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 6087

Record Id:

040-002051935

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002051935

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000899.0x000262

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 6087

Title:

The Statutes of the Order of the Garter

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 1r: A title-page: ‘The Statutes ordinances and decrees, with other the rites, ceremonies and observations of the most honorable Order of the Garter – Collected in the yere of Christ: 1580’.

ff. 1v-2r: A table of contents, entitled: ‘The principall matters conteyned in this booke’.

ff. 2v-3r: ‘Gaerterij Equestris Ordo, quando, & a quibus initium sumpsit’.

ff. 3v-7r: The arms of the founders of the Order of the Garter, beginning with: ‘Kinge Edward the third first fownder and Sovereigne of the most honourable Order of the Garter’.

ff. 7v-22r: Lists of the Knights of the Order of the Garter, from Edward III to Queen Elizabeth I, the latest member among these appears to be Charles Howard, 2nd Baron Howard of Effingham, admitted in 1575.

ff. 23v-35r: The statutes of the Order of the Garter in Latin, entitled:‘Garterij Equestris Ordinis magnificentissimi Statuta antiquiora quibus conservandis propugnandisque primi Fundatores Sacramento astricti fuerunt’; with the coat of arms of the Order of the Garter.

ff. 35v-46v: The statutes of the Order of the Garter in French, entitled: ‘Hic sequuntur Ordinis Statuta. Lingua Gallica conscripta, externo principi tradenda’; with the coat of arms of the Order of the Garter.

ff. 47v-73r: ‘Ordinis Statuta explanata reformata et quodammodo renovate. Anno domini M CCCCC xxij – The Statutes and ordinances of the most noble Order of Sainte George named the Garter, refourmed, explaned, declared and renewed, by the most high most excellent and most puissant prince, Henry the viijth. By the grace of god kinge of England and of Fraunce, Defendour of the Faithe, Lorde of Ireland’.

ff. 74r-78v: ‘Certein other decrees Ordinances and observations concerninge this most honorable Order of the Garter collected owt of the lesser Register booke of the said Order’.

ff. 79v-88v: ‘Constitutiones ad Officiales huius Ordinis peculiariter attinentes: qui sunt quinque. Prelatus, Cancellarius, Scriba, Rex Armorum a Subligari nuncupatus et hostiarius’.

ff. 89v-94v: ‘Instructiones seu potius informationes a regia maiestate, vell [sic] a quibus ei visum fuerit, contradendae legatis sive oratoribus ad Caesarem, Regem externum, principem, Ducem Marchionem, Comitem aut alioqui maximatem huiusce Illustrissimi Ordinis candidatum, emittendis: quando Subligar in signe cum habitu in super ordinario reddent eidem’.

ff. 95v-101r: ‘Juramenta omnium et singulorum tam Equitum cuiuscunque gradus et dignitaties: quam Officialium sive ministrorum huius celebrimi Ordinis’.

ff. 101v-122r: A collection of example letters, entitled: ‘Apographa sive exemplaria quedam Commissionum Deputationum, aliarumque litteram, ad Equitum tam electionem et in sedem introductionem, quam ad eorundem, qui commeruerint, ab hoc insigni Ordine a motionem et despositionem spectantium’.

The manuscript contains a number of additions:

ff. 22r-22v: Additions to the list of Knights of the Garter in pencil, going up to 1597.

ff. 122v-124v: Additional letters of patent, dated 1633 and 1657.

f. 125r: Letters with oaths for elected members of the Order of the Garter, the latest one dated to 1585.

ff. 126r-128v: A list of members of the Order in 1584 (in French).

ff. 129r-129v: Letters of warrant, the latest dated to 1571, including a letter explaining the ‘thynges the Sovereigne gyveth to a knight of the Order’.

ff. 130r-130v: Coats of arms of English nobility (4 per page), with some escutcheons left blank.

Decoration:

The arms of the Order of the Garter (ff. 23v, 35v, 47v), its first founders (ff. 3v-7r) and officials (ff. 80r, 81v, 84v, 87r); and English nobility (ff. 130r-130v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002051935", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 6087: The Statutes of the Order of the Garter" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002051935

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 6087 : The Statutes of the Order of the Garter

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[6091]/040-002051935

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
French
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1580

End Date:

1580

Date Range:

1580

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: Paper.

Dimensions: 210 x 175 mm.

Foliation: ff. 130 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 2 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper leaf between f. 46 and f. 47; 6 between f. 124 and f. 125; 1 between f. 128 and f. 129.

Script: 16th-century script.

Binding: British Museum in-house; bound together with Harley MS 1356.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

An unknown early modern English owner: their pressmark (‘N : 7 : 3’) inscribed on f. 1r.

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. 324.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England