At the end of Hylton's tract B viii a the date mcccccxvi last daye of Feb.
On the verso Pynson's device with break in lower border.
Hearne's preface to Otterbourne (i, p. xliv) contains some interesting matter bearing on the tract, which I summarize here.
No one, he says, except John Blakman has yet written a special life of Henry VI, and Blakman's is not an opus absolutum but a "fragmentum duntaxat operis longe majoris alicubi forte nunc etiam latentis."
Vita haecce qualiscunque in lucem prodiit Londini a.d. m.d.x. a Roberto Coplandio ... excusus. Eiusdem exemplaria adeo rara sunt ut vix reperias in bibliothecis etiam instructissimis. Penes se autem habet amicus excultissimus Jacobus Westus, qui pro necessitudine illa quae inter nos intercedit, non tantum mutuo dedit, sed et licentiam concessit exscribendi. Id quod feci.
West had acquired his copy by purchase, among a number of printed books formerly the property of Archbishop Sancroft.
On p. xlix Hearne tells us that Sancroft had written the following note in his copy of the tract:
Hunc libellum conscribendum curavit Henricus VIIus, cum Julio papa II agens de Henrico VI in Sanctorum numerum referendo. De quo vide Jac. Waraei annales H. 7. A° 1504.
Ware (and Hearne) print the Bull of Julius, directing an inquiry into Henry's sanctity and miracles. I may add that some part of the results of this negotiation may be seen in the manuscript collection of Henry VIth's miracles preserved in the Royal MS. 13. c. viii and in the MS. Harley 423 (a partial copy of the other), both in the British Museum.[1]
Furthermore Hearne reprints what is properly called a Memoria of King Henry VI such as is to be found in a fairly large number of Books of Hours or Primers both manuscript and printed. Hearne's text is taken from Horae printed by Wynkyn de Worde 1510, f. cli a, and is as follows.