You are in Introduction. Click here to skip the navigation.
British Library
Digital Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
 Detail from the Roman de la Rose
About Simple search Manuscript search Advanced search  Virtual exhibitions Glossaries Contact us  Main
print Print this page
home Home
site search Search British Library website
back Back

search tips  Search tips
 
 

 

 
 

Detailed record for Stowe 594

Title Pictorial book of arms of the Order of the Garter ('William Bruges's Garter Book')
Origin England, S. E. (probably London)
Date c. 1430- c. 1440 (before 1450)
Language Latin
Script Gothic and Gothic cursive inscriptions
Decoration 27 full page miniatures in pen and watercolours, 26 with a standing knight holding a panel with heraldic shields of successors in their Garter stalls at St George's Chapel, Windsor, and 1 of George and the dragon and a kneeling Garter King (the principal officer of the Order).
Dimensions in mm 385 x 285
Official foliation ff. 20 ( + numerous unfoliated paper leaves)
Form Paper codex (miniatures mounted on modern paper)
Binding Post-1600. Brown diced leather with gold tooling, including flowers.
Provenance Made for William Bruges, (b. c.1375, d. c. 1450), herald: inscriptions (ff. 6, 7); see also Ailes 2004) with reference to and image of this manuscript.
John Writhe (d. 1504), herald (see Gothic 2003).
? Sir Thomas Wriothesley [formerly Writhe] (d. 1534), herald (see Gothic 2003).
Elias Ashmole (b. 1617, d. 1692), astrologer and antiquary, in 1665 (see Gothic 2003; O'Conor 1819).
John Anstis (b. 1669, d. 1744), herald and antiquary (see Gothic 2003).
William Bayntun, F.S A. (d. 1785): inscription (f. 1): bought by Meyrick for 10 guineas.
John Meyrick (d. 1805): his sale, 7 February, lot 958, bought by Towneley for £23.2: inscription (f. 1).
John Towneley (d. 1816): his bookplate (inside upper cover): bought by the Duke of Buckingham for £25 17s 6d at Towneley's sale in May 1816 according to the inscription cited below (f. 1).
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1776, d. 1839), 1st duke of Buckingham and Chandos, of Stowe House, near Buckingham: inscribed with the press-mark 'Press IX No. 38' (inside upper cover) corresponding to his catalogue; see O’Conor 1819; inscribed 'This book was bought at Mr. Townley's sale for £28: 17.6 Chandos Buckingham' (f. 1).
Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (b. 1797, d. 1861), 2nd duke of Buckingham and Chandos: sold in 1849 to Lord Ashburnham.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1797, d. 1878), 4th earl of Ashburnham, of Ashburnham Place, Sussex.
Bertram Ashburnham (b. 1840, d. 1913), 5th earl of Ashburnham: purchased by the British Museum from him together with 1084 other Stowe manuscripts in 1883.
Notes This is the first armorial for the Order of the Garter. The leaves were rearranged and are now mounted on paper leaves.
ff. 1-3v are later notes; f. 4 is a page from a printed book.
Watermark of a barbed anchor with a small cross (ff. 5 (portion) 20), is similar to C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes: Dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600, A Facsimile of the 1907 edition with supplementary material, ed. by Allan Stevenson, 4 vols (Amsterdam: The Paper Publications Society, 1968), no. 389 (Estopey 1418; Troyes 1426).
Select bibliography Charles O'Conor, Bibliotheca Ms. Stowensis: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Stowe Library, 2 vols (Buckingham: Seeley, 1818-1819), II, 552-53.

Catalogue of the Stowe Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1895-1896), I, no. 594.

British Heraldry from its Origins to c. 1800, ed. by Richard Marks and Anne Payne (London: British Museum, 1978), [exhibition catalogue] no. 237.

Ann Payne, 'The Salisbury Roll of Arms, c. 1463', in England in the Fifteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1986 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by Daniel Williams (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 1987), pp. 187-98 (pp. 190-91, pl. 5).

Two East Anglian Pictur Books : A Facsimile of the Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary and Bodleian Ms. Ashmole 1504, ed. by Nicholas Barker (London: The Roxburghe Club, 1988), p. 16 n. 2..

Kathleen L. Scott, ‘Design, Decoration and Illustration’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 31-64 (p. 56 n. 22).

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, no. 84 [with additional bibliography].

Ruth J. Dean and Maureen B. M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society, Occasional Publications Series, 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), no. 391.1.

Gothic: Art for England 1400-1547, ed. by Richard Marks and Paul Williamson (London: V & A Publications, 2003), no. 80 [exhibition catalogue, with additional bibliography].

Adrian Ailes, ‘Bruges, William (c.1375–1450)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/50120, accessed 9 March 2006].

Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 128 [exhibition catalogue].


Images
* * *
 
Knights of the Garter

f. 1v
Knights of the Garter
Added notes

f. 2
Added notes
Added notes

f. 3
Added notes
 
Print

f. 4
Print
Printed page

f. 4v
Printed page
Garter King

ff. 5v-6
Garter King
 
William Bruges

f. 5v
William Bruges
Edward III and Duke of Lancaster

ff. 7v-8
Edward III and Duke of Lancaster
Edward III

f. 7v
Edward III
 
Henry, Duke of Lancaster

f. 8
Henry, Duke of Lancaster
Cappedan de la Bouche

ff. 8v-9
Cappedan de la Bouche
de Lisle and Beauchamp

ff. 9v-10
de Lisle and Beauchamp
 
Courtney and Grey

ff. 10v-11
Courtney and Grey
Stapleton and Wrottesley

ff. 11v-12
Stapleton and Wrottesley
Chandos and Holland

ff. 12v-13
Chandos and Holland
 
Sanset Dabrichecourt and Prince Edward

ff. 13v-14
Sanset Dabrichecourt and Prince Edward
Earl of Warwick and Lord Stafford

ff. 14v-15
Earl of Warwick and Lord Stafford
Earl of March and Burghersh

ff. 15v-16
Earl of March and Burghersh
 
Lord Mohun and Holland

ff. 16v-17
Lord Mohun and Holland
FitzSimon and Walle

ff. 17v-18
FitzSimon and Walle
Lorying and Dandele

ff. 18v-19
Lorying and Dandele
 
Eam and Paveley

ff. 19v-20
Eam and Paveley

print Print this page
home Home
site search Search British Library website
back Back
top Back

About Simple search Manuscript search Advanced search
Virtual exhibitions Glossaries Accessibility Contact us Main

All text is © British Library Board and is available under a CC-BY Licence except where otherwise stated