Cambridge, Great Britain, Magdalene College, MS Pepys 1760
Provenance:
1. Anne of Brittany (d. 1514), Queen of France, wife of Charles VIII and Louis XII: frequent use of the heraldic ermine tail of Brittany as a run-over sign perhaps points to her ownership; overpainted arms (ff. 5v, 6r) are perhaps those of the French royal Order of St. Michael; 2. Henry VIII (b. 1491, d. 1547), King of England and Ireland: probably adapted for him: added Tudor royal arms of England as used by Henry VII and Henry VIII (f. 2v) and the arms of St George (as the patron saint of the Order of the Garter) overpainting the arms of the Order of St Michael (ff. 5v, 6r); 3. English Royal library: moved to the Upper Library at Westminster during the amalgamation of manuscripts after the death of Henry VIII; includes the 'high' Westminster inventory number: no 1281 (f. 1r) (see Carley 2000); the same number is also included in the British Library Royal 20 A XVI; 4. Lady Anne Stanhope (b. c. 1510, d. 1587), Countess of Hertford, Duchess of Somerset, attendant of Catherine of Aragon and subsequently wife of Edward Seymour, Lord Protector of England during the minority of Edward VI: inscription encoded in a numeric-alphabetic cypher: '1.13.13.5.18. 19.1.13.8.14.15.9.18.12.9.8.14.15.5.' for 'annestanhopismihope' (inside of the front cover), and 'ffor my lade anne...' (inside of the back cover); Inscribed in a 16th-century hand: 'he that stelle thys boke a shalle be hangked up on a hoke nouther be watter nor be lond bot wyt a fayer hempyng bond (inside of the front cover); 5. Samuel Pepys (b. 1633, d. 1703), English naval administrator, Member of Parliament and bibliophile: his bookplates (ff. 2r, 92r); included in his catalogue, Librum manuscriptorum viri sapientissimi Samuelis Pepysi..., in Edward Bernard, Catalogi Manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 2 vols (Oxford 1697), II, p. 209, no 6806: 'Vocal Musick (of different styles) compos'd by the most Eminent Masters, English and Forrein in the time of King Hen. VII for the then Prince of Wales; being the Prince's Original Book, elegantly prickt and illuminated with his Figure in Miniature. Pergam'; bequeathed by Pepys with his entire library to Magdalene College, Cambridge, and m in 1723, on the death of his nephew and heir, John Jackson.
Bindings:
1st half of the 16th century,
France
gold and blue
cloth over
wood
Decoration: with a red leather spine with inscription 'K. Hen. 7 / Mvsick.'
Endpapers: parchment
The present re-backed binding contains covers of an old, possibly original binding.