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Harley MS 6251
- Record Id:
- 040-002052099
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002052099
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000899.0x0003ce
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 6251
- Title:
- The Prose Brut Chronicle of England (abbreviated version to 1419)
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-105v: The Prose Brut Chronicle of England (abbreviated version to 1419).
Part of Matheson's Group C (AV-1419:C) (see Matheson, The Prose Brut (1998), no. 132).
Decoration:
'Champ' initial in colours and gold with foliate spray, badly rubbed (f. 1r). Numerous large initials in blue with red pen-flourishing.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002052099", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 6251: The Prose Brut Chronicle of England (abbreviated version to 1419)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002052099 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 6251 : The Prose Brut Chronicle of England (abbreviated version to 1419) - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[6255]/040-002052099
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 280 x 210 mm (text space: 205 x 150 mm).
Foliation: ff. 105 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); parchment strips used for damage (causing some loss of text) to the upper margins of ff. 1v, 2v, 3r, 4r, 5r, 6r, 7r, 9r, 10r, and 11r; and parchment cuttings for repairs in the lower margins of ff. 35v, 78r, 92r, and 93r; 1 detached blank (save for a single Latin word) unfoliated strip of parchment in the gutter between f. 104 and f. 105.
Collation: Indicated by catchwords.
Script: Gothic cursive. Attributed to the 'Beryn Scribe' by Mooney and Matheson, 'The Beryn Scribe' (2003).
Binding: Post-1600. Brown mottled calf with gold fillets and blind tooling.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
? 'Nicholas', 15th/16th century: his name inscribed on f. 56r: 'Necolas' [sic].
? 'Francis Gatonby[ris]', 16th century: his name written upside down in the margin of f. 38v; and also legible in a partially erased inscription on f. 53r: 'ff[rancis] g[? atonbyr] this boocke god [...] to my verie friend Jhon Tomsonne so be yt / When men of myght do muche compleayn that daye and nyght they ware in payne with slepe unsound in dred and feare honer'; also inscribed an English text on f. 11r: 'Much as yt plesed god of his goodnes to take me to this state wherto I am comme' [This poem repeated on f. 65r] (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
? 'John Tomsonne', 16th century: perhaps donated to him by Francis Gatonby[ris], as suggested by the inscription on f. 53r (see above); the name 'John' is also inscribed on f. 43r and f. 105r (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
? 'Mr Williamson', 16th century: his name inscribed in a now erased inscription on f. 56v: 'Mr Willia[mson] [...] this bo[oc]ke [...]' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
? 'Thomas', 16th century: his name in a now erased inscription on f. 75r: 'Thomas G[...] [...] my nam [...]' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
? 'Barnard Willson', 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 87r: '[B]arnard Willson is'; and f. 98v: 'Barnard Willson is my [name] and with my hand I writhe [the same]' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
Bartholomew Towers, 1614: his dated signature on f. 57r (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
William Le Neve (bap. 1592, d. 1661), herald and genealogist: inscribed with his name on ff. 1r, 105v ([2x] (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 221)
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. 346.
Lister M. Matheson, The Prose Brut: The Development of a Middle English Chronicle, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 180 (Tempe, Arizona: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998), pp. xxv, 73, 215, 217-8, 226-28, no. 132.
Linne Mooney and Lister M. Matheson, 'The Beryn Scribe and his Texts: Evidence for Multiple-Copy Production of Manuscripts in Fifteenth-Century England', The Library, 4 (2003), 347-70 (pp. 347-48, 355-57, 360-61).
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. 221.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- England