Sales catalogue 503: Maggs Bros

Date:
1928
Reference:
WA/HMM/CM/Sal/13/61
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sales catalogue 503: Maggs Bros. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    153/516 (page 131)
    360 361 large and curious additions, some of which I do not find anywhere else, for instance, the conversation between Henry the fourth and the monk relative to the rumour of Richard being alive—the notice of Abp. Arundel’s sermon at the castle of Flint —the abjuration, etc., of Reginald Pocock of heresy—the Yorkist ballad set upon the gates of Canter bury, etc., etc. Several minor details not in the Brut are pro- bably to be found in Walsingham, Knyghten or others, but as ae are here told in English they may be considered as forming an original teat. : ‘‘In the margins of the MS., particularly towards the close, are several notes in the handwriting of Stowe, who certainly made use of this MS. (but without specifying it) in his annals, ‘and after him . . . it was used by Speed, into whose hands it had fallen. . Jam decidedly of the opinion that the latter part of the MS., from Richard Il, would make an interesting Camden volume.—F’, Mappgn.”’ The Manuscr ipt is in an excellent state of preservation, except as regards the very end of Edward IIIs reign and the beginning of Richard I: eight leaves of this part are badly mutilated and one or two leaves | appear to be completely missing. We estimate that the Manuscript was originally composed of 227 leaves (not count- ing the five blank leaves at the end); of these, 214 leaves remain intact. It seems that the Manuscript is the work of two scribes : a distinct change in the handwrit- ing takes place at the foot of folio 189. The ‘marginal guide-notes, which are in the same handwriting as the body of the Manuscript, are, up to folio 186, in Latin, and beyond, in English. The vellum fly-leaf at the beginning 18 apparently from a Manuscript Latin Grammar of the XIVth century. John Stow, the sixteenth-century historian, was at one time in possession of this Manuscript, as there are several notes in his handwriting, particularly towards the close; he certainly made use of it in his ‘‘ Annals of England, but without specifying it. The Manuscript was afterwards used by John Speed, author of ‘ The History of Great Britaine,’’ 1611, into whose hands it had passed. On a strip of paper pasted inside the front cover are seven pen-drawn Arms of early British kings, with an inscription in the handwriting of Speed: ‘‘ Abstracted out of Speede’ s Table of Genealogies.”’ CIBBER (Colley). Dramatic Works. Engraved portrait of Cibber by Miller. 4 vols. Small 8vo. Original calf. London, Printed for J: Clarke; eic., “1760. 203s Tue Lapy’s Lecrure, A Theatrical Dialogue, between Sir Charles Easy and his Matriageable Daughter. Being an Attempt to engage Obedience by Filial Liberty. Firsr Eprrien. 8vo. New boards. London, Printed by W. Lewis, 1748. 18s ]