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Detailed record for Royal 14 C IX
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| Author |
Ranulf Higden |
| Title |
Polychronicon |
| Origin |
England, E. (Ramsey?) |
| Date |
Last quarter of the 14th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
1 historiated initial of a king in gold and colours with a full bar border (f. 9). 2 maps in colours (ff. 1v-2, 2v). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Paraphs in red and blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
360 x 245 (260 x 180) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 134 (1 unfoliated parchment leaf and 2 unfoliated modern paper leaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. |
| Provenance |
Partially erased colophon added in different hand: 'Hic finitur ceserensis opus domini(?) quod policronicon dicuntur [2 lines erased] (f. 134).
John Wardeboys, abbot of the Benedictine Abbey, Ramsey (1473 -1489): his ownership inscription, 'Liber Io. Wardeboys bachilaurei theologic et abbatis' (f. 1); and a copy of his epitaph (printed by Casley), 15th century (f. 8v).
The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Westminster inventory number 'no. 1277' (f.), included in the Upper Library at Westminster after 1542; included in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 7v or 8.
Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
Ranulph Higden (b. c. 1299, d. 1364), was a monk of the Benedictine abbey of St. Werburg, Chester. His 'Polychronicon' is a universal history, based on earlier writers, but extended to his own time.
The present manuscript ends in 1342 and contains a continuation probably composed in St Albans (see Taylor 1961).
Its oval mappa mundi is thought to be the closest to Higden's original (see History of Cartography, 1987). |
| Select bibliography |
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.
Youssouff Kamal, Monumenta Cartographica Africae et Egyptae (Cairo, (1926-1951), vol. 4.2., 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. Ramsey
Marcel Destombes, Mappemondes A.D .1200-1500: Catalogue prepare par la Commission des Cartes Anciennes de l'Union Giographique 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 Daviod Woodward, figs 18.25, 18.67.
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), pp. 13-33 (pp. 17, 30, figs 2-3).
P. D. A. Harvey, Mappa Mundi: The Hereford World Map (London: British Library, 1996), pl. on p. 21.
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.
Kathleen L. Scott, Tradition and Innovation in Later Medieval English Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 166, n. 266.
St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, ed. by B. C. Barker-Benfield, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 13, 3 vols (London: British Library, 2008), p. lxiv.
Mapping our World: Terra Incognita to Australia (Canberra: National Library of Australia, 2013), pp. 32-33 [exhibition catalogue]. |
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ff. 1v-2
Map of the world |
ff. 1v- 2
Map of the World |
ff. 1v-2
Map of the world |
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f. 2v
Map of the Mediterranean |
f. 9
King |
f. 9
King |
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