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Harley MS 6670
- Record Id:
- 040-002052519
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002052519
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000935.0x0000c2
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165169960.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 6670
- Title:
-
Cartulary of Coldstream Priory
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the Cartulary of Coldstream Priory of St Mary, founded before 1166 by Cospatric III (d. 1166), Earl of Lothian and Dunbar. The cartulary contains copies of one charter of King Alexander II (r. 1214-1249) and several of the Earls of Dunbar, including Cospatric III (d. 1166), Waltheof (d. 1182), Patrick I (b. c. 1152, d.1232), Patrick II (b. 1185, d. 1249, and Patrick III (b. c. 1213, d. 1289).
An added note in Latin (f. 55v) explains that on 3 April 1434, John Laurence, a public notary, was requested by the sisters at Coldstream Priory to make a transcript of their charters, because of their age and out of fear of English invasion, which meant they were more susceptible to burning or other accidents (‘tum propter vetustatem tum propter metum anglorum’).
For an edition of the text, see Rogers, Chartulary the Cistercian Priory of Coldstream (1879).
Contents:
f. 1*r: A modern summary of locations represented in the cartulary.
ff. 1r–55r: A general cartulary of Coldstream Priory, written in Latin, with a closing rubric (‘Explicit copia omnium cartarum monasterii de Caldstream redactarum in scriptis per notarium publicum’). The charters arranged topographically, as follows:
ff. 1r-11r: Lennel ('Laynal').
ff. 11r-24v: Hirsel ('Hersel').
ff. 24v-29v: Derchester.
ff. 29v-40v: Thornydykes ('Thornidich').
ff. 41r-51v: Bassendean ('Bastynden').
ff. 51v-55r: Coldstream.
f. 55v: An added note written in Latin, explaining that on 3 April 1434, John Laurence was asked by the sisters of Coldstream Priory to make a transcript of their charters.
f. 56r: An added medical recipe, ‘For blud stanchyn’, written in Middle English, beginning, 'Lord has yow don on rud throw ye my fulnes stem yis blud...'
ff. 56v–57r: Scribbled formulae.
f. 57v: An added note in Middle Scots relating to the charters for Bassendean (heavily effaced and only legible under ultraviolet light): 'Þe sum[me] of þe acres þat ar gyffine to [b]asty[.]dene […] [?w]o[t/k]ume je[..] land[es] and medws [..]xxxti'.
Decoration:
Large and small initials in black and red ink, some with geometic decoration or foliate extensions (e.g. ff. 1r, 11r, 14v, 21v, 24v).
A drawing of a lion in black and red (f. 22r); a geometrical design around the name of the scribe John Laurence (f. 55v).
Rubrics.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002052519", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 6670: Cartulary of Coldstream Priory" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002052519 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 6670 : Cartulary of Coldstream Priory - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[6675]/040-002052519
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165169960.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1434
- End Date:
- 1434
- Date Range:
- 1434
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 180 × 125 mm.
Foliation: ff. 1* + 57 (+ 2 modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 1* + 3 unfoliated parchment leaves after f. 55 + 3 modern paper flyleaves at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive, principally written by the public notary John Laurence, according to an added note at the end of the book.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Black leather, gold-tooled, with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Coldstream, Scotland.
Provenance:
The Priory of St Mary the Virgin, of Cistercian nuns, Coldstream: apparently written for them, 3 April 1434, by the public notary John Laurence (f. 55v).
James Anderson (b. 1662, d. 1728), historiographer and antiquary: given by his son Patrick Anderson to the Harley collection shortly after his death (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 49).
Patrick Anderson, son of the former: presented by him to the Harley collection, 11 July 1730 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 49).
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), no. 6670.
‘A Delver in Antiquity’ [W. B. D. D. Turnbull], Fragmenta Scoto-Monastica (Edinburgh, 1842), p. 4.
Charles Rogers, Chartulary the Cistercian Priory of Coldstream (Edinburgh: Grampian Club, 1879) [edition].
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts Preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 49.
R. Hayes, ‘The Historical Manuscripts Commission’s Project on the Records of Medieval Religious Houses’, Monastic Research Bulletin, 5 (1999), 1–26 (p. 21).
Elsa Catherine Hamilton, ‘The acts of the Earls of Dunbar relating to Scotland c.1124–c.1289: A study of Lordship in Scotland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries’ (unpubl. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2003), https://theses.gla.ac.uk/1582/.
G.R.C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. by Claire Breay, Julian Harrison, and David M. Smith, 2nd edn (London: British Library, 2010), no. 1131.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)