This folio volume contains letters written by prominent individuals such as the Duke of Norfolk and the Earl of Leicester, dating from 1571 to 1574.
Note on f. 2v: '7 Septeber 1723. Given by Mr George Harbyn'. Another note on f. v: 'Given by Mr Geo. Holmes'. Finally, 'Bought of H. W. [Humfrey Wanley]' has been inscribed on f. 82v.
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.
British Library online catalogue; Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972); A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum (1808), Vol. III, pp. 466-68; Hannah Yip.