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 5012

Record Id:

040-002050856

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050856

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000213

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5012

Title:

Pleas of the Crown from the reigns of Edward II and Edward III

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-141r: Pleas of the Crown (Placita) from the reigns of Edward II (years 13 and 18) and Edward III (years 4, 5, 7, 11, 14, 15, 16); written in Law French.

The manuscript contains a later addition;

f. 141v: Short tract comparing the World to a chessboard, beginning: 'Mundus iste totus quoddam scaccarium est'; a previously unknown copy of a work referred to as Quaedam moralitas de scaccario (see Murray, A History of Chess (1913) p. 580 [English translation]) or Comparatio Mundi ad Ludum Schakarum (see Thorndyke, 'All the World's a Chess-Board' (1931), pp. 463-65 [Latin edition]), sometimes attributed to Pope Innocent III. This copy was written in the 15th century.

f. 141v: A legal note concerning 'Marie et Anderuaus de Londres'; added in the 14th century.

Decoration:

Marginal manicules in brown ink. Cadels in brown ink.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050856", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5012: Pleas of the Crown from the reigns of Edward II and Edward III" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050856

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5012 : Pleas of the Crown from the reigns of Edward II and Edward III

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5012]/040-002050856

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1300

End Date:

1399

Date Range:

14th century

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: varying sizes in the range of 315-390 x 200-275 mm (text space: varying sizes in the range of 245-340 x 145-225 mm, written in 2 columns on ff. 91r-110r, 122r-141r).

Foliation: ff. 141 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 blank cardboard page between the third and fourth paper flyleaf at the beginning (ff. [iii] and [iv]); between f. 9 and f. 10; f. 23 and f. 24; f. 31 and f. 32; f. 43 and f. 44; f. 78 and f. 79; and after the first paper flyleaf at the end (f. [142]); 1 parchment stub after f. 54; 1 before f. 101; 1 after f. 111; 1 before f. 135; 1 after f. 137; ff. 110 and 121 are parchment fragmentary leaves that have been repaired with new parchment

Collation: Each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Library in-house; red half leather with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the outside covers; re-bound in September 1987.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Robert Paynell, son of Henry Paynell of Belaugh, Norfolk, admitted to Gray's Inn in 1619: sold through 'Wilcox' to the Harleys in November 1721 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 271).

'Wilcox', bookseller in Little Britain [probably 'J. Wilcox, bookseller next door to whom Benjamin Franklin lived in Little Britain in c. 1725 and from whom he borrowed books], in 1721: according to Humfrey Wanley's diary (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), I, p. 122 n. 2; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 354).

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 Novembris, A.D. 1721’ (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. 239.

H. J. R. Murray, A History of Chess (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913) [for other copies of the added tract on f. 141v].

Lynn Thorndyke, 'All the World's a Chess-Board', Speculum, 6:3 (1931), 461-465 [for another copy of the added tract on f. 141v].

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 122 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. 271, 354.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Innocent III, Pope, 1160/61-1216,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000122769169,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/16017787

Places:

England