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Detailed record for Harley 4205


Part 1	ff. 1-8
	Title		Anonymous verses on the kings of England, to Henry VI, unfinished (manuscript also known as Sir Thomas Holme's Book of Arms)
	Origin		England, S. E. (probably London)
	Date		c. 1445-c. 1450
	Language		English
	Script		Gothic cursive
	Decoration		Numerous coloured drawings of English kings in armour and tabard, presenting a plaque with verses.
	Dimensions in mm		390 x 290 (n. a.)

Part 2	ff. 9-40v
	Title		Military Roll of Arms (manuscript also known as Sir Thomas Holme's Book of Arms)
	Origin		England, S. E. (probably London)
	Date		before 1448, c. 1446
	Language		no text
	Script		Gothic cursive
	Decoration		Numerous coloured drawings of combatant mounted knights in armour and tabard.
	Dimensions in mm		390 x 290 (n/a)

Part 3	ff. 41-112
	Title		Legh's Men of Arms (manuscript also known as Sir Thomas Holme's Book of Arms)
	Origin		England, S. E. (probably London)
	Date		last quarter of the 15th century or 1st quarter of the 16th century
	Language		French (names of the knights)
	Script		Gothic cursive
	Decoration		Numerous coloured drawings of knights in armour and tabard.
	Dimensions in mm		390 x 290 (n/a)

Official foliation		ff. i + 112 (+ 6 paper flyleaves as the beginning + 1 unfoliated unwritten paper leaf after f. 40 + 3 paper flyleaves at the end)
Form		Paper codex
Binding		Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather, green leather inner covers with Harley arms; marbled endpapers and gilt edges.
Provenance		Parts 1-2: Roger Legh, herald, Clarenceux King of Arms, 1435-1460: entered in Thomas Benolt's 1534 inventory as a volume 'made by' Roger Legh (see Scott 1996, Marks and Williamson 2003). Probably William Hawkeslowe, Clarenceux King of Arms, c. 1461-1476 (see Scott 1996). All: Sir Thomas Holme (d. 1493), Clarenceux King of Arms (1476-1494), admission to the Order of the Garter in 1482: his arms within a garter (f. i;). Thomas Benolt (d. 1534), herald and diplomat, Clarenceux King of Arms 1511-1534: features in his 1534 inventory of 'the Visitation of many shires' (see Scott 1996, Marks and Williamson 2003), his inventory mark 'X' (f. i verso). Added coloured drawings of heraldic motifs, 16th century (f. 112v). Christopher Bateman (fl. 1698, d. c. 1730), bookseller and book auctioneer in London: sold to Robert Harley on 27 May 1720 (see 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 their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘27 May 1720’ (f. [v]). Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish 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		This manuscript, together with two other manuscripts (London, British Library, Add. 45133 and London, Guildhall Library, Print Room (s.n.)) is known as 'Sir Thomas Holme's Book' because his arms appear in two of these manuscripts (the present volume (f. i), and Add. 45133). For a discussion on the date of the various parts, see Scott 1996. f. i is a paper leaf which forms integral part of the original manuscript. f. 23 is an inserted parchment leaf. ff. 91v, 103v-104v, 105v, 106v, 107v,108v, 109v, 110v, 111v are blank except for the name of the knight that was intended to be painted on these pages. f. 112v is the same but bears added heraldic motifs. Watermark of a barbed anchor with small cross (throughout the 3 parts of the manuscript), 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: Paper Publications Society, 1968), no. 89 (Estopey, 1418; Troyes, 1426). 'Although the paper is probably from the same moulds as the rest of the book, the figures in part 3 appear to be later and may have been added under the direction of Thomas Holmes to sheets left blank during Legh's tenure as Clarenceux [...]' (Scott 1996).
Select bibliography		A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 4205. 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, p. 48 n. 8. Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 66, 70, 195. 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 (pl. 6). Two East Anglian Picture Books: A Facsimile of the Helmingham Herbal and Bestiary and Bodleian Ms. Ashmole 1504, ed. by Nicholas Barker (London: The Roxburghe Club, 1988), p. 19 n. 2. Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), no. 85 [with additional bibliography]. Gothic: Art for England 1400-1547, ed. by Richard Marks and Paul Williamson (London: V&A Publications, 2003), no. 77 [exhibition catalogue; with additional bibliography].