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Harley MS 6644

Record Id:

040-002052493

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002052493

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000935.0x0000a8

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 6644

Title:

English statutes

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 1v: A table of contents for the manuscript.

ff. 2r-2v: A table of contents for Magna Carta.

ff. 4r-10v: Magna Carta de Libertatibus Angliae.

ff. 10v-13v: Carta de Foresta.

ff. 13v-18r: Statuta de Merton.

ff. 18r-29v: Statuta de Marleberge.

ff. 29v-55r: The Statute of Westminster I.

ff. 55r-61v: Statuta Gloucestrensis.

ff. 62r-103v: The Statute of Westminster II and III.

ff. 103v-107v: Statuta Wincestrensis.

ff. 107v-110v: Statuta Mercatorum.

ff. 110v-111r: Statuta de Northwych.

ff. 111r-112v: Visus Franci Plegii.

ff. 112v-113r: Modus calumpniandi essoniam.

ff. 113r-113v: Dies communes.

ff. 113v-114r: Dies communes in banco.

ff. 114r-118v: Curia Baronis and statutes; added at a later stage (late 13th or 14th century).

The manuscript contains several later additions:

f. 1r: A quotation of Cato the Elder: 'Rumores fuge, ne incipias novus auctor haberi' added in the 15th century.

f. 2v: An English letter, beginning: ‘Rygtt, reverent And wylbelovyd Cossyn [...] y grette yow Wyll[iam] [...]’; added in the 15th or 16th century.

f. 3r: Latin and English (?) sayings. The English reads: ‘thenk of the bere / From þe bere to þe pyth, from Conwenne yow kenne’; added in the (?) 14th century.

Decoration:

1 initial with penwork decoration in brown ink (f. 4r). Initials highlighted in red ink throughout the manuscript.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002052493", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 6644: English statutes" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002052493

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 6644 : English statutes

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[6649]/040-002052493

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1280

End Date:

1305

Date Range:

c 1285-c 1300

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 105 x 75 mm.

Foliation: ff. 118 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment stub between f. 58 and f. 59; each quire has been mounted onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house; re-bound in 1968.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

? ‘John’, owned in the (?) 13th century: his name (‘Johannem’) inscribed in the draft of an indenture on f. 3v.

‘Robert Stoke’, owned in the 15th or 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. 1r: ‘Robert Stoke constat’.

? ‘William’, owned in the 15th or 16th century: his name (‘Wyll[iam]’) inscribed in a letter on f. 2v.

An unknown 17th- or 18th-century English owner: inscribed the details of an auction on f. 1*recto: ‘689 9th Day Numb[er] 8 – Magna Charta de Anglice .J. R. Anglior[um] p. 52’.

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. 382.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England