Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 4486

Record Id:

040-001617680

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-001617680

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000109.0x000354

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4486

Title:

A treatise on alchemy and medicine, and the Livre de Sydrac

Scope & Content:

Two manuscripts bound together including a treatise on alchemy and medicine (ff. 1r-67r) and the Livre de Sydrac (ff. 69r-146r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-001617680", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4486: A treatise on alchemy and medicine, and the Livre de Sydrac" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-001617685", "parent" : "040-001617680", "text" : "Harley MS 4486, ff 1r-67r: Treatise on alchemy and medicine" },{ "id" : "041-001617686", "parent" : "040-001617680", "text" : "Harley MS 4486, ff 69r-146r: Livre de Sydrac" }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-001617680

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4486 : A treatise on alchemy and medicine, and the Livre de Sydrac

Contains:

Harley MS 4486, ff 1r-67r : Treatise on alchemy and medicine
Harley MS 4486, ff 69r-146r : Livre de Sydrac

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 4486

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4480]/040-001617680

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

148 folios.

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_4486 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

English, Middle
French
French, Old
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1350

End Date:

1631

Date Range:

1350-1631

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: ff. 1r-67v + iii: Paper codex; ff. 68r-148v: Parchment codex.

Dimensions: ff. 1r-67v: 260 x 165 mm (text space: 210 x 120 mm); ff. 68r-148v: 255 x 170 mm (text space: 205 x 115 mm).

Foliation: ff. viii + 148 (+ 2 unfoliated paper leaves after f. 67; ff. 69 and 147-148 are original parchment flyleaves). Original pagination 1-117 (ff. 2r-67r). ff. 68r-146r: catchwords and quire signatures.

Script: ff. 1r-67r: Italic; ff. 69r-146r: Gothic cursive,

Binding: British Museum /British Library in-house binding; rebound in 1968.

Custodial History:

Origin: ff. 1r-67v: France or England; ff. 68r-148v: England.

Provenance:

Part 1 (ff. 1r-67v):

Pierre Séguier (b. 1588, d. 1672), chancellor of France from 1635 (see Wright 1972).

Andrew Hay (d. 1754?), dealer: sold together with other manuscripts from the Séguier collection on 5 September 1720.

Part II (ff. 68r-148v):

Added texts and inscriptions in Middle English and Latin, 14th-15th-century (ff. 68r, 146r-148r).

Thomas Baker (b. 1656, d. 1740), nonjuring Church of England clergyman and antiquary (deprived of his fellowship at St John's,Cambridge in 1717): inscribed 'Tho: Baker' (f. 147v).

Both Parts:

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, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘5 septembris 1720’ (f. [iv]); no date at the beginning of part 2.

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), III (1808), no. 4486.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 60.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)