Latin Chertsey Cartulary, England, 14th century

Component identifier:

Item 65

Content Summary:

Description: i-iv, 153, v-viii leaves (vellum); 273 x 180mm. All sheets are cockled. The following pages are blank: 28v, 31v, 37v, 49r, 51v, 53v 80v, 89r-v, 91v, 107v, 116v, 119v, 120v, 127r-v.

Script: Two English scribes (i) f.1r-141v and (ii) f.142r-153v. Both use cursive court hands of the first half of the 14th century.

Decoration: Decorated with red rubrics; capitals red and blue; initials blue and with red penwork, and red with blue (often faded to mauve) penwork; many initials have marginal extensions. Silver, now tarnished, has been employed on some of the large initials (egs f.54r, f.66r, f.72r and f.81r).

Layout: One column; 32-33 lines to the page for f.1r-141v; mainly 35-36 lines to the page for the remaining folios.

Binding: Rebound in England by bookbinder Sydney Cockerell before being exported to Australia in 1975. The National Library of Australia holds the original boards (one complete and two sections of the second) of the Cartulary which consisted of a 17th century binding in sprinkled and panelled calf. The full board contains the remains of five cords. The original spine, which is gilt in six compartments with red morocco label and lettering, is glued into the back inside cover together with a fragment of original binding. Also glued into the back inside cover is a note from the binder, written in 1975.

Provenance: Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Chertsey, Surrey, England, 14th-15th century; inside front cover has the crest of the Clifford family; on back flyleaf v (recto) at the top of the page is written 'Thomas Croch[?]n is a good boy'

Notes: Written within the Abbey of Benedictine monks in the English County of Surrey about 1348 and comprising transcriptions of original documents and charters relating to the administration of the abbey for the period 1313-1345 in the abbacy of John de Rutherwyck. Example of an unusual chronicle-cartulary arranged by year; one of three extant 14th century Chertsey Abbey cartularies, the other two being held by the British Library: BL Lansdowne MS 434 and BL Lansdowne MS 4345.

Front flyleaves (iii and vi) and back flyleaves (v and vi) comprise four folios from the mid-14th century which appear to have been cut down from a roll and list the only known extant original accounts for the abbey

On f.153v is a very faint 14th century hard point annotation which commences 'Sex…'

The Charter of the Abbey is at the front of the volume and a number of Quitclaims and other documents are at the back. Continuation of text after the end of the book seems to have been added later in 14th century.

On the inside front cover is pasted a 19th century newspaper cutting advertising the sale of materials that made up the buildings and enclosures of the abbey.

Reference: Sinclair: No. 12, pp.38-41;, not in Manion Vines

Related works: The National Library holds the following related works: Chertsey Abbey cartularies, volume II, part I: being the second portion of the Cartulary in the Public Record Office ; Chertsey cartularies, volume II, part 2: being extracts from British Museum Lansdowne MS. 435 and the Clifford Cartulary, together with index to volume II ; and Charters of Chertsey Abbey, edited by S.E. Kelly

Immediate source of acquisition:

The collection was purchased by the National Library of Australia from the estate of the 11th Baron Clifford in November 1963. It reached Canberra in April 1964. The Chertsey Cartulary (item 65), possibly the most important medieval manuscript held in Australia due to the fact that it is one of only three extant from the 14th century and the only one held outside the UK, was received in 1975, following the granting of an export licence by the British Government.

Names:

Clifford, Hugh, Colonel Hon.

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