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Detailed record for Harley C 9
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| Author |
Peter of Poitiers |
| Title |
Chronicle |
| Origin |
England |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
One miniature of the Fall of Man in colours and gold. 3 diagrammatic images 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). Roundels in colours and gold, surmounted by golden crowns for the Kings of England from Brutus to Edward IV (membranes 14-19). One initial with foliate and spray decoration extending into the margins, in colours and gold (membrane 1). One 'champ' initial in colours and gold (membrane 1). Initials in blue or gold with penwork decoration in red or purple. Rubrics in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
8585 x 370 |
| Official foliation |
19 membranes |
| Form |
Parchment roll |
| Binding |
n/a. Formerly bound in codex format, with gilt edges. |
| 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 Kingsford 1913; Scott 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. |
| Notes |
The roll is more than 8.5m long and 35cm wide; it is composed of 15 large pieces and 4 narrow strips of parchment attached end-to-end and all called 'membranae'. |
| Select bibliography |
Charles L. Kingsford, English Historical Literature in the Fifteenth Century (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1913; repr. New York: Franklin, 1972), p. 164 n. 5.
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). |
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Membrane 1
Fall of Man |
Membrane 2
Genealogy and diagrams |
Membrane 15
Seven kingdoms of England |
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Membrane 19
Genealogy of Edward IV |
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