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Royal MS 14 C IX
- Record Id:
- 040-002106990
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002105724
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000338.0x00008d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Royal MS 14 C IX
- Title:
- Ranulph Higden's Polychronicon
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript contains:
ff. 1v-2r: Large mappa mundi;
f. 2v: Mappa mundi;
ff. 3r-8r: Alphabetical index to the Polychronicon;
ff. 8r-8v: Summary of the lengths of the first five Ages of the World;
ff. 9r-134v: Ranulph Higden, Polychronicon (ends 1342, 'carceris et capitis interdixit').
Decoration:
ff. 1v-2r: Large mappa mundi, arranged horizontally across a bifolium, oval-shaped, with coloured oceans, seas and rivers, 12 heads in roundels around the edge representing the winds, detailed labels, topographical features (mountains, towns, churches, castles), and events (Noah's ark, possibly added by later hand, and the Crucifixion). Panel at the eastern edge of the map (left-hand edge of f. 1v) contains a faint outline sketch, almost certainly an illustration of Adam and Eve and Tree of Knowledge observed in other Polychronicon mappae mundi; see f. 2v).
f. 2v: Mappa mundi, oval-shaped, with coloured oceans, seas and rivers, brief labels and outlines. Pen sketch of Adam and Eve and Tree of Knowledge, accompanied by winged head (Satan?) at upper edge.
f. 9r: Historiated initial of a king in gold and colours with a full bar border in gold and colours featuring interlaces at corner and mid-points, and ‘biting’ zoomorphic grotesque in upper border.
Small initials in blue with red pen-flourishing and penwork decoration throughout at book and chapter divisions.
f. 46v: Pen diagrams of the proportion of Pythagorean hammers and a chord.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Royal Collection
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002105724
040-002106990 - Is part of:
- Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 14 C IX : Ranulph Higden's Polychronicon - Hierarchy:
- 032-002105724[1194]/040-002106990
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Royal_MS_14_C_IX (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1360
- End Date:
- 1399
- Date Range:
- Late 14th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment codex.
Dimensions: 355 x 245mm (text space: 265 x 175mm) in two columns.
Foliation: ff. 134 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end).
Collation: i2 (ff. 1-2), ii6 (ff. 3-8), iii-xii12 (ff. 9-128), xiii12-6 (ff. 129-134; 7th to 12th leaves excised).
Script: Gothic cursive (anglicana formata).
Binding: BM/BL in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance: John Wardeboys (d. 1489), Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of Ramsey, 1473-1489: inscribed 'Liber Iohannis Wardeboys Bachilaurei theologie et abbatis' (f. 1r).
Also inscribed with his epitaph (f. 8v) (see Casley, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the King's Library (1734), p. 232):
Siste gradum, vestris oculosque infige sepulcris,
Istic qui transis Warboys memorare Iohannis.
Pro me funde preces, si tu pietate moveris.
Corpus terra capit, requiem mens. Si speculeris,
Ecce Monasterii presentis rector et abbas
Morte iacet: natura iubet, sic postulat etas.
Ista figura sequens annum monstratque diemque,
Cum pater insignis fragili discessit ab orbe.
In armis supra: Pasceris helia corvis, mandate sophia.
Ad os: Christe, tuis meritis Wardboys miserere Iohannis.
Ad pedes: Hic qui pertransis, Wardboys memento Iohannis.
(Halt your step, fix your eyes upon our tomb,
You who goes there, remember John Wardeboys.
Pour out your prayers for me, if you be moved to piety.
The earth grasps my body, my mind takes its rest. If you look,
Behold! the Rector and Abbot of the present monastery
Lies dead: Nature commands, thus life requires.
That image following shows the year and day,
When the holy Father scatters the weak from the earth.
In the arms above: ravens feeding on the sun, the motto Wisdom.
At the mouth: O Christ, have pity upon your deserving John Wardeboys.
At the feet: You who passes through here, remember John Wardeboys.)
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 1272' (f. 1*r); in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71 (ff. 7v or 8r); not in CMA. Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.
- Information About Copies:
- Full digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts: http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
David Casley, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts of the King's Library (London: Printed for the Author, 1734), pp. 231-232.
Catalogue of Manuscript Maps, Charts and Plans, and of the Topographical Drawings in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1844-1861), I, pp. 14-15.
George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King’s Collections, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, p. 136.
Youssouff Kamal, Monumenta Cartographica Africae et Egyptae, 5 vols ([Cairo]: [printed for the author], 1926-1951), IV (1926), p. 1265.
John Taylor, 'The Development of The Polychronicon Continuation', English Historical Review, 76 (1961), 20-36 (p. 34).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 154.
Marcel Destombes, Mappemondes A.D. 1200-1500: Catalogue préparé par la Commission des Cartes Anciennes de l'Union Géographique Internationale (Amsterdam: N. Israel, 1964), p. 154.
John Taylor, The Universal Chronicle of Ranulf Higden (Oxford: Clarendon, 1966), pp. 67, 99, 155.
History of Cartography, 6 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987- ), I, Cartography in Prehistoric, Ancient, and Medieval Europe and the Mediterranean, ed. by J. B. Harley and David Woodward, figs 18.25, 18.67, pp. 312-14, 318-19.
Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London Harvey Miller, 1982-1988), II: 1250-1285, pp. 84, 196.
Peter Barber, 'The Evesham World Map: A Late Medieval English View of God and the World', Imago Mundi, 47 (1995), 13-33 (figs 2-3, pp. 17, 30).
P. D. A. Harvey, Mappa Mundi: The Hereford World Map (London: British Library, 1996), pl. on p. 21.
Lynda Dennison, 'Monastic or Secular? The Artist of the Ramsey Psalter, now at Holkham Hall, Norfolk', in Monasteries and Society in Medieval Britain: Proceedings of the 1994 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Benjamin Thompson, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, new ser., 6 (Stamford: Paul Watkins, 1999), pp. 223-61 (pp. 228-29, 256).
The Libraries of King Henry VIII, ed. by J. P. Carley, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 7 (London: The British Library, 2000), H2.1272.
Lynda Dennison and Nicholas Rogers, 'A Medieval Best-Seller: Some Examples of Decorated Copies of Higden's Polychronicon', in The Church and Learning in Later Medieval Society: Essays in Honour of R.B. Dobson, ed. by Caroline M. Barron and Jenny Stratford, Proceedings of the 1999 Harlaxton Symposium, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 11 (Donington: Shaun Tyas, 2002), pp. 80-99 (pp. 89, 94).
Kathleen L. Scott, Tradition and Innovation in Later Medieval English Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 166n.
St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, ed. by B. C. Barker-Benfield, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 13, 3 vols (London: British Library, 2008), I, p. lxiv.
Ingrid Baumgärtner, 'Graphische Gestalt und Signifikanz: Europa in den Weltkarten des Beatus von Liébana und des Ranulf Higden', in Europa im Weltbild des Mittelalters: Kartographische Konzepte, ed. by Ingrid Baumgärtner and Hartmut Kugler (Berlin: Academie, 2008), pp. 81-132.
Lynda Dennison, 'The Significance of Ornamental Penwork in Illuminated and Decorated Manuscripts of the Second Half of the Fourteenth Century', in Tributes to Kathleen L. Scott. English Medieval Manuscripts: Readers, Makers and Illuminators, ed. by Marlene Villalobos Hennessy (London: Harvey Miller, 2009), pp. 31-64 (p. 32).
Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2013), pp. 32-33 [exhibition catalogue].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)