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Harley MS 5908/1
- Record Id:
- 040-004343954
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-004343954
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100163263669.0x000001
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100181359220.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 5908/1
- Title:
- Fragment of 'The Clerk's Tale', from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
- Scope & Content:
-
This single leaf contains a fragment of 'The Clerk's Tale' from The Canterbury Tales by the poet Geoffrey Chaucer (b. c. 1340s, d. 1400), comprising ll. 808-891 of the text, beginning, 'Takeþ it aȝen I ȝeue ȝew leue of my grace'.
The leaf was formerly f. 61 in Harley MS 5908, a 17th-century collection of materials relating to the history of printing, compiled by the English antiquarian John Bagford (b. 1650/51, d. 1716), and bound together with Harley MS 5909. The leaf is now housed separately as Harley MS 5908/1.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-004343954", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5908/1: Fragment of 'The Clerk's Tale', from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-004343954 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 5908/1 : Fragment of 'The Clerk's Tale', from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[7978]/040-004343954
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 leaf
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100181359220.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1425
- End Date:
- 1449
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 285 x 196 mm (written space: 215 x 110 mm).
Foliation: f. [1] + 1 unfoliated parchment stub.
Script: Gothic cursive.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
John Bagford (b. 1650/51, d. 1716), English antiquarian and bookseller: formerly bound together with Harley MS 5908 and Harley MS 5909, a collection of printing material assembled by Bagford; his collections acquired by Robert Harley through the London bookseller Christopher Bateman (fl. 1698-1730) in 1716 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 59; Diary (1966), I, p. xxxviii).
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.
- Former Internal References:
- Harley MS 5908, f. 61
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 307.
Sir William McCormick and Janet E. Heseltine, The Manuscripts of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales: A Critical Description of Their Contents (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933), p. 541.
The Text of the Canterbury Tales: Studied on the Basis of All Known Manuscripts, ed. by John M. Manly and Edith Rickert, 8 vols (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1940), I, pp. 249-50.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. xxxviii.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 59, 66.
Charles A. Owen, Jr., The Manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1991), p. 105.
Michael C. Seymour, A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts. Volume II, The Canterbury Tales (Aldershot and Brookfield: Scolar Press, 1997), p. 251.
Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), no. 4019/17.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)