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Harley MS 208
- Record Id:
- 040-001609007
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-001609007
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001442.0x000284
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 208
- Title:
- Letters of Alcuin and Dungal
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
Alcuin, Epistolae (91 letters) (ff. 1r-112r);
Two added letters, incipit: 'Eximiae indolis honore fulgido...'; and 'Praeconio eximiae sanctitatis recolendo Domino R episcoporum sanctissimo divina miseratione Wilelmus devotus episcopus' (f. 112r);
Dungalus, Epistolae (5 letters) (ff. 113r-115v);
Letter from Charlemagne to Emperor Michael I (ff. 115v-116v);
Dungalus, Epistolae (2 letters) (ff. 116v-117r);
Alcuin, Epistolae (Ad discipulos Sancti Martini epistola) (ff. 117v-119v).
Decoration: Large initials in brown, some highlighted in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Harley Science Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-001609007", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 208: Letters of Alcuin and Dungal" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-001615667", "parent" : "040-001609007", "text" : "Harley MS 208, ff 1*r-1*v: Title page and table of contents" },{ "id" : "041-001615672", "parent" : "040-001609007", "text" : "Harley MS 208, ff 1r-112r: Alcuin, Epistolae" },{ "id" : "041-001615674", "parent" : "040-001609007", "text" : "Harley MS 208, f 112r (item 1): A letter 'Eximie indolis honore fulgido'" },{ "id" : "041-001615676", "parent" : "040-001609007", "text" : "Harley MS 208, f 112r (item 2): A letter 'Praeconio eximiae sanctitatis recolendo'" },{ "id" : "041-001615678", "parent" : "040-001609007", "text" : "Harley MS 208, ff 113r-115v: Dungalus, Epistolae" },{ "id" : "041-001615682", "parent" : "040-001609007", "text" : "Harley MS 208, ff 115v-116v: Letter from Charlemagne to Emperor Michael I" },{ "id" : "041-001615684", "parent" : "040-001609007", "text" : "Harley MS 208, ff 116v-117r: Dungalus, Epistolae" },{ "id" : "041-001615691", "parent" : "040-001609007", "text" : "Harley MS 208, ff 117v-119v: Alcuin, Epistolae (Ad pueros Sancti Martini epistola)" }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-001609007 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 208 : Letters of Alcuin and Dungal - Contains:
- Harley MS 208, ff 1*r-1*v : Title page and table of contents
Harley MS 208, ff 1r-112r : Alcuin, Epistolae
Harley MS 208, f 112r (item 1) : A letter 'Eximie indolis honore fulgido'
Harley MS 208, f 112r (item 2) : A letter 'Praeconio eximiae sanctitatis recolendo'
Harley MS 208, ff 113r-115v : Dungalus, Epistolae
Harley MS 208, ff 115v-116v : Letter from Charlemagne to Emperor Michael I
Harley MS 208, ff 116v-117r : Dungalus, Epistolae
Harley MS 208, ff 117v-119v : Alcuin, Epistolae (Ad pueros Sancti Martini epistola)
Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 208 - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0207]/040-001609007
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_208 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0800
- End Date:
- 1699
- Date Range:
- 9th century-17th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 200 x 140 mm (text space: 155 x 115 mm).
Foliation: ff. viii + 1* + 119 (+ unfoliated parchment leaves before and after f. 1*).
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600; brown leather binding with the arms of Sir Simonds d'Ewes in the centre of each cover.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
France, written at Saint-Denis, according to M. Bischoff (see Nebbiai-Della Guarda 1985).
Provenance:
The cathedral church of St Peter, York: inscribed 'Ebor' (f. 119v).
Marginal scribble in Old English 'hwæt ic eall feala ealde sæge', late 10th or early 11th-century (f. 88r); see Ker 1957.
Sir Simonds D'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright 1972): his binding and arms; listed in his catalogue (see Ker 1957); number '74' written in his hand (see Watson 1965). In 1641 the manuscript was borrowed from him by James Ussher (b. 1581, d. 1656), archbishop of Armagh and scholar: a title in his hand (f. 1r), and notes 'edita', or 'non edita' at the beginning of each letter.
Sir Simonds D’Ewes (d. 1722), 3rd baronet and grandson of the former: inherited and later sold the D’Ewes library to Robert Harley on 4 October 1705 for £450 (see Watson 1966).
The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d.1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, no. 208.
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story (London: The British Library, 2018), no. 77 [exhibition catalogue].
Stephen Allott, Alcuin of York (York: William Sessions, 1974) [translation of the text].
E. Maunde Thompson and G. F. Warner], Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1881-1884), Part II ~Latin~, p. 86, pl. 51.
Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingishen Miniaturen', in Zweiter Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 52-77 (p. 56).
N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), no. 229.
Luitpold Wallach, Alcuin and Charlemagne (New York: Cornell University Press, 1959), pp. 266-274 [on the text].
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 216.
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), no. B165, p. 57 n. 280, pls II, III, V.
Mirella Ferrari, 'In Papia conveniant ad Dungalum', Italia Medioevale e Umanistica, 15 (1972), p. 3.
Donatella Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda, La bibliothèque de l'Abbaye de Saint-Denis en France du IXe au XVIIIe siècle (Paris: CNRS, 1985), pp. 293, 318.
The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture AD 600-900, ed. by Leslie Webster and Janet Backhouse (London: British Museum, 1991), no. 129 [exhibition catalogue].
Helmut Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 241 (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), no. 417.
Michelle P. Brown, Painted Labyrinth: The World of the Lindisfarne Gospels (London: British Library, 2003), p. 46.
Simon Keynes, ‘The “Canterbury letter-book”: Alcuin and after’, in Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story with Eleanor Jackson (Dublin: Four Courts, 2021), pp. 119-140 (pp. 119, 121, 124 n. 31, 126 n. 42).
- Exhibitions:
- Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, British Library, London, 19 October 2018 - 19 February 2019
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)