'Liber Niger Domus Regis Angliae… Edw. IV'

MSS/0211

'Liber Niger Domus Regis Angliae… Edw. IV'

15th century

item

ff. ii + 104.
Folio.
Half leather binding, brown, with marbled boards.

'Liber Niger Domus Regis Angliae… Edw. IV'. Ordinances governing the household of Edward IV; transcript; late 15th century, with later additions. The present MS is the earliest source known; see the edition by A. R. Myers, The Household Book of Edward IV (1959), particularly pp. 51-6. There are many annotations, mainly by John Topham, one of the committee appointed (Council Minutes, 29 June 1787) to prepare the text for publication by SA. The version published in A Collection of Ordinances and Regulations. (1790), x-xiv, 13-86, is based on the present MS with collations from BL Harley MS 642 (Myers (1959), 52). The transcript once contained the only known text (Myers (1959) 53-4) of the ordinance for the household of George, Duke of Clarence, 1468 (published, ibid., 87-105), but now lacks all but the end (fols. 99-104). Substantial portions of transcript are missing after fol. 94v (lacks pp. 187-230 of an original pagination) and fol. 98v (pp. 239-74 wanting). Many extracts are given in the communication by John Topham, 28 June 1787 (Minute Book XXII, pp. 209-16). See also Proc., 2nd ser., 1 (1859-61), 125-6 (exhibit by Sir A. W. Franks of MS ordinances for the households of Henry VII and Henry VIII); ibid., 23 (1909-11), 290-1. (Inf. Professor Paul Harvey, FSA).

Thorpe, John (1682-1750), antiquary

SAL/MS/211

Described as the 'Black Book of the Household, temp. Edwdi. 2di.' in the bequest of the Rev. Charles Lyttelton, PSA. See Minute Book XI, 12 Jan. 1769, p. 6 (where the MS is said to contain the arms (?bookplate) of Smart Lethieullier, FSA).