Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1324-1325 (Creation)
Level of description
File
Extent and medium
ii, 244 ff. (ff. i-ii, 242-244 are modern fly-leaves, ff. 240-241 were apparently part of the older binding; modern pencil foliation 1-239 in the hand of Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy at bottom left corner of rectos; mid-fourteenth century foliation [53]-199, 1000-1094 in blackish ink in arabic numerals, a slightly later mediaeval foliation 1-144 in reddish-brown, both series with errors; ff. 190-239 should have been placed at the beginning of the volume (see Denholm-Young (1950), pp. xvi-xviii, on the misplacement of the quires by the original binder)) ; 290 x 190 mm. (written space 215 x 130 mm.; 40-42 long lines).
Rebound in 1967 at NLW in full dark-red goatskin over Welsh oak boards, tooled in black, with gold lettering on spine, and two clasps (see note on f. 242). This replaced the eighteenth-century vellum binding, in poor condition when the volume reached NLW in 1967; ff. 240-241, which have holes showing the former presence of two metal clasps, formed part of that binding and may well have been paste-downs in an early binding of the volume, presumably concealed by the paper paste-downs mentioned in the re-binders note on f. 242; these two leaves were not mentioned by Denholm-Young (1950), as they would not have come to light when he saw the volume; red leather lettering-pieces from the spine of the eighteenth-century binding have been laid down inside the back cover, and are stamped 'RICHARD DE BURY EPISTOLÆ M.S. VELLUM SÆC. XIV. No 21 PORKINGTON LIBRARY' in gold.
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Archival history
Acquired by the abbey of Bury St Edmunds fifty years after de Bury's death and the dispersal of his library ('liber monachorum Sancti Edmundi regis martiris' on f. 1, in a hand which made various grammatical corrections in the text); probably the manuscript referred to by John Bale as 'Epistolae Familiares' in his Scriptorum Illustrium Maioris Brytanniæ Catalogus, 2 vols (Basel, 1557-9, repr. Farnborough, 1971), I (1557), 426. After the Dissolution in 1539 the volume passed into the hands of Archbishop Matthew Parker (1504-75), who marked passages of interest to him in red chalk, usually by underlining (e.g. f. 235 verso), once by a nota bene hand (f. 19); subsequently it was in the hands of the antiquarian Humphrey Llwyd (c. 1527-1568), whose autograph note, 'Hic Ricardus Angeruile episcopus Dunelmiae floruit circa anno Domini 1344 ut in Bale 426' appears on f. 1, below the Bury St Edmunds ownership note. Acquired, perhaps directly from Llwyd, by Sir William Maurice of Clenennau and his first wife, Margaret Laken of Brogyntyn, probably in 1556 (see Denholm-Young (1950), pp. xiii-xvi, (1969), pp. 7-11). Included in the 1938 deposit of Brogyntyn manuscripts but later (after 1946) returned to Lord Harlech; brought to NLW for rebinding in 1967; purchased with the Brogyntyn manuscripts and archives in 1993.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
A formulary or commonplace book compiled by Richard de Bury, otherwise Richard Aungerville, civil servant, diplomat, Privy Seal 1329-1333, Lord Chancellor and bishop of Durham from 1333, containing his transcriptions of some 1,500 documents, mostly official administrative and courtesy correspondence, both foreign and domestic, mainly of English origin or sent to Englishmen from the court of Rome (ff. 1-105 verso, 116 verso-173, 179-239); together with a treatise on eloquence (ff. 105 verso-116).
Some five hundred of the letters were published in The Liber Epistolaris of Richard de Bury, ed. by N. Denholm-Young (London, 1950); a further three hundred, calendared by Denholm-Young, were previously published in Thomas Rymer's Foedera (London, 1816-30) and elsewhere. Full indexes are provided by Denholm-Young.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Access to the original manuscript by authorised permission only. Readers are directed to use surrogate copies.
Conditions governing reproduction
Usual copyright laws apply.
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
Latin.
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
A detailed list of the contents is available at https://archives.library.wales/external_documents/brogii7.pdf
Generated finding aid
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Available on microfilm at the Library.
Related units of description
Publication note
J. Conway Davies, 'Original Documents: 9. A Papal Bull of Privileges to the Abbey of Ystrad Fflur', National Library of Wales Journal, 4 (1945-6), 197-203.
Publication note
Collected Papers of N. Denholm-Young (Cardiff, 1969), pp. 1-41.
Notes area
Note
Title based on contents.
Note
Formerly Porkington MS 21.
Note
Secundo folio: Regum & principium.
Note
Collation: 31 quires, gathered in eights, the first (ff. 1-6 verso) lacking two leaves at the beginning, and the last (ff. 238-239) verso lacking six leaves at the end, also five leaves following f. 102, and eight following f. 189.
Note
Preferred citation: Brogyntyn MS II.7 [RESTRICTED ACCESS].