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Harley MS 6892

Record Id:

040-002052744

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002052744

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000935.0x0001a3

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 6892

Title:

An account of the foundations of Oxford and Cambridge colleges and their coats of arms; blazons of the coats of arms of the Peers of England, and the offices in the Holy Roman Empire

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a miscellany of heraldic works copied at different times in the late 16th and early 17th century.

Contents:

f. 1r: A catalogue description of the manuscript by an early modern owner: ‘An Account of the ffoundations and the Armes each Colledge bears in England and also thes Coats of Arms of all the Peers of England Blazoned’.

f. 3r: A list of eight heraldic elements, referred to as ‘Labell[s]’, for an heir apparent and his seven brothers.

ff. 4r-5v: Coats of arms of Oxford and Cambridge colleges in black ink (4 per page) with an account of their foundations.

ff. 6r-15r: Blazons of the coats of arms of the Peers of England in French heraldic terminology.

ff. 16r-25v: An account of the foundations of Cambridge colleges with their coats of arms, entitled: ‘Academiae Cantabrigiensis nec non Collegiorum quam in eadem nunc reperiuntur Insignia etiam honoris Stemata, quotque studiosi ibidem Communibus Collegiorum sustentantur sumptibus, brevis et aperta delineatio’; followed by an account and the coats of arms of Oxford colleges.

f. 26r: Measurements (Latin) between geographical regions and seas, such as the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea

ff. 27v-29r: Blazons of the coats of arms of the three ecclesiastical Electors, four secular Electors, and other offices in the Holy Roman Empire.

f. 29r: A Latin astrological poem on the planets and their domiciles, beginning: ‘Saturnum Capricornus amat tum fusor aquarum / Atque locum praebent hospitiumque simul’. The same poem was published in an edition of collected astrological works entitled Thematum Coelestium, Sive Locorum Hylegialium, Ad Quodvis tempus datum, Directiones [...], ed. by Joannes Bringer (Frankfurt: Hummius, 1611).

Decoration:

Coats of arms, tricked, drawn in black ink throughout the manuscript (although the tricking on ff. 4r-5v is in red ink).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

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Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002052744

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 6892 : An account of the foundations of Oxford and Cambridge colleges and their coats of arms; blazons of the coats of arms of the Peers…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[6900]/040-002052744

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:

1575

End Date:

1624

Date Range:

4th quarter 16th century-1st quarter 17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper; and parchment (f. 1).

Dimensions: 210 x150 mm.

Foliation: ff. 29 (+ 10 unfoliated blank paper leaves at the end); 1 unfoliated blank paper leaf between f. 2 and f. 3; and f. 15 and f. 16.

Script: 16th- and 17th-century script.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Bound together with Harley MS 1352. According to the Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1808), p. 445, the manuscript was also bound together with Harley MSS 1374 and 6110 in the Harleian Library.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Chr[istopher] Wormall [alias Woormall] (fl. 17th century): his name written on f. 2r; perhaps his pressmark (‘No. 10’) on f. 1r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 360).

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. 445.

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. 470.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England