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Detailed record for Harley 3763
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| Part 1 |
ff. 58-94 |
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| Title |
Cartulary and Register of Evesham |
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| Origin |
England, S. (Evesham) |
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| Date |
Last quarter of the 12th and first half of the 13th century |
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| Language |
Latin |
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| Script |
Gothic, written above top line |
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| Decoration |
Initials and paraphs in red. Rubrics in red or green. Initials highlighted in red. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
260 x 190 (185 x 115) |
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| Part 2 |
ff. 95-198v |
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| Title |
A compilation of papal and royal charters (ff. 95-149v), followed by papers and memoranda relating to churches and pensions (ff. 150-198v) |
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| Origin |
England |
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| Date |
Last quarter of the 14th century |
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| Language |
Latin |
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| Script |
Gothic |
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| Decoration |
2 historiated initials in ink and red, historiated with the bust of a bishop and a face (ff. 95, 169). 14 initials with penwork and foliate decoration in ink and red (ff. 127, 128, 130v, 133v, 134, 150, 175, 176v, 180, 181, 183, 193), one decorated with bird (f. 141). Initials with penwork decoration in ink, one decorated with cadel with face (f. 96), another with fish (f. 121v. Initial in red with pen-flourished decoration in red and ink (f. 115v). Rubrics in red. Initials highlighted in red. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
260 x 190 (200 x 125) |
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| Official foliation |
ff. 201 with medieval foliation ‘i–ccxiiii’ from f. 3 (+ 6 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and the end, and original blank leaves after ff. 179, 182, included in the medieval foliation). |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1989. |
| Provenance |
The Benedictine abbey of St Mary and St Ecgwine at Evesham, Worcestershire (see Davis 1958; Wright 1972).
Henry Fleetwood of Penwortham (b. 1667, d. 1746), M.P. for Preston: presented by him to Edward Harley on 20 June 1721 on the terms that he could borrow it back whenever it could prove useful in a public trial, as recorded by Harley's librarian, Humfrey Wanley (see ff. 1 and 2; see Wright 1962; Wright and Wright 1966; Wright 1972).
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 Humfrey Wanley '21 die Junij, A.D. 1721' (f. 3).
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 volume is a composite miscellany including:
- Proceedings relating to the church of Ombersley (Worcerstershire) in 1284 (ff. 3-44);
- 14th-century letters and papers relating to churches, pensions and other matters, mainly contemporary to Abbot William de Chiriton (1316–44) (ff. 45-57);
- 17th-century table of contents (f. 200) and accounts (ff. 199v, 201). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3763.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 81
Godfrey R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain: A Short Catalogue (London: Longmans Green, 1958), p. 44, no. 382.
Cyril E. Wright, 'Portrait of a Bibliophile VIII: Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford, 1689-1741', The Book Collector, 11 (1962), 158-74 (p. 168; pl. Bb).
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, pp. 94 n. 3, 113 and n. 1, 115 n. 7.
Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 147, 152, 435.
Jane E. Sayers, 'An Evesham manuscript containing the treatise known as "Actor et Reus" (British Library Harley MS 3763), Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, n.s., 6 (1976), 75-81.
Margaret Laing, Catalogue of sources for a linguistic atlas of early medieval English (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 1993), p. 97.
David Roffe, 'The Historia Croylandensis: A Plea for Reassessment', English Historical Review, 110 (1995), 93-108 (p. 10 and n. 4). |
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Part 1
ff. 58-94 |
| Cartulary and Register of Evesham |
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f. 59
Cartulary and Register of Evesham |
f. 65v
Cartulary and Register of Evesham |
f. 66v
Cartulary and Register of Evesham |
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f. 81v
Cartulary and Register of Evesham |
f. 82
Cartulary and Register of Evesham |
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Part 2
ff. 95-198v |
| A compilation of papal and royal charters (ff. 95-149v), followed by papers and memoranda relating to churches and pensions (ff. 150-198v) |
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