George Cavendish (1494–c.1562)

Verse

Metrical Visions (‘In the monyth of Iune / I lyeng sole alon’)

A series of poetical lamentations, comprising 2425 lines, on the deaths (the majority by execution) of Cardinal Wolsey, George, Viscount Rochford, Sir Henry Borris, sir Francis Weston, Sir William Brereton, Mark Smeaton, Anne Boleyn, Thomas Cromwell, Henry Courtenay, Marquess of Exeter, Henry Pole, Baron Montague, Catherine Howard, her lover Culpeper, Viscountess Rochford, Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Henry VIII, Thomas Seymour, Lord Protector, Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, Sir Thomas Arundel, Sir Michael Stanhope, Sir Ralph Vane, Sir Miles Partridge, Edward VI, John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk, Lady Jane Grey, and Queen Mary.

First published in George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey and Metrical Visions, ed. Samuel W. Singer, 2 vols (London, 1825). Metrical Visions by George Cavendish, ed. A.S.G. Edwards (Columbia, SC, 1980).

*CvG 1

Autograph, the leaves bound in the wrong sequence (the correct order being ff. 94r-112v, 128r-9v, 134r-47v, 130r-1v, 114r-27v, 132r-3v, 113r-v, 149v-51r, 148v-9r), untitled, recorded in the colophon as finished ‘le xxiiiier jour de Iunii annus regnorum Philippi Rex et Regine Marie / iiiith and vth’ [i.e. 24 June 1558].

In: Autograph MS volume of works by George Cavendish, 154 small folio leaves in all. c.1556-8.

Owned in the 17th/18th century by Clement Rossington of Dronfield, Derbyshire, possibly acquired from the family of William Burton (1575-1645), Leicestershire antiquary. Later owned by the genealogical collector Thomas Lloyd; by Richard Heber (1774-1833), book collector; and by the Rev. Thomas Corser (1793-1876), book collector. Sotheby's, 13 December 1876 Corser sale), lot 453. Cape's & Co.'s, Manchester, 18 December 1876 (9th part of the Corser sale).

Edited from this MS in Singer and in Edwards. Also discussed by A.S.G. Edwards in ‘The Author as Scribe: Cavendish's Metrical Visions and MS Egerton 2402’, The Library, 5th Ser. 29 (1974), 446-9, and in his ‘The Text of George Cavendish's Metrical Visions’, Analytical & Enumerative Bibliography, 2/1. (Winter, 1978), 3-62.

British Library, Egerton MS 2402, ff. 94r-151r.

CvG 2

Copy, headed ‘diuers Elegiecall Poems upon sundry persons’, transcribed from British Library Egerton MS 2402 or a transcript of it, with four stanzas omitted but including an additional stanza, p. 279.

In: A folio composite volume of state and heraldic tracts, in various professional hands (including that of the ‘Feathery Scribe’), 370 leaves.

Assembled, annotated, and copiously indexed by Sir William Dugdale (1605-86), antiquary and herald. Inscribed (f. 8v) ‘Thomas Longman’.

Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 254-5 (No. 87), with facsimiles of ff. 145v and 178r on pp. 99 and 98.

This MS recorded in Edwards and in his ‘The Text of George Cavendish's Metrical Visions’, Analytical & Enumerative Bibliography, 2/1. (Winter, 1978), 3-62, as also in Sylvester, with the additional stanza edited, p. 279.

Bodleian, MS Dugdale 28, ff. 228v-64.

CvG 3

A three-leaf fragment of a MS copy of the work, comprising verses 2279-2425, in the hand of Thomas Lloyd, headed ‘An Epitaph on our late Queen Mary’ and here beginning ‘Descend from hevyn O muses Melpomene’, subscribed ‘Finis et compile le xxiiij jour de Junij as. regnor philip Rex et Reg Mariæ iiij & 5 p le Auctor GC’, transcribed from Egerton MS 2402, on three quarto leaves. Early 19th century.

In: A large folio composite volume of heraldic and state papers, in various hands and paper sizes, 112 leaves, in 19th-century half brown calf.

Collected by Thomas Lloyd, London wine merchant and collector of genealogical materials. His library sale (final portion), at Sotheby's, 14 October 1843, lot 193, to Thomas Rodd (1796-1849), bookseller. Purchased from him 14 October 1843.

This MS recorded in Edwards.

This MS recorded in Edwards and in his ‘The Text of George Cavendish's Metrical Visions’, Analytical & Enumerative Bibliography, 2/1. (Winter, 1978), 3-62 (pp. 59-60).

British Library, Add. MS 14410, ff. 100r-2v.

Prose

The Life of Cardinal Wolsey

First published in George Cavendish, The Life of Cardinal Wolsey and Metrical Visions, ed. Samuel W. Singer, 2 vols (Chiswick, 1825). The Life and Death of Cardinal Wolsey by George Cavendish, ed. Richard S. Sylvester, EETS, orig. ser. 243 (London, New York and Toronto, 1959).

*CvG 4

Autograph, lacking the first leaf of the prologue.

In: the MS described under CvG 1. c.1556-8.

Edited from this MS in Singer and, with a facsimile example of f. 88v, in Sylvester. Facsimile example of f. 90r in Petti, English Literary Hands (1977), No. 22.

British Library, Egerton MS 2402, ff. 4r-93r.

CvG 5

Copy, headed ‘The Life of Cardinal Wolsey written by Mr Banister his gentlem-ushr’, subscribed ‘Vpon the 30th day of June towards the evening in ye yeere of Christ. 1609. I began to copie out this booke, & vpon the 0. 3. day of July next following I ended it. R b' t Sprakeling’.

In: A folio volume of historical tracts, in several secretary hands, 167 pages, in modern purple calf. c.1609-20s.

Bequeathed by Dr George Coningsby, 1766.

Balliol College, Oxford, MS 270, pp. 1-146.

CvG 6

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘Thomas Wolsey late Cardinall, his life and death, written by George Cavendish his gentleman vsher’, with some additions (after f. 71) copied in a later hand from the printed edition of 1641, 235 quarto pages, in vellum (a recycled legal document dated 1705). c.1600.

Inscription largely obliterated by ink ‘Erat ex libris prenoblis Georgii Berkley’.

Sylvester, No. 8.

Bodleian, MS Rawl. D. 104.

CvG 7

Copy, untitled.

In: A double-folio-size composite volume of historical tracts and papers, many relating to state arraignments, in a single professional secretary hand up to p. 527, xxiv + 552 pages (plus blank pp. 553-684), in red morocco elaborately gilt. c.1610 [with addition to c.1630].

Presented to the Bodleian in 1620 by Sir Peter Manwood (1571-1625), judge and antiquary.

This MS recorded in Sylvester, p. 278.

Bodleian, MS Bodl. 966, pp. 93-189.

CvG 8

Copy, with gilt decoration and a series of pen and ink illustrations (a procession, coloured, f. 52v; battle scene, f. 57r; procession, f. 58r; executed head, f. 61r; delivery of a seal, coloured, f. 71r; King's visit to the sick Cardinal, f. 76r; Cardinal's burial, f. 91r); inscribed (f. 93r) ‘Copied forthe by S. B [i.e. Stephen Balman] Ano 1578 the first daye of September &c’. 1578.

In: A large folio formal miscellany of verse and prose, in a single accomplished hand, that of Stephen Batman, DD (d.1584), 146 leaves, in half-calf gilt.

Among the collections of Francis Douce (1757-1834), antiquary and collector.

Sylvester, No. 2, with the first page (f. 48), missing in British Library Egerton MS 2402, used as his copytext. Two illustrations reproduced in Singer, I, 181 and 221.

Bodleian, MS Douce 363, ff. 48r-93v.

CvG 9

An abridgment of the work.

In: the MS described under CvG 2.

Sylvester, No. 3.

Bodleian, MS Dugdale 28, ff. 220r-8r.

CvG 10

Extensive emendations and deletions to the text in a printed exemplum of Cavendish's The Life and Death of Thomas Woolsey (8vo, London, 1667), in contemporary calf. In the small italic hand of Humfrey Wanley (1672-26), scholar and librarian, for an intended new edition, some notes on slips of paper pinned or tipped in, the alterations transcribed from one of the early manuscript sources (comprising 74 leaves, probably British Library Harley MS 428), a list of seven MSS known to him supplied at the beginning. c.1676.

The front free endpaper inscribed ‘Wm: Herbert 1773’ [i.e. William Herbert (1718-95), bibliographer and print seller] and ‘The corrections in this book are made from one of the MS. copies...Mary Coney her Booke 1676’. Among the collections of Richard Gough, FSA (1735-1809), antiquary and topographer.

Sylvester, No. 4 (and see note on p. 288).

Bodleian, Gough Oxford 22.

CvG 11

Copy, untitled, in a professional hand, 196 folio leaves, in contemporary vellum gilt. c.1630.

Among collections of the Rev. Henry Jones (d.1707), nonjuror.

Sylvester, No. 5.

Bodleian, MS Jones 12.

CvG 12

Copy, in a professional hand, subscribed by him ‘Finis Per me Thoma Woodcock’: i.e. the printer Thomas Woodcock (d.1693). Early 17th century.

In: A folio composite volume of ecclesiastical tracts, iii + 356 leaves, in half-vellum boards.

Sylvester, No. 6.

Bodleian, MS Jones 14, ff. 1r-97v.

CvG 13

Copy, in the professional hand of the notary public William Langham, 128 folio leaves (plus blanks), in contemporary calf, the initials ‘W L’ stamped in gilt on the cover. Subscribed (f. 128r) ‘Ex manuscripto Rogeri Manwood [i.e. Sir Roger Manwood (1524/5-92), judge] olim Capitalis Baronis de Scaccario dnæ Elizabethæ nvper Reginæ Angliæ fideliter extract Per me Gulielmu Langham Notarium publicum’. 1613.

Inscribed variously (f. ir) ‘Willmus Langham me Jure tenet Anno Dni 161[3]’; (f. iir) ‘Willmus Vaughanis me Jure tenet Anno Dni 1613’; and (f. 1r) ‘Liber Guil. Laude Archiepi Cant et Cancillarij Vniuersit Oxon. 1636’. Among collections of William Laud (1573-1645), Archbishop of Canterbury.

This MS recorded in Sylvester, pp. 280-1.

Bodleian, MS Laud misc. 591.

CvG 14

Copy, in a single calligraphic hand, 154 leaves. In the hand of Edward Norgate (1581-1650), miniature painter, musician, writer on art, and Windsor Herald. Early 17th century.

Sotheby's, 21 June 1960, lot 467, to N.J. Barker.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 2).

Brigham Young University, MS: Vaults Collection Quarto 091 C315.

CvG 15

Copy, in two professional secretary hands (A: ff. 3r-11r; B: ff. 11v-186v), a third cursive secretary adding the last seven lines of f. 49v, 186 folio leaves. Early 17th century.

Owned in 1759 by Thomas Birch (1705-66), biographer and historian (his notes on f. 2r misidentifying the author).

Sylvester, No. 9.

British Library, Add. MS 4233.

CvG 16

Copy, the heading (‘Thomas Wolseyes the Cardinalls liffe and deathe written by George Candishe his gent vsher’) and first six lines of the prologue in the hand of Robert Beale, the rest in one or more professional secretary hands; followed (ff. 175r-82v) by notes in a similar hand, entitled by Beale ‘The Supplementes or defectes in the booke of Cardinall Wolseys life and fall made by Georg Candish’. Late 16th century.

In: A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, in several professional secretary hands, 374 leaves, in contemporary limp vellum, with ties.

Yelverton MS 72, among papers of Sir Henry Yelverton (1566-1629), Justice of the Common Pleas, and his family, including papers descending from Robert Beale (1541-1601), Clerk of the Privy Council.

Sylvester, No. 10.

British Library, Add. MS 48066, ff. 90r-165v.

CvG 17

Extracts relating to Anne Boleyn. 1641.

In: A composite collection of miscellaneous papers, now divided into two folio volumes (Part 1, ff. 1-199; Part 2, ff. 200-487), in various hands and paper sizes, originally in vellum, now each part in modern half-morocco. Volume I of the papers of the Wyatt family, of Allington Castle, Boxley, and Quex, Kent, including (ff. 332r-58v) quarto booklets of verse, in a rounded italic hand, possibly compiled, c.1630, by Sir Francis Wyatt (1575-1644), Governor of Virginia (although according to an uncertain note on f. 358v ‘all the hand writing of Sr H Wiat’).

Later owned by Bradford Denne Hawkins, vicar of Rivenhall, Essex; by Lionel Oliver, of Hencham, King's Lynn; and then in 1872, by Charles Marsham (1808-74), third Earl of Romney. Formerly Loan MS 15/Part 2 (Wyatt Commonplace Book).

British Library, Add. MS 62135, Part 1, ff. 96r-7v.

CvG 18

Copy, in a professional mixed hand, headed ‘The Discourse of the life and death of Cardinall Woolsey’, unascribed, imperfect, lacking the ending. Early 17th century.

This MS believed by Humfrey Wanley to have been corrected from British Library, Harley MS 428: see his notes in Bodleian, MS Gough Oxford 22.

In: A folio volume of state tracts, in various professional hands, 522 leaves, in modern half-morocco gilt.

Sylvester, No. 11.

British Library, Harley MS 35, ff. 342r-51r.

CvG 19

Copy. Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘The discourse of the lyffe & deathe of Cardinall Woolsey’, inscribed ‘written by one of his servants’, ‘Cavendish’ added in another hand, 74 folio leaves (plus numerous blanks), in quarter-calf marbled boards. Late 16th-early 17th century.

Later owned by John Strype (1643-1737), ecclesiastical historian and biographer, who obtained it from ‘Mr. Woodward’.

Sylvester, No. 12.

British Library, Harley MS 428.

CvG 20

Copy, in two professional secretary hands (A: ff. 1r-92v, 103r-11v; B: ff. 93r-102v), 111 folio leaves, imperfect, lacking all text up to the middle of Chapter V and all text after the beginning of the last chapter. Early 17th century.

Sylvester, No. 13.

British Library, Lansdowne MS 904.

CvG 21

Extracts, headed ‘The Life of Tho. Wolsey. Arch bishop of York’.

In: A quarto commonplace book of extracts from theological and historical works, largely in a single minute hand, 116 leaves, in modern half crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt. c.1673.

Inscribed (f. 10v) ‘Gaue these Book to Mr Norman to Couer’.

British Library, Sloane MS 719, f. 56r.

CvG 22

Extracts, in an italic hand, headed ‘Tho: Wolsey card: life & death by Cavendysh his gent: vsher:’. Early 17th century.

In: A quarto composite volume of miscellaneous works and memoranda, in several hands, 32 leaves, in modern quarter-morocco gilt.

Sylvester, No. 14.

British Library, Sloane MS 848, f. 14r-v.

CvG 23

Various extracts, incorporated in materials for a life of Fisher.

In: A folio volume of documents relating principally to John Fisher (c.1469-1535), Bishop of Rochester, Catholic saint, 313 leaves, imperfect. Mid-16th century.

Sylvester, No. 14a.

British Library, Arundel MS 152, passim.

CvG 24

Copy, among other texts on a sheaf of long narrow ledger-size leaves.

In: A folio miscellany of tracts, letters, plays and verse, for the most part in a single secretary hand, partly on inserted sheaves of long narrow ledger-size leaves, written from both ends, 248 leaves, in contempoary vellum with metal clasps. Compiled by a University of Cambridge man. Early 17th century.

Inscribed at the end ‘Josephus Diggins me possedit’: i.e. by Joseph Diggins, of Clare Hall, Cambridge (matric. 1607, d.1658). Christie's, 5 December 1973, lot 84, to Hofmann & Freeman.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 1).

Cambridge University Library, MS Add. 7958, ff. 160v-124r rev.

CvG 25

Copy, in a professional predominantly secretary hand, with a title-page, ‘The Life and Death of Mr Thomas Wolsey Arch=Bishop of Yorke and Cardinall. Written by George Cavendish his Gentleman Vsher’, 86 folio leaves, in quarter-calf marbled boards. Early 17th century.

Inscribed (f. 1r) ‘Tho: Nott’ [? Sir Thomas Nott (1606-81), of Pembroke College, Cambridge, royalist army officer] and (on a flyleaf) ‘From the library of Richard Holdsworth, D.D. [(1590-1649)], Master of Emmanuel College. 1664’.

Sylvester, No. 23.

Cambridge University Library, MS Mm. 3. 6.

CvG 26

Copy, in a single professional hand, headed after the Prologue ‘The life and death of Thomas Wolsey late Cardinall, written by George Cavendish his gent.vsher’, 172 folio leaves, in contemporary calf gilt. Copy, 172 folio leaves. c.1630.

Sylvester, No. 15.

Christ Church, Oxford, MS 154.

CvG 27

Copy, in a single cursive hand, except for ff. ‘53-58’, 114 tall folio leaves (plus blanks), in old boards, dated on a flyleaf 10 December 1741. Early 18th century.

Transcribed from an ancient manuscript [? CvG 000] at the expence of the Rev. John Blackbourn, MA, of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose widow donated it, via the Rev. Dr Tookie, to Christ Church on 10 December 1741.

Sylvester, No. 16.

Christ Church, Oxford, MS 155.

CvG 28

Copy, in a single hand, headed ‘Cardinall Wolseys Life’, on 92 leaves.

In: A quarto volume of miscellaneous papers.

Donated in 1678 by Henry Howard (1628-84), sixth Duke of Norfolk.

Sylvester, p. 286.

College of Arms, MS Arundel 51, item 2.

CvG 29

Extracts, headed ‘Sr. Willm Cavendish Memoirs of the Life of Cardinal Woolsey, in the Preface’.

In: A folio volume of verse and prose extracts, those on pp. 321-7 headed ‘Observables of a Miscellaneous Nature’, those on pp. 367-77 ‘Witty Sentences’, in a single cursive secretary hand, 377 pages (including numerous blanks), in reversed brown calf. Among the family collection established by Christopher Mickleton (1612-69), Durham attorney, and by his eldest son James (1638-93), lawyer and antiquary, which was later incorporated in the collections of Gilbert Spearman (1675-1738), lawyer and antiquary. 1699-1711.

Durham University Library, Mickleton & Spearman MS 5, p. 374.

CvG 30

Copy, in a professional predominantly secretary hand, headed ‘Thomas Wolsey Caraman, intituled St: Cicelie, trans Tiberim presbiter, & Lo: Chauncellor of England, his lyffe & death written by George Cavendish’, on 51 of 52 folio leaves (some other verse and prose on ff. 51v-2r), in contemporary limp vellum. c.1600.

Inscribed on a flyleaf ‘Roger Bradshaigh Booke 1659’. Formerly Folger MS 759.1.

Sylvester, No. 27.

Folger, MS V.b.111.

CvG 31

Copy, in a professional cursive hand, with a title-page in engrossed lettering ‘The life of Master Thomas Wolsey Archbishoppe of yorke and Cardinall, written by George Cavendish his Gentleman Vsher’, 109 folio leaves (plus blanks), in old calf. c.1600s.

From the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), manuscript and book collector: Phillipps MS 6930. No 1321 in an unidentified sale catalogue. From the library of Arthur Vicars, FSA, Ulster King of Arms. Acquired in 1946 from George Bates.

Recorded in Sylvester, p. 287.

Harvard, MS Eng 764.

CvG 32

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, with six lines added in pencil in another 17th-century hand at the foot of f. 36v, untitled, but headed on f. 1r in a later hand ‘Life of Cardinal Wolsey by his Gentleman Usher Sir W. Cavendish’, 123 + iii folio leaves, in contemporary calf gilt. c.1600.

Both covers stamped in gilt ‘HENRIE FARLEIGH’, apparently a writer connected with St Paul's from 1616 to 1622. Later owned by Samuel Weller Singer (1783-1858), literary scholar, and in the library of Bernard Howard (1765-1842), twelfth Duke of Norfolk. Thorpe's sale catalogue (1836), item 201. In the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9796. Sotheby's, 6 June 1898 (Phillipps sale), lot 1145, to Baker. Pearson's Shakespeare catalogue (1899), I, pp. 73-4, item 147. Sold in 1906 to Marsden J. Perry (1850-1935), of Providence, Rhode Island, industrialist, banker, and book collector. Purchased in 1919 by A.S.E. Rosenbach (1876-1952), Philadelphia bookseller, collector and scholar.

Sylvester, No. 29.

Huntington, HM 182.

CvG 33

Copy of a possibly abridged version, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘Notes of the life of Cardinall Wolsey written by George Cavendish his get vsher’. c.1620s.

In: A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, in several professional hands, 302 leaves (plus blanks), in red morocco gilt.

Inner Temple Library, Petyt MS 538, Vol. 19, ff. 37r-60v.

CvG 34

Copy, untitled.

In: A folio volume of state papers and tracts, in a professional cursive secretary hand, 346 leaves, in red morocco gilt. c.1620s-30s.

Inner Temple Library, Petyt MS 538, Vol. 36, ff. 149r-84v.

CvG 35

Copy, in a probably professional secretary hand, headed ‘Thomas Wolsey late Cardinall his life and deathe, Written by George Cavendishe his Gentleman Vsher’, inscribed (f. 313v) ‘my book. Ano: 1598. / Pe: Manwood / wrytten by my man Rich J / borrowed ye oryginall of Mr Iohn Burrowes, & John Stowe’: i.e. referring to Sir Peter Manwood (1571-1625), judge and antiquary, and John Stow (1524/5-1605), London historian. 1598.

In: A folio composite volume of treatises, in various hands, 313 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt (rebacked).

Sylvester, No. 19.

Lambeth Palace Library, MS 179, ff. 246r-313v.

CvG 36

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed ‘The liefe and death of Cardinall Wolsey’. Late 16th century.

In: A folio composite volume of state tracts and papers, relating to Elizabethan voyages, in various hands, 475 leaves, in modern calf.

The first item inscribed (f. 1r) ‘This boke ys myn / Iohn fford’. Among papers of the Carew family.

Sylvester, No. 20.

Lambeth Palace Library, MS 250, ff. 73r-154v.

CvG 37

Copy, largely in the cursive secretary hand of John Stow (1524/5-1606), London historian, 145 leaves.

Alan Thomas, sale catalogue No. 41 (1980), item 57. Afterwards owned by Colin Franklin, bookdealer.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 4).

Meisei University, [Cavendish MS].

CvG 38

Copy, in a single professional secretary hand, headed ‘Thomas Woolsie his Liffe and death Written by George Cauendish his gentleman Vsher’, 84 folio leaves (plus numerous blanks), in contemporary limp vellum with ties. Early 17th century.

National Library of Wales, Wynnstay MS 17.

CvG 39

Copy, in possibly several secretary hands, a title added in roman lettering lengthways down the outer margin of the first page ‘The Life of Cardinal Wolsey by Cauendish’, incomplete, 121 folio pages, in marbled wrapper. With some annotations by Christopher, first Viscount Hatton (1632-1706), politician. Late 16th century.

Sylvester, No. 17.

Northamptonshire Record Office, FH 135.

CvG 40

Copy, in a formal secretary hand, 80 unfoliated folio leaves, imperfect, lacking a title and the beginning and many leaves gnawed by rodents, the text followed (ff. [81r-8v]) by copies of five letters by Henry VIII relating to Wolsey in the same secretary hand and one other, disbound. c.1600.

Among papers of the Earls Fitzwilliam and Viscounts Milton.

Sylvester, No. 18.

Northamptonshire Record Office, F(M) Misc 51.

CvG 41

Copy, in a secretary hand, with annotations in the hand of Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, writer and literary editor, 134 folio leaves. c.1600.

Sylvester, No. 25.

Duke of Northumberland, Alnwick Castle, MS 466.

CvG 42

Copy. Mid-late 16th century.

Owned by, and the volume including financial accounts of, the Harbord family, of Warwickshire. Acquired in 1938.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 3).

Stanford University Librsary, MS MO385 CB.

CvG 43

Copy, in a neat secretary hand, untitled, slightly incomplete. Late 16th century.

In: A folio composite volume of miscellaneous tracts, in several hands, 374 leaves, corners gnawed by rodents, in contemporary calf (rebacked).

Scribbling (f. 321v) including the name ‘Bridgett Hale’. Old pressmark B. 2. 12.

Sylvester, No. 21.

Trinity College, Dublin, MS 180, ff. 284r-321r.

CvG 44

Copy, in probably three professional secretary hands, with a title-page ‘The Negotiacons of Thomas Woolsey the greate Cardinall of England Conteyninge his Life & Death...Composed by one of his own servntes being his Gentlemn. Vsher’.

In: A folio volume of state tracts and speeches, in several professional hands, 586 leaves, in old calf. c.late 1620s-30s.

Bequeathed by Sir Jerome Alexander (c.1600-70), Justice of the Irish Common Pleas. Former pressmark G. 4. 9.

Peter Beal, In Praise of Scribes: Manuscripts and their Makers in Seventeenth-Century England (Oxford, 1998), pp. 222-3 (No. 17A).

This MS recorded in Sylvester, p. 286.

Trinity College, Dublin, MS 731, ff. 55r-174r.

CvG 45

Extracts, headed ‘Notes from Cardinall wolseies life taken out of George Candish his gentlman vsher’.

In: A quarto commonplace book of extracts from state and legal writings, in a single cursive hand, written from both ends, 118 leaves, in contemporary calf gilt. Compiled entirely by William Drake, MP (1606-69), of Shardeloes, near Amersham, Buckinghamshire. c.Mid-1630s.

Later in the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), psychologist, linguist, and book collector.

Drake's commonplace books discussed in Stuart Clark, ‘Wisdom Literature of the Seventeenth Century: A Guide to the Contents of the “Bacon-Tottel” Commonplace Books’, Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, 6, Part 5 (1976), 291-305; 7, Part 1 (1977), 46-73, and in Kevin Sharpe, Reading Revolutions (New Haven & London, 2000).

University College London, MS Ogden 7/11, f. 31r.

CvG 46

Copy, in a secretary hand, 168 oblong folio leaves, in modern vellum boards. c.1600.

University of Georgia, MS 1243.

CvG 47

Copy, 128 folio leaves. 17th century.

Once owned by John, Baron Somers (1651-1716), Lord Chancellor; by his brother-in-law Sir Joseph Jekyll (1662-1738), lawyer and politician; and in 1738 by Richard Warner.

Wadham College, Oxford, MS 27.

CvG 48

Copy, quarto.

Listed by Humfrey Wanley (in Bodleian, MS Gough Oxford 22) as a MS in ‘E. Carlisle's Bib. Angliæ 643.33. - 4to’: i.e. presumably in the library of Charles Howard (1669-1738), third Earl of Carlisle, Lord Lieutenant of Cumberland and Westmorland.

Untraced, [Carlisle MS].

CvG 49

Copy. Late 16th century?

Once in the library of John, first Baron Lumley (c.1533-1609), collector.

Recorded, as ‘George Candish, of the lyfe of Cardinall Woolsey’, in The Lumley Library: The Catalogue of 1609, ed. Sears Jayne and Francis R. Johnson (London, 1956), p. 144, No. 1139. Edwards (item a).

Untraced, [Lumley MS].

CvG 50

Copy, quarto. Late 16th-early 17th century?

Once in the library of Lord William Howard (1563-1640), antiquary, of Naworth, Cumberland.

Recorded, as ‘Cavendish Life of Cardinal Wolsey. On paper 4to’, in Selections from the Household Books of the Lord William Howard of Naworth Castle, Surtees Society, 68 (1877), p. 486, No. 19. Edwards (item b).

Untraced, [Naworth MS].

CvG 51

Copy, folio.

Listed by Humfrey Wanley (in Bodleian, MS Gough Oxford 22) as a MS of ‘Abr. Pryme, Lincoln. 9042.7. folo’: i.e. Abraham Pryme (1671-1704), antiquary, who was a deacon and curate in Lincolnshire in 1694-7.

Untraced, [Pryme MS].

CvG 52

Copy, 51 leaves. 17th century.

W.H. Robinson's sale catalogue No. 47 (1933), item 18.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 5).

Untraced, [Robinson/Wolsey MS].

CvG 53

Copy, 194 leaves, slightly imperfect at the end, unbound. Late 16th-early 17th century?

Once owned by Sir Henry Spelman (1563/4-1641), historian and antiquary; by the Rev. Dr Cox Macro (1683-1767), antiquary; and by Hudson Gurney (1775-1864), of Keswick Hall, Norfolk, banker and antiquary. Later owned by Major Q.E. Gurney, DL, of Bawdeswell Hall, Norfolk. Sotheby's, 30 March 1936 (Gurney sale), lot 90, to L. Chubb.

Recorded in Sylvester, p. 288, n.1, and inn Edwards (No. 7).

Untraced, [Spelman MS].

CvG 54

Copy, the preface subscribed ‘Th: Gainsford’, on 176 folio pages. Late 16th-early 17th century?

Once owned by the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall, Suffolk. Puttick & Simpson, 2 July 1855, lot 561 (unsold).

See Janet Ing Freeman, The Postmaster of Ipswich: William Fitch Stevenson, Antiquary and Thief (London, 1997), pp. 113-14, 160. Recorded in Edwards (item c).

Untraced, [Tollemache MS].

CvG 55

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, 128 quarto leaves, in contemporary limp vellum. Late 16th-early 17th century.

Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9645. Afterwards in the library of Lawrence W. Hodson, Compton Hall, Nr Wolverhampton. Sotheby's, 13 December 1993, lot 228, to Quaritch.

Recorded in Edwards (No. 6).

John Wolfson, New York, [Cavendish MS].

CvG 56

Copy in: A quarto volume comprising two works, 119 leaves. Early-mid-17th century.

Formerly MS Vault Shelves/Cavendish.

Sylvester, No. 30.

Yale, Gen. MSS Vol. 264, ff. 1r-90r.

CvG 57

Copy, in a professional secretary hand, headed (in another hand) ‘The life of Cardinall wolsey’, 68 folio leaves, in old vellum boards. Mid-late 16th century.

Inscribed (ff. 1r, 68v) ‘Robert Matthew’. From the library of Tobie Matthew (1544?-1628), Archbishop of York.

Sylvester, No. 26.

York Minster, MS XVI. D. 1.