A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

MS. Eng. hist. b. 119

Summary Catalogue no.: 31347

Contents

Articles against the Duke of Suffolk, March 1450

Beginning missing; breaks off on fol. 4v, dorse of the original third membrane ( 'be joyned with an impossible, etc.'); dorses of the other membranes blank.

Printed Third Report of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, London, 1872, pp. 279-80 from this unique manuscript; for the context see Ralph Griffiths, The Reign of Henry VI (2nd ed., 1998), pp. 682-3.

Dated by the Summary Catalogue to the early sixteenth century, but more likely to be a contemporary production.

16th- or 17th-century endorsement: 'The Answere of / vnto the Duke of / Declaration' (sic: it is not obvious that any text has been lost, and the writer was perhaps ignorant of the original context).

Language(s): Middle English

Physical Description

Form: roll
Support: paper (watermark cf. Piccard, Lilie, 715-722)
Extent: Originally a roll of three membranes sewn together (now each separately mounted), each membrane a chancery sheet c.
Dimensions (membrane): 445 × 295 mm.

Layout

Unruled. Fol. 3r: 53 long lines, written space 385 × 265 mm.

Hand(s)

Current anglicana, some secretary forms.

Decoration

None.

History

Origin: 1450 (?) ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

Nevill family of Nevill Holt, Leicestershire (see HMC III, cited above)

'Bought by the Bodleian ... on 8 July 1892', privately.

Record Sources

Description by Matthew Holford (Feb. 2025). Previously described:

Last Substantive Revision

2025-02: Description revised.