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Harley Roll C 9

Record Id:
040-003464547
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
032-002404892
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100087726992.0x000001
LARK:
SLARK:
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Harley Roll C 9
Title:

Biblical and Genealogical roll chronicle from Creation to King Edward IV of England

Scope & Content:

Contents:

A genealogical chronicle from Creation to Edward IV and his descendants, of the type known as the 'Considerans' chronicle. This is one of a group of chronicles, named from the opening words of the prologue, ‘Considerans historie sacre prolixitatem’. The genealogy is mostly in three columns, tracing the lineages of Old Testament figures and historical and legendary kings and emperors, including kings of Britain, accompanied by a commentary, as follows:

Membranes 1-11: The biblical history (in the central column up to membrane 11) is based on an interpolated version of Peter of Poitiers, Compendium Historiae in Genealogia Christi. It begins with Adam and Eve (membrane 1) and ends with the Resurrrection of Christ (membrane 11).

Membranes 1-19: The genealogy of the kings of England, based on Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae, begins in the right hand column with Japhet, son of Noah (membrane 1); the British kings begin at Brutus with the rubric, 'Linea regu[m] Britannie' (membrane 2). This becomes the central line of the genealogy at Lucius and Severus Romanus, Roman tribunes (membrane 11). After Cadwallader (membrane 14), the line divides into 7, with no commentary, for the Anglo-Saxon heptarchy (membranes 14-15). The single line continues and the commentary resumes, from Egbertus (membrane 15) to Edward IV and 5 of his children, including his eldest son, Edward. The commentary ends at Edward IV, 'Et coronat[us] est in rege[m] anglie apud Westmonasteriu[m] xxviii die mensis junii annon d[omi]ni m cccclxi' (membrane 19).

Membranes 17-18: The genealogy of the Dukes of Normandy from Rollo, with the rubric, 'Linea ducum normannie' begins on the left of membrane 17 and joins the central line of descent of the kings of England at William I ('Willelmus co[n]questor') on membrane 18.

The dorse of the roll is blank (dorse abbreviated as d).

This and a number or chronicles, including Add MS 31950, Lansdowne MS 456 and Royal MS 14 B VIII were probably copied by a single scribe working in London or Westminster but illustrated by different artists (according to Scott (Later Gothic Manuscripts (1996), who lists 21 rolls and roll-codices of this type).

Decoration:

A miniature of the Fall of Man in colours and gold (membrane 1). Roundels in colours and gold, surmounted by golden crowns, with a green line of descent, for the Kings of England from Brutus to Edward IV, at first on the right and later in the centre (membranes 2-19). Diagrams in red and green of Noah's Ark and the earth (membrane 1), the 42 'mansiones' and the tabernacle of the 12 Tribes of Israel (membrane 2), and the City of Jerusalem (membrane 7). A central line of descent of Christ in blue and gold with roundels in green or red (membranes 1-11). An initial with foliate decoration extending into the margins, in colours and gold; an initial in gold on a rose and blue ground (membrane 1). Initials in blue or gold with penwork decoration in red. Roundels in square frames with lines of descent in red or green. Rubrics in red.

Collection Area:
Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Harley Collection
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-002404892
040-003464547
Is part of:
Harley Roll : Harley Rolls

 

Harley Roll C 9 : Biblical and Genealogical roll chronicle from Creation to King Edward IV of England
Hierarchy:
032-002404892[0014]/040-003464547
Container:
View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley Roll
Record Type (Level):
File
Extent:

1 roll

Digitised Content:
Languages:
Latin
Scripts:
Latin
Start Date:
1450
End Date:
1474
Date Range:
3rd quarter of the 15th century
Era:
CE
Access:

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User Conditions:
Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 8500 x 370

Arrangement: 19 numbered membranes attached end-to-end to form a roll. The manuscript was formerly arranged in a folded, accordion format with gilt edges, and was later converted to a roll. A foliated parchment membrane is attached at the beginning, forming a wrapper, and at the end.

Script: Gothic.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

Copied by one scribe in 1454-1456 and continued in c. 1472-1473 with the genealogy of Edward IV ending with his daugher Margaret, who was born and died in 1472 (see Scott, Later Gothic, 1996).

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. C. de la Mare, Catalogue of the Collection of Medieval Manuscripts Bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, Oxford by James P. R. Lyell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971), p. 83.

Charles L. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913; repr. New York: Franklin, 1972), p. 164 n. 5.

Alison R Allan, 'Yorkist Propaganda: Pedigree, prophecy and the 'British History' in the Reign of Edward IV', in Patronage, pedigree and power in Later Medieval England, ed. by by Charles Ross (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1979), pp. 171-92 (p. 190)

Alison R. Allan, Political propaganda employed by the House of York in England in the mid-fifteenth century, 1450-1471.(PhD thesis, University College of Swansea, 1981) pp. 272, n. 1., 456.

Margaret Howell, 'The Children of King Henry III and Eleanor of Provence', Thirteenth Century England IV: Proceedings of the Newcastle Upon Tyne Conference (1991), 57-72 (p. 59, n. 13).

Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II, p. 316.

Kathleen Scott, Tradition and Innovation in Later Medieval English Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), pp. 88, 103, 151 n. 42, 171 n. 334, and fig. 74.

Maree Shirota, ‘Neither Roll nor Codex: Accordion Genealogies of the Kings of England from the Fifteenth Century’ in The Roll in England and France in the Late Middle Ages, ed. by Stefan Holz, Jorg Peltzer and Maree Shirota (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2019), pp. 263-88 (pp. 266, 270, 271, n. 39, 272, 278, n. 60, 282 ).

Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)