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Harley MS 5807

Record Id:

040-002051654

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002051654

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000899.0x000149

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5807

Title:

English coats of arms

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 1r: A title-page by John Philipot: ‘The Book of Coates & Creasts – Promptuarium Armorum – Begonne the 28 of may 1602 Per William Smith Rougdragon’.

f. 2r: 22 printed coats of arms from the windows of a college or church, entitled: ‘In Orientali Fenestra’, ‘In prima fenestra ex parte Australi ejusdem Aulae’, and ‘In secunda fenestra ex Australi ejusdem Aulae parte’.

f. 3r: A memorandum by Rowland Williams, dated 1668; and a coat of arms in brown ink.

f. 4r: 1 large coat of arms of ‘Sir Ralfe Bosvile’ of Bradbourne in Kent, with a confirmation by William Camden, dated to 1621.

ff. 5r-15r: An alphabetical index (‘The Table’) of the family names included in the following item.

ff. 16r-154v: Coats of arms and crests of English families (16 per page); also containing some dates, the latest is the year 1617.

ff. 155r-157v: An alphabetical index (‘The Table’) of the family names included in the following item.

ff. 158r-202v: Coats of arms and crests of English families (16 per page); also containing some dates, the latest is the year 1657.

203v-217r: Empty escutcheons (16 per page).

f. 218r: A printed text entitled ‘An Advertisement’, in which the producent of a medicine against scurvey criticizes imitations of his medicine (‘True Spirit’), and explains that he from now on seals each of his bottles with his coat of arms (‘which I presume none will counterfeit’); followed by an instruction (‘Vertues and Directions’) on how to use it, and directions where it can be bought, including ‘at my House on Clerkenwell Green, the second House in New-Prison Walk’).

f. 219r: 26 printed coats of arms from the windows of a college or church, entitled: ‘Adhuc in dicta semicirculata fenestra’.

f. 219r: A pencil-sketch of a coat of arms.

Decoration:

Coats of arms, tricked, drawn in brown ink, or printed in black ink (ff. 2r and 219r) throughout the manuscript.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002051654", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5807: English coats of arms" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002051654

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5807 : English coats of arms

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5810]/040-002051654

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1600

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 365 x 225 mm.

Foliation: 219 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper leaf between f. 2 and f. 3 (erroneously numbered as ‘2’); f. 15 and f. 16; and f. 157 and f. 158; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. 1r (notes); ff. 2, 218, and 219 are smaller paper leaves with printed coats of arms and printed text mounted onto a paper guard; f. 4 is a paper pastedown (coat of arms) on a blank paper leaf (also numbered as ‘4’); f. 46 is a paper fragment (coat of arms) mounted on an unfoliated blank paper leaf; a red wax seal impressed on f. 218v. Old foliation on ff. 16r-154r (‘1’-‘138’) and ff. 158r-217r (‘1’-‘60’) indicates that these sections originally formed separate manuscripts.

Script: 17th-century script.

Binding: British Museum in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

William Smith (b. c. 1550, d. 1618), merchant, traveller, topographer, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant of Arms in Ordinary at the College of Arms, 1597-1618, wrote and owned in 1602: according to the title-page on f. 1r by John Philipot (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 307).

John Philipot (b. 1588, d. 1645), Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, owned after 1602: his ownership inscription and title-page on f. 1r: ‘Made Johanis Philipott et Armoricorum’ (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 275).

Rowland Williams (fl. late 17th century): his ownership inscription and memorandum, dated 1668, on f. 3r: ‘Rowland Williams his Booke: Memorandum that Hearold Phillipott Black Booke in Collours was sent by me Rowland Williams to Mr Allen at Greatton on the 12th of November Anno Domini 1668’ (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 355).

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, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 556.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 462.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England