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Harley MS 4690

Record Id:
040-002050533
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
040-002050533
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0000d0
LARK:
SLARK:
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Harley MS 4690
Title:

The Brut Chronicle; 'Richard Coer de Lion'

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains the only surviving copy of the Middle English translation of the Brut Chronicle from French by John Mandeville in 1435. It also includes a poem in Middle English verse known as 'Richard Coer de Lion'.

Contents:

ff. 4r-108r: The so-called 'Peculiar version' of the Brut Chronicle translated by John Mandeville.

ff. 109r-118r: The romance known as 'Richard Coer de Lion', beginning: 'That itte was Richarde the Kyngge'.

[ff. 1v, 3v, 108v, 118v are blank].

The manuscript has later additions:

ff. 2r-3r: scribbles and pen trials in multiple hands.

Decoration:

Rubrics in red.

Collection Area:
Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Harley Collection
Hierarchy Tree:
[{ "id" : "040-002050533", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4690: The Brut Chronicle; 'Richard Coer de Lion'" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-002045828
040-002050533
Is part of:
Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

 

Harley MS 4690 : The Brut Chronicle; 'Richard Coer de Lion'
Hierarchy:
032-002045828[4689]/040-002050533
Container:
View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
Record Type (Level):
File
Extent:
1 volume
Digitised Content:
Languages:
English, Middle
Scripts:
Latin
Start Date:
1400
End Date:
1499
Date Range:
15th century
Era:
CE
Access:

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User Conditions:
Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 280 x 200 mm.

Foliation: ff. 118 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); f. 1 is a paper leaf.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. Former Harleian covers pasted on the lower cover.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

James Haward, an unidentified 16th-century owner: inscribed with his name in a 16th-century hand (ff. 2r, 2v, 3r).

Thomas Rawlinson (b. 1681, d. 1725), bibliophile: owned by him, passed to his brother Richard upon his death (see below).

Richard Rawlinson (b. 1690, d. 1755): inscribed with a note by Thomas Hearne: 'Jan. 25. 1728. This MS. belongs to Dt. Richard Rawlinson who lent it me. Thomas Hearne.

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 forms one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

Boffey, Julia and A. S. G Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (The British Library: London, 2005), pp. 130, 133, 236, 237, 261-62.

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 188.

Wright, Cyril Ernest, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 182, 282.

Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)