Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:45:22.844Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - The Royal Library from Edward IV to Henry VII

from COLLECTIONS AND OWNERSHIP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

Get access

Summary

Despite constantly accumulating evidence of the ownership of books and of arrangements for their storage and care during earlier reigns, King Edward IV remains clearly identifiable as the founder of the old Royal Library which was eventually to be presented to the nation by George II in 1757. During the last few years of his reign he acquired a substantial collection of impressive secular manuscripts, many of them irrevocably associated with him by the inclusion of his arms and badges as a feature of their original decoration. The evidence provided by the surviving manuscripts is supported by a number of contemporary documentary references which suggest that something in the nature of a planned acquisitions policy was being carried out in the King’s name towards the end of his second period on the throne.

The bulk of Edward’s manuscripts are large-scale copies of well-known and widely distributed library texts, all in French but frequently translated from Latin originals. Historical narratives are strongly represented, with copies of the chronicles of Froissart and of Wavrin (the latter dedicated to the King), of William of Tyre’s History of the Crusades, and of several works on classical history of the type attractive to the noble society of the day. The Bible historiale of Guyart de Moulins rubs shoulders with standard works of St Augustine, of Gregory the Great and of Vincent de Beauvais. Boccaccio contributes the Decameron as well as the more widely popular Cas des nobles hommes et femmes malheureux.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Avril, F. and Reynaud, N. 1993 Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440–1520, catalogue of the exhibition in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
Backhouse, J. M. 1973Bourdichon’s “Hours of Henry VII”’, British Museum Quarterly, 37.Google Scholar
Backhouse, J. M. 1987Founders of the Royal Library: Edward IV and Henry VII as collectors of illuminated manuscripts’, in Williams, D. (ed.), England in the fifteenth century: proceedings of the Harlaxton Symposium for 1986, Woodbridge.Google Scholar
Backhouse, J. M. 1995Illuminated manuscripts associated with Henry VII and members of his immediate family’, in Thompson, B. (ed.), The reign of Henry VII: proceedings of the 1993 Harlaxton Symposium, Harlaxton Medieval Studies 5, Woodbridge and Stamford CT, pls..Google Scholar
Brown, R. A. and Colvin, H. M. 1963The king’s houses 1066–1485’, in Brown, R. A., Colvin, H. M. and Taylor, A. J., The history of the King’s works: the Middle Ages, 2 vols., London.Google Scholar
De Ricci, S. 1937 Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 2 vols., New York.
Dionisotti, A. C. 1995Claude de Seyssel’, in Crawford, M. H. and Ligota, C. R. (eds.), Ancient h istory and the antiquarian. Essays in memory of Arnaldo Momigliano, Warburg Institute Colloquia 2, London.Google Scholar
Hellinga, L. 1982 Caxton in focus: the beginning of printing in England, London.
Martens, M. P. J. (ed.) 1992 Lodewijk van Gruuthuse, Mecenas en Europees diplomaat ca. 1427–1492, Bruges.
McKendrick, S. 1990La grande histoire César and the manuscripts of Edward IV’, English Manuscript Studies, 2.Google Scholar
McKendrick, S. 1992Lodewijk van Gruuthuse en de librije van Edward IV’, in Martens, 1992.
McKendrick, S. 1994The Romuléon and the manuscripts of Edward IV’, in Rogers, N. (ed.), England in the fifteenth century, Harlaxton Medieval Studies 4, Woodbridge.Google Scholar
Nicolas, Sir N. H. (ed.) 1830 Privy purse expenses of Elizabeth of York: Wardrobe accounts of Edward the Fourth, London.
Plomer, H. R. 1913Bibliographical notes from the Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Seventh’, The Library. Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 3rd ser., 4.Google Scholar
Powell, S. 1998Lady Margaret Beaufort and her books’, The Library. Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 6th ser., 20.Google Scholar
Sutton, A. F. 1997 Richard III’s books, Stroud.
Sutton, A. F. and Visser-Fuchs, L. 1990 The Hours of Richard III, Stroud.
Underwood, M. G. 1987Politics and piety in the household of Lady Margaret Beaufort’, Jnl of Ecclesiastical History, 38.Google Scholar
Winn, M. B. 1997 Anthoine Vérard, Parisian publisher, 1485–1512: prologues, poems and presentations, Travaux d’humanisme et Renaissance 313, Geneva.

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×