|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Harley 4324
|
|
|
|
| Author |
Guy de Faur |
| Title |
Les Quatrains de Guy de Faur (ff. 1-65), Les Cinquante octonaires sur la vanité et inconsistance du monde (ff. 66-117) |
| Origin |
England, S. E. (Essex) |
| Date |
1614 |
| Language |
French |
| Scribe |
Esther Inglis |
| Decoration |
Trompe-l'oeil border with naturalistic flowers, fruits and insects for the 1st title-page (f. 1). Border of foliate scrolls for the 2nd title-page (f. 66). Coat of arms of Sir David Murray facing a wreath enclosing a dedicatory inscription (ff. 1v-2). |
| Dimensions in mm |
40 x 75 (30 x 50) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 118 (+ 5 unfoliated paper leaves at the beginning and 4 at the end) |
| Form |
Paper codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Brown-green leather binding with gold tooling. Gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
Written by Esther Inglis (b. 1570/71, d. 1624), English calligrapher and miniaturist, born to French Huguenot parents, in Essex until 1614: her name on the title-pages (ff. 1, 66) and dedication page (f. 2).
Written for Sir David Murray of Gorthy (b. 1567, d. 1629), poet and courtier: his arms and a dedicatory inscription (ff. 1v-2).
Inscribed 'Lidie Light', 17th century (f. 9v).
Added pen-trials and inscriptions in French, 17th century (ff. 34v, 62v, 82v,
Richard Heming, 1688: inscribed 'Richard Heming Hi Booke Anno Redemtionis between 1688 1687' (f. 27v), 'Richard' (f. 35v), 'Richard Hemin (f. 84v), .
D. Hackluith, 1693: inscribed 'Libri H. Hackluith. 1693' (f. 118v).
Robert Burscough (b. 1650/51, d. 1709), prebendary of Exeter in 1701, archdeacon of Barnstaple in 1703, rector of Cheriton, bishop in 1705; sold by his widow on 17 May 1715 to Robert Harley, along with other manuscripts (see Wright 1972; Diary 1966).
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, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘17 May 1715’ (f. [v verso]).
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish 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. |
| Notes |
The text is only written on rectos. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 4324.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 11 n. 6.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 87-88, 176, 186, 203, 247.
A. H. Scott-Elliott, Elspeth Yeo, ‘Calligraphic Manuscripts of Esther Inglis (1571-1624): A Catalogue’, The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 84 (1990), 11-86, no. 40. |
|
|
