The British Library: Royal MSS

A 10th-century MS of the Four Gospels in Latin, on vellum throughout, 199 folio-size leaves.

A folio composite volume of state papers, in various hands, 268 leaves, in half red morocco.

Autograph, on 118 vellum leaves (c.140 x 90 mm.), in crimson velvet, heavily embroidered with silk, gold and silver thread, with the initial H.

A New Year's Gift presented to Henry VIII, with a title-page (f. 1r-v), and a dedicatory prose epistle to the King in Latin (ff. 2r-5r).

30 December 1545.

The Latin dedicatory epistle edited in Autograph Compositions, pp. 8-9. The whole work edited from this MS in Translations, with a facsimile of ff. 39r and 79r on pp. 128 and 180.

An English translation of this epistle and a facsimile of f. 2r in Collected Works, pp. 8-10. Facsimiles of ff. 5r and 79r in British Museum Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King's Collection, Vol. IV, ed. Sir George Warner and Julius P. Galson (London, 1921), Plate 53. Facsimile examples of the dedicatory epistle and binding in Margaret H. Swain, A New Year's Gift from the Princess Elizabeth, The Connoisseur, 183 (1973, 258-66 (p. 261) and in Felix Pryor, Elizabeth I: Her Life in Letters (British Library, London, 2003), No. 2, p. 18.

A 13th-century volume of Latin theological treatises, on vellum throughout, 228 quarto-size leaves.

Series of extracts in Latin, headed Sententiæ atque preclara facta Alexandri Seueri, with a dedication subscribed Filia tua...Maria Arundell, the Responsum Alexandri &c written and signed by Filius tuus...Iohanies Radcliffus, on 26 octavo pages, bound with three other manuscripts, all Latin translations written as New Year's gifts to her father by Lady Mary Fitzalan, daughter of Henry Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel, the present manuscript partly by Arundel's stepson by marriage, John Radcliffe, son of Robert Radcliffe, first Earl of Sussex.

c.1553-6.

Later in the library of John, first Baron Lumley (c.1533-1609), collector.

A formal presentation volume of poems, entitled Genethliaca Ducis Eboracensis, composed by boys of Westminster School to celebrate the birth of James, Duke of York, in a single calligraphic hand, on eleven quarto leaves.

1633.

A quarto volume of Latin and English poems by Alabaster celebrating the marriage of Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, and Frances Howard, on 26 December 1613, in a single cursive italic hand, on 12 quarto leaves.

Possibly the presentation copy to James I, with a title-page on f. 1r, Epithalamivm in nvptias honoratissimi Comitis Somersetensis et nobillissimæ virginis Franciscæ Howarde / Deuotissimi amoris et / obseruantiæ Ergo Gulielmus Alabaster dicauit.

1613.

The title-page bears the name IOHANNES MAURITIVS: i.e. John Morris (d.1658), antiquary and book collector.

Autograph fair copy of a Latin New Year's address presented to Queen Elizabeth on 1 January 1566/7, on seventeen quarto leaves.

Copy.

1567.

A formal presentation volume of Latin and English verses composed by 27 boys of Westminster School to compliment Charles I upon his return from Scotland, on 12 quarto leaves.

1633.

A formally written manuscript of a political tract, advocating an offensive alliance against the Turks, dedicated and evidently presented to Henry VIII, 48 folio leaves, in contemporary olive morocco with royal arms (rebacked).

Signature of George Gascoyne on f. 48r.

Early 16th century.

Other ownership inscriptions by Arthur Bourchier, Jasperus Sherniganus, and John Hobart.

A volume of Latin complimentary verses by 98 members of the University of Oxford, entitled Charites Oxonienses siue Laetitia Musarum, presented to King Christian IV of Denmark by the University in 1606.

1606.

A folio volume comprising two speeches in Latin at Queen Elizabeth's visit to Cambridge in August 1564, in a neat italic hand, six folio leaves, in half red leather on marbled boards.

c.1564.

Fuller Hist Camb p. 138. see Sloane 401, f. 38. Nichols Progresses 1788 I p. 212 5th pagination.

A quarto commonplace book, with entries largely under headings, in Latin and English, 163 leaves (including many blanks), in half-morocco.

Inscribed (f. 1r) Johnes Mauritius Ano...1604: i.e. John Morris (d.1658), antiquary and book collector, probable compiler.

1604-5.

Autograph translation into Italian of the 1603 edition of King James's treatise, without the preface, on 68 quarto leaves, bound with an independent Italian tract (Royal MS 14 A. IV).

Possibly a MS presented to James I.

c.1603.

This MS recorded in Yates, pp. 248, 345.

MS of a translation into Italian by Sebastiano Roccataglia of Genoa, with a dedication to Thomas Copley (1532-84), 106 quarto leaves, dated from London, 23 June 1559.

1559.

A formal copy of the seven Penitential Psalms and their prologues, on vellum throughout, 37 quart-size leaves.

Mid-16th century.

Inscrined name (f. 1v) of Marie Brograue.

This MS collated in Muir & Thomson (with a facsimile of two pages facing p. 116), and in Harrier.

Copy, in the accomplished italic hand of the Queen's amanuensis Thomas Windebank, untitled, on twelve quarto leaves, bound with two unrelated MSS (Royal MSS 17 A. XLII-III).

This is the copy made for the Queen by Windebank referred to in his subscription to ElQ 57.

[11 November 1598].

Edited from this MS in Selected Works.

A quarto volume of works by Francis Bacon, in a professional secretary hand, with occasional use of italic, 103 leaves, in modern half brown morocco.

Possibly a manuscript presented by Bacon to James I.

c.1608.

Copy in the hand of an amanuensis, with occasional autograph corrections and insertions in Donne's hand, on 36 quarto leaves.

Evidently the MS made (at the King's command) for presentation to James I

[1622].

Complete facsimile and transcription in Shami edition. A preliminary discussion of the MS, with facsimile examples, is in Jeanne Shami, Donne's 1622 Sermon on the Gunpowder plot: His Original Presentation Manuscript Discovered, EMS, 5 (1995), 63-85. The discovery first announced, with a facsimile example, in The Guardian, 26 May 1994, p. 6.

Autograph fair copy, on 88 quarto leaves, appended (ff. 314r-407r) to a printed exemplum of Francis Godwin, Bishop of Hereford, A Catalogue of Bishops of England (London, 1601).

Presented to Prince Henry, the remains of the original leather binding bearing his arms. The printed volume (ff. 1r-279r) contains Harington's extensive autograph marginal annotations, with an index (ff. 230r-301v) in the hand of an manuensis and A table Alphabeticall annexed to the Booke of the Catalogue of Bishops (ff. 302r-13r) also in Harington's hand.

18 February 1607/8.

Edited probably from this MS in Nugae Antiquae (London, 1804), II, 1-278. Edited from this MS in Miller's edition. Also discussed in R.H. Miller, Sir John Harington's A Supplie or Addicion to the Catalogue of Bishops, to the Yeare 1608: Composition and Text, SB, 30 (1977), 145-61. Facsimile example in R.H. Miller, Sir John Harington's Manuscripts in Italic, SB, 40 (1987), 101-6 (p. 105).

Copy, in a single secretary hand, untitled, 151 quarto leaves, in modern half brown morocco.

Early 17th century.

A MS of two works (in part) by Ben Jonson, 8 quarto leaves (plus blanks).

1604-5.

A quarto volume of papers relating to Robert, Earl of Essex, in two secretary hands, 30 leaves.

Early 17th century.

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with a title-page, as By his Ma^ties Attorney Generall of Ireland, 91 quarto leaves, bound with another tract (Royal MS 17 C XXXI), in modern half-morocco.

Possibly a MS presented by Davies to the dedicatee, King James I.

c.1612.

A 19th-century transcript of this MS is in the British Library, Add. MS 33496.

Copy, in a professional secretary and italic hand (the same as in BrN 99), with Breton's autograph dedication to the Duke of Lennox, on ten quarto leaves.

[1605-13].

Edited from this MS in Grosart, I (r). Discussed in Robertson, pp. cxii-cxiv (where it is mistakenly described as entirely autograph). Facsimiles of the dedication in Grosart and in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XXXV (c).

A folio volume of works by Sir Thomas More, in a professional secretary hand, with some corrections or emendations possibly in another hand, probably produced by members of the More circle, i + 455 leaves, in modern half red morocco gilt.

c.1550-7.

Later in the library of John Theyer (1598-1673), antiquary.

Autograph calligraphic MS, on rectos only, iv + 63 leaves (276 x 180 mm.), in crimson satin embroidered.

A presentation MS to Prince Charles, with prose Dedication to him in English, in Roman and italic scripts, with a series of 54 emblems (dated 1622-3), a portrait of de Montenay, and a self-portrait, as well as some decoration.

1624.

Scott-Elliot & Yeo, No. 54 (pp. 80-3), with a facsimile of the portrait page (f. 7r) as Plate 30 (between pp. 42 and 43). Facsimile of the binding in Cyril Davenport, English Embroidered Bookbindings (London, 1899), plate 37.

Copy, in the hand of an amanuensis, with Massinger's autograph signature.

January 1634/5.

Edited from this MS in Coxeter and in Edwards & Gibson.

Copy, partly autograph, on five quarto leaves, presented to King James I on or shortly after 31 July 1606. 1606.

Edited from this MS in Bullen (1887). Discussed in R. E. Brettle, Notes on John Marston, RES, NS 13 (1962), 390-3 (p. 391). Facsimile examples in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XVIII(b-c); in DLB, vol. 58, Jacobean and Caroline Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 163; and in James Knowles, Marston, Skipwith and The Entertainment at Ashby, EMS, 3 (1992), 137-92 (pp. 160-1).

A quarto MS in the italic hand of an amanuensis, with autograph sidenotes and revisions by Howard, signed by him HNorthampton, and dated March 2, headed To the Kings most excellent and Sacred Ma^tie:, fourteen leaves, bound with three other Royal MSS in modern half-morocco.

Probably the MS presented to James I.

c.1609.

Autograph fair copy, on twenty folio leaves, presented to Prince Henry.

1609.

Edited from this MS in Herford & Simpson. The complete MS reproduced in facsimile, with Inigo Jones's designs, in London, 1930, ed. Guy Chapman.

Facsimile pages also in Facsimiles of Royal, Historical and Literary Autographs in the British Museum (1899), plate 94; in Shakespeare's England (Oxford, 1917), I, facing p. 292; in British Museum Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King's Collections, Vol. IV, ed. Sir George Warner and Julius P. Galson (London, 1921), Plate 103; in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XXIV (b-c); in Herford & Simpson, VII, facing p. 290; in Petti, English Literary Hands, No. 46; in Hilton Kelliher and Sally Brown, English Literary Manuscripts (British Library, 1986), p. 27; in DLB, vol. 62, Elizabethan Dramatists, ed. Fredson Bowers (Detroit, 1987), p. 151; in Mark Bland, Jonson, Biathanatos and the Interpretation of Manuscript Evidence, SB, 51 (1998), 154-82 (p. 161); and in Chris Fletcher et al., 1000 Years of English Literature: A Treasury of Literary Manuscripts (British Library, 2003), p. 61.

See also James K. Bracken, Ben Jonson's y Spellings in the Masque of Queens Holograph, AEB, NS. 1 (1987), 17-19 and his The Preference for y Spellings in Ben Jonson's Autographs, AEB, NS. 1 (1987), 237-246.

MS of six poems by Gorges to the Stuart Royal Family, on 5 small folio leaves of vellum (ff. 2-4) and paper (ff. 1, 5), in modern calf.

The author's presentation MS to James I as a New Year's Gift, in the calligraphic italic script of an amanuensis, with decoration, the verses on ff. 2, 3, 4 written in gold, with arms and emblems in gold and colours, f. 1r signed by Gorges himself.

1 January 1609/10.

A formal copy, in a professional italic and secretary hand, the English text (probably by Garrett) accompanied by Gascoigne's translations into Latin, Italian, and French, prepared as a New Year's Gift for Queen Elizabeth, 1 January 1575/6, with a dedicatory letter signed by Gascoigne (f. 6v) and pen and ink drawings of Gascoigne presenting his book to the Queen, and other emblems, 37 quarto leaves, in 18th-century red morocco gilt.

1575-6.

Edited from this MS, with the drawings, in Cunliffe, II, 473-510. Facsimile of the dedicatory epistle in Greg, English Literary Autographs, Plate XXXVII(d). Discussed, with facsimiles of ff. 1r, 6v, 21r, and 22r, in Gabriel Heaton, The Queen and the Hermit: The Tale of Hemetes (1575), in Elizabeth I and the Culture of Writing, ed. Peter Beal and Grace Ioppolo (British Library, 2007), pp. 87-114, and, with a facsimile of f. 1r, in Gabriel Heaton, Writing and Reading Royal Entertainments (Oxford 2010). Four facsimile pages in Cunliffe, II, 472, 485, 494, and 502. Four facsimile pages in Gillian Austen, George Gascoigne (Cambridge, 2008), Figures 5-8, after p. 83.

A formal copy of a work comprising seven poems, or graces, in a professional secretary and roman hand (the same as in BrN 39), 39 quarto leaves, in modern brown calf gilt.

With a formal title-page, the heading A Poeme vpon the praise of Vertue, and dedication To his Sacred Maiestie (James I), the work subscribed by the scribe (f. 39v) Gloria in excelsis Deo: / Nicholas Breton / Flos Calami, Flatus Dei; / J: C., this being probably a presentation copy to the King.

c.1603-5.

This MS collated in Grosart (and mistakenly described as autograph in Grosart and in Robertson, p. cx).

Copy, written as a New Year's gift for Queen Elizabeth, complete with dedication, preface, &c., the references to her in gilt, 1 + 38 quarto leaves, with remains of early vellum binding, part of a 14th-century Latin lectionary.

Presented to the Queen on 1 January 1576/7.

1576-77.

Edited from this MS in Hazlitt. Facsimile of the dedication (f. 3) in Alfred Fairbank and Bruce Dickins, The Italic Hand in Tudor Cambridge, Cambridge Bibliographical Society Monograph No. 5 (London, 1962), Plate 20.

Autograph fair copy of Leland's Latin verses, together with Nicholas Udall's autograph English and Latin verses (UdN 1), on sixteen quarto leaves.

This is presumably the copy presented to the Queen herself.

1533.

Edited from this MS in Nichols and in F.J. Furnivall, Leland's and Udall's Verses before the Coronation of Anne Boleyn, Ballads from Manuscripts, Ballad Society (London, 1870), I, 364-401. Facsimile of one page (Leland's hand in the lower half) in Alfred Fairbank and Berthold Wolpe, Renaissance Handwriting: An Anthology of Italic Scripts (London, 1960), Plate 23. J.P. Collier's transcript of the MS (c.1850) is in the Folger, MS N. b. 48.

Autograph fair copy of Udall's English and Latin verses, together with John Leland's autograph Latin verses (LeJ 8), on sixteen quarto leaves.

This is presumably the copy presented to the Queen herself.

1533.

Edited from this MS in Nichols and in F.J. Furnivall, Leland's and Udall's Verses before the Coronation of Anne Boleyn, Ballads from Manuscripts, Ballad Society (London, 1870), I, 364-401. Facsimile of one page (Udall's hand in the upper half) in Alfred Fairbank and Berthold Wolpe, Renaissance Handwriting: An Anthology of Italic Scripts (London, 1960), Plate 23. Facsimile of f. 11v in IELM, I.ii (1980), Facsimile XXXII (p. 550). J.P. Collier's transcript of the MS (c.1850) is in the Folger, MS N. b. 48.

A fair copy, in a calligraphic hand, on 12 small folio leaves, rectos only.

Originally prepared for presentation to James I, who died on 27 March before the entertainment was performed, and afterwards presented to Charles I (but never performed).

[December 1624-March 1625].

Autograph fair copy of a 58-stanza version, with a formal title-page A Panegyrick congratulatorie To the Kinges most sacred maiestie / by Samuel Danyel, on nine folio leaves (plus blanks), in modern quarter brown morocco.

Presented to King James at Burley-on-the-Hill, Rutland, on or shortly after 23 April 1603. 1603.

This MS recorded in Grosart. Facsimile of part of f. 3v in Greg, English Literary Autographs, plate XXI(c). Facsimile of f. 2r in IELM, I.ii, Facsimile IX (p. 200). Facsimile example in Pitcher, Brotherton MS, p. 180.

A folio composite volume of Scottish state papers and tracts, chiefly relating to Mary Queen of Scots, in various hands, 301 leaves, in modern half-morocco.

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with some deletions and alterations, headed (f. 3r) An answer to the articles of the comoners of Devonshere and Cornewall declaring to the same howe they haue ben sedused by Evell psons..., inscribed (f. 1r) in another hand An aunswer by Udall to y^e comons of devonshire & Cornewall, on 40 folio leaves, in (remains of) a recycled 13th-century biblical text on vellum, bound with two other tracts (Royal MSS 18 B. XII-XIII) in modern half morocco.

c.1549.

Later in the library of John, first Baron Lumley (c.1533-1609), collector.

Edited from this MS in the Camden Society edition (1884).

A folio composite volume of four treatises, in different hands, 162 leaves, in brown calf gilt.

Later in the library of John, first Baron Lumley (c.1533-1609), collector.

Copy of the tragic version, in a professional hand, including three prologues, on 26 folio leaves.

Possibly a copy presented to the King for the performance at Court about Christmas-time 1637.

c.1637-8.

This MS collated in Beaurline and described pp. 256-8. Also described in W.W. Greg, Dramatic Documents from the Elizabethan Playhouses, 2 vols (Oxford, 1931), I, 332-3.

A folio composite volume of 15th- and 16th-century works by John Lydgate and others, on vellum throughout, i + 212 leaves.

Once owned by Henry Fitzalan (1511?-80), twelfth Earl of Arundel, nephew of Henry Algernon Percy (d.1527), fifth Earl of Northumberland. Later in the library of Fitzalan's son-in-law John, first Baron Lumley (c.1533-1609), collector.

Discussed, with three pages of facsimiles, in Pat Naylor, Scribes and Secretaries of the Percy Earls of Northumberland, with Special Reference to William Peeris and Royal MS 18 D. II, EMS, 15 (2009), 166-84.

A quarto volume of nine 15th-century sermons, 77 pages.

Lists of MSS in 35 Lincolnshire religious houses probably compiled by Leland, in a professional hand, headed Tabula librorum de Historiis antiquitatum ac diuinitate tractancium in librariis et domibus religiosis, on nine folio leaves.

Prepared for Henry VIII who has annotated the MS in his own hand.

c.1536-8.

Edited from this MS in J.R. Liddell, Leland's Lists of Manuscripts in Lincolnshire Monasteries, EHR, 213 (1939), 88-95; discussed, with a facsimile page, in Francis Wormald and C.E. Wright, The English Library before 1700 (London, 1958), pp. 161-2 and plate 12.