixante & deux' (f. 3r).

The manuscript contains later additions:

f. 1v (and further): Inscribed: 'Coutumes du pays d'Anjou et du Maine. Corrigées et arretées par vertu des lettres de René le bon Roy de Sicile & datées du 6e d[ecem]bre 1458 publiées aux grands jours de Anjou tenus en 1462 & autorisées par autres lettres patentes du d[it] Roy René du mois de Janvier 1462 dont la teneur s'ensuit.', 'L'original desd[its] coutumes & styles est a paris dans la chambre des Comptes Layette Anjou dont il y a une copie collationnée, etc...' (f. 1v), and numerous marginal annotations in the same hand relating the text to printed editions, etc (see also ff. 107r-108r, 109v); added in the 18th century.

Decoration:

Large historiated initial in colours and gold with a coat of arms [? altered] (f. 2r). Each paragraph has its first words written in a larger script introduced by a decorated initials with brown penwork decoration and cadels (e.g., ff. 43r, 50v, 51r, 90v [with a fish], 104v, 110r, 116v [fish]). Some ascenders decorated with penwork in brown ink and cadels (e.g., ff. 17r, 24r, 44r). Catchwords occasionally decorated with brown penwork (e.g., ff. 65v, 89v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050250", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4413: Coutumier d'Anjou et du Maine" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050250

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4413 : Coutumier d'Anjou et du Maine

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4406]/040-002050250

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Middle

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1462

End Date:

1480

Date Range:

c 1462-1480

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: 320 x 235 mm (text space: 200 x 120 mm).

Foliation: ff. 133 (+ 1 unfoliated paper leaf and parchment leaf pasted together at the beginning + 5 unfoliated blank ruled leaves and 1 unfoliated parchment leaf and paper leaf pasted together at the end)

Collation: Mainly in quires of 8. Catchwords written horizontally.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: armorial bookbinding; gold-tooled red binding with Louis Henri de Loménie’s achievement gold-stamped on the outsides of the upper and lower covers; marbled endpapers; gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin:

North-West France (? Angers).

Provenance:

An unknown owner, 15th century: their unidentified arms, azure with three besants or, 15th century (f. 2; altered?).

An unknown owner, ? 15th century: their cancelled ownership inscription on f. 133v.

Louis Henri de Loménie (b. 1635, d. 1698), comte de Brienne: his armorial binding [a catalogue of his books dated 1656 features in Harley 4455, ff. 185-238] (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 225).

The Loménie de Brienne family: sold by the son of Louis Henri de Loménie through the London bookseller James Woodman on 18 May 1724 to Edward Harley, his sale, lot 140 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 225, 358-59).

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 ‘18 die Maij, A.D. 1724’ (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. 142.

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. 313 n. 5.

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. 225, 358-59.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

René of Anjou, Duke of Anjou, Count of Provence, Duke of Lorraine, titular King of Jerusalem, Naples and Sicily, 1409-1480,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121227368

Places:

Angers, France
Northwestern France