In the Harleian MSS
Preserved but no longer current.
(530) is an account of Peter Bales, a clerk of the Court of Chancery about 1590 who wrote out the whole Bible so small that he in- closed it in a walnut shell of English growth. Lalanne describes, in his Curiosity Bibliographiques, an edition of Rochefoucault's Maximes, published by Didot in 1829, on pages one inch square, each page containing 26 hnes, and each line 44 letters.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “In the Harleian MSS” mean?
(530) is an account of Peter Bales, a clerk of the Court of Chancery about 1590 who wrote out the whole Bible so small that he in- closed it in a walnut shell of English growth. Lalanne describes, in his Curiosity Bibliographiques, an edition of Rochefoucault's Maximes, published by Didot in 1829, on pages one inch square, each page containing 26 hnes, and each line 44 letters.
Is “In the Harleian MSS” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.