Harley MS 5353 - The Diary of John Manningham

GEMMS Manuscript ID
GEMMS-MANUSCRIPT- 73
(old series: GEMMS-MANUSCRIPT-1289)
Title
The Diary of John Manningham
Shelfmark
Harley MS 5353
Creation Date
1602 - 1603
Repository
Contents Note

This manuscript contains the earliest known record of a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (see the entry for Candlemas, 2 February 1602). It covers the period from January 1602 until April 1603, when John Manningham was a student at the Middle Temple. Other entries within this notebook include anecdotes, poems, inscriptions, and summaries of sermons.

Material Features

Duodecimo. Modern quarter crushed morocco on cloth boards gilt.

Acquisition

The Harleian Library was founded by Robert Harley, First Earl of Oxford (1661–1724). According to Cyril Ernest Wright, Robert Harley ‘was primarily interested in English historical and political material and in volumes of sermons and theological controversy, sharing in the latter the taste of his Harley ancestors’. See Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972), p. xxxiv.

Source of Data

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum (1808), Vol. III, pp. 261-62; Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972); CELM; Hannah Yip.

Other Note

Written in a small secretary hand. For an analysis of Manningham's sermon note-taking, see Mary Morrissey, Politics and the Paul's Cross Sermons, 1558-1642 (Oxford, 2011), pp. 40-41.

Sermon Reports Contained
URLs
http://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-festival-of-twelfth-night-in-john-manning… Information about the reference to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night in Harley MS 5353.
GEMMS record created
March 4, 2020
GEMMS record last edited
July 15, 2024