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Detailed record for Lansdowne 204
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| Author |
John Hardyng |
| Title |
Chronicle of Britain to Henry VI (1st version) |
| Origin |
England, E. ? |
| Date |
c. 1440-1450 |
| Language |
English |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
The full-page miniature of seated kings (f. 196) is attributed to the 'Egerton Master' |
| Decoration |
2-page miniature of a map of Scotland in colours and gold (ff. 226v-227). Full-page miniature of seated kings in colours and gold (f. 196). Large initial in gold with blue and red leaf forms extending to form a 2-sided border with gold balls and green leaves (f. 5). Large initials in gold on blue and red grounds with foliate sprays with gold balls. Large and small initials in red. Elaborate cadels in brown and sometimes red ink in the first lines of text and descenders in the last. Catchwords decorated in brown or red ink. |
| Dimensions in mm |
440 x 300 (320 x 140) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 230 ( + unfoliated paper flyleaves) |
| Collation |
i six? (ff. 2-7), ii-xxviii8 (ff. 8-223), xxix seven (ff. 224-230) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
Added dedication and poem of c. 1457, perhaps compiled for presentation to Henry VI in 1457 (see Edwards 1987; Kingsford 1912 pp. 465-69; Meale).
Dedication to Edward IV added after 1461 (f. 2v).
Inscription 'Suis Guilick ? Bahyer 1500' (ff. 4, 5).
William Bowyer, owned by him in 1566; used by John Stow (see Title 1997).
? Sir Robert Bruce Cotton, (b. 1571, d. 1631), 1st baronet, antiquary and politician: see Kingsford p. 482; his inscription: 'A Chronicel of Britane gathered out of divers auters the auter unknown'; his librarian from c. 1625-1638, Richard James's contents page (see Tite 1997).
The Gerard family, Earls of Macclesfield: their arms (f. 1v).
William Petty (formerly Fitzmaurice) (b. 1737, d. 1805), 2nd earl of Shelburne and 1st marquess of Lansdowne, prime minister; purchased by the British Museum together with 1244 other Lansdowne manuscripts in 1807. |
| Notes |
This is the unique copy of the first version of the Chronicle; see Edwards 1987; Gransden 1982 p. 274 n. 174 (there are 16 copies of the second version (see Hiatt 2004 p. 130 n. 4).
Various inscriptions (f. 2)
Scott 1996 speculates that the manuscript was made in Eastern England, Norfolk ?, or Lincolnshire. |
| Select bibliography |
[Henry Ellis and Francis Douce], A Catalogue of the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1819), no. 204.
Catalogue of the Manuscript Maps, Charts, and Plans, and of the Topographical Drawings in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1844-1861, repr. Brussels: Gregg Associates, 1962), II (1844), p. 331.
Charles L. Kingsford, 'The first version of Hardyng's Chronicle', English Historical Review, 27 (1912), 462-82; 740-53, esp. p. 469.
D. G. Moir, The Early Maps of Scotland to 1850 (Edinburgh: Royal Geographic Society, 1973), facing p. 5.
Antonia Gransden, Historical Writing in England, 2 vols (London: Routledge & Kegan, 1974; Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1982), II, c. 1307 to the Early Sixteenth Century, p. 274 n. 174, 278 n. 213, 286 n. 278.
A. S. G. Edwards, 'The Manuscripts and Texts of the Second Version of John Hardyng's Chronicle', in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by David Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987), pp. 75-84 (pp. 75, 83).
Carol Meale, 'Patrons, buyers and owners: book production and social status', in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475, ed by Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 201-238 (p. 223 n. 14).
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, 206, 218-19, fig. 1.
Colin G. C. Tite, ''Lost or Stolen or Strayed': A Survey of Manuscripts formerly in the Cotton Library', in Sir Robert Cotton As Collector, ed. by C. J. Wright (London: British Library, 1997), 262-306 (p. 281).
Andrew Prescott, Michelle Brown and Richard Masters, 'The Survey of Illuminated Manuscripts', in Towards the Digital Library: The Initiatives for Access Programme, ed. by Leona Carpenter, Simon Shaw and Andrew Prescott (London: British Library, 1998), pp. 130-147 (p. 133).
Lister M. Matheson, The Prose Brut: The Development of a Middle English Chronicle, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 180 (Tempe, Arizona: Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies, 1998), p. 21.
Alfred Hiatt, The Making of Medieval Forgeries: False Documents in Fifteenth-Century England (London: British Library, 2004), pp. 104, 113, 116, 119, pls 4,5.
John Hardyng Chronicle Edited from British Library MS Landsdowne 204 ed. by James Simpson and Sarah Peverley, 2 volumes: vol I (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University, 2015), vol II (forthcoming). |
| Last revised: Tuesday, December 5, 2006 |
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f. 168v
Text page |
f. 196
Royal genealogy |
f. 196
Royal genealogy |
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ff. 226v-227
Map of Scotland |
f. 226v
Detail |
f. 227
Detail |
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