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Harley MS 4795

Record Id:

040-002050638

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050638

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000139

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4795

Title:

Scope & Content:

ff. 1r–3r: Fragments of an agreement of 1383 between the alderman of the guild, John de Rocheforth, and the brothers and sisters; inventory of goods belonging to the guild.

ff. 3v–4v: Added obits.

f. 5r–v: Preface explaining the methodology of the register (translated by Thompson, pp. 115–16).

ff. 6r–64v: Register of admissions and obits.

ff. 65v–77r: Kalendar, providing a page for each month and a facing page for the addition of obits.

ff. 78r–89r: Added obits, to 1543.

ff. 89v–90r: Pen trials.

ff. 91v–94v: Added copy of an inspection of sewers in Boston, 1480–81.

Decoration:

Large initial with three-sided border in colours and gold (f. 5r). Large initials in gold on red and blue grounds, with foliate decoration (ff. 6r, 13r). Small initials in gold or red with purple penwork decoration, in blue with red penwork decoration. Large initials in blue with red or red and purple pen-flourishing. Paraphs in blue. Line-fillers in blue and red. Highlighting of letters in yellow. From f. 40v, small initials in red or gold with penwork decoration in brown or red (without gold and with initials in brown from f. 44v). From f. 51r, initials without penwork decoration. Initials in brown with red penwork decoration, including in the form of faces (ff. 63v–64v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050638", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4795: Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi, Boston" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050638

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4795 : Register of the Guild of Corpus Christi, Boston

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4794]/040-002050638

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

2nd half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Dimensions: 290 × 190 mm (written area 200 × 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. 95 ( + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end + 2 unfoliated parchment leaves after f. 90 and 1 after f. 95).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum.

Custodial History:

Origin: The Fraternity or Guild of Corpus Christi, Boston, Lincolnshire, founded on 8 May 1335 (f. 6r): its register, with various additions of names (esp. ff. 90r, 95v).

Provenance:

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, ed. by Robert Nares and others, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808–12), iii, 205.

Pishey Thompson, The History and Antiquities of Boston (Boston: Noble, 1856), pp. 114–27, https://archive.org/details/bostonantiquity00thomuoft.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 11.

H. Fenning, ‘The Guild of Corpus Christi’, in The Guilds of Boston, ed. by W.M. Ormrod (Boston: Pilgrim College, 1993), pp. 35–39.

David J.F. Crouch, Piety, Fraternity, and Power: Religious Gilds in Late Medieval Yorkshire, 1389-1547 (Woodbridge, Suffolk: York Medieval Press, 2000), pp. 90–91, 182.

G.R.C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison, and David M. Smith, 2nd edn (London: British Library, 2010), no. 62.

Gervase Rosser, The Art of Solidarity in the Middle Ages: Guilds in England 1250–1550 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201571.001.0001.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Guild of Corpus Christi, Boston, Lincolnshire, 8 May 1335-15 Dec 1545