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Harley MS 4350

Record Id:

040-001628098

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-001628098

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000152.0x0003d4

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4350

Title:

Astronomical miscellany

Scope & Content:

Various astronomical and calendrical texts including:

Robert Grosseteste, De sphera (ff. 4r-15r);

Johannes de Sacro Bosco, Algorismus (ff. 15v-25v);

'Epistula super libello de natura scintillarum' (ff. 25v-29v);

Jordanus de Nemore, De plana sphaera (Demonstratio de plana spera; Planispherium) (ff. 30r-36v);

Campanus of Novara (?), Work on quadrant (38r-43r);

Albumasar (Abu Ma‘shar Ja‘far), De floribus astrorum (ff. 43v-67v);

Robert Grosseteste, Computus correctorius with a commentary (ff. 68r-113r);

Astronomical calendar (ff. 114r-119v).

Decoration:

5 historiated initials in colours and gold (ff. 4r, 15v, 31r, 68v). Diagrams and tables in brown and red ink with yellow (ff. 1r, 74r, 80v, 89r, 90r, 101r, 111v-113r, 118r), geometrical diagrams in red (ff. 31r-36r, 69v, 70v). Initials in colours and gold (ff. 30r, 38r, 43v, 68r). Initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour. Capitals marked with yellow. Paraphs in red or blue. Decorated catchwords.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-001628098", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4350: Astronomical miscellany" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-001654762", "parent" : "040-001628098", "text" : "Harley MS 4350, ff 4r-15r: Robert Grosseteste, De sphera" },{ "id" : "041-001654765", "parent" : "040-001628098", "text" : "Harley MS 4350, ff 15v-25v: Johannes de Sacro Bosco, Algorismus" },{ "id" : "041-001654775", "parent" : "040-001628098", "text" : "Harley MS 4350, ff 25v-29v: Epistula super libello de natura scintillarum" },{ "id" : "041-001654781", "parent" : "040-001628098", "text" : "Harley MS 4350, ff 30r-36v: Jordanus de Nemore, De plana sphaera (Demonstratio de plana spera; Planispherium)" },{ "id" : "041-001654785", "parent" : "040-001628098", "text" : "Harley MS 4350, ff 38r-43r: Campanus of Novara (?), A work on a quadrant" },{ "id" : "041-001654790", "parent" : "040-001628098", "text" : "Harley MS 4350, ff 43v-67v: Albumasar (Abu Ma‘shar Ja‘far), De floribus astrorum" },{ "id" : "041-001654797", "parent" : "040-001628098", "text" : "Harley MS 4350, ff 68r-113r: Robert Grosseteste, Computus correctorius with a commentary and tables preceded by a canon (ff. 111r-113r)" },{ "id" : "041-001654798", "parent" : "040-001628098", "text" : "Harley MS 4350, ff 114r-119v: Astronomical calendar including English saints: 'Kentegerni, Cuthberti, Oswaldi'" }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-001628098

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4350 : Astronomical miscellany

Contains:

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 4350

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4343]/040-001628098

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

123 folios.

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_4350 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1250

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

2nd half of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment codex.

Dimensions: 185 x 135 mm (text space: 100 x 65 mm).

Foliation: ff. xiii + 122 (9 flyleaves are paper and 4 flyleaves are parchment; ff. 37r-v, 113v, 120r, 123v are blank; f. 123 is a former pastedown; f. 122 has been partly excised and repaired); catchwords.

Script: Gothic. Written by several scribes.

Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding; rebound in 1970.

Custodial History:

Origin: Perhaps France, except ff. 114r-119v: England?

Provenance:

Added notes on astrology 13th/14th century (ff. 1v-2r).

Added notes recording dates of birth (1258, 1261, 1263, 1264, 1266) of several people whose names are written in Hebrew characters (f. 2r).

Added four notes in the margin referring to the battle of Benevento on 26 February 1266 between Manfred and Charles of Anjou (b. 1226, d. 1285), and two appartitions of comets preceding this event 'in Apulia au[ten] Beneventum et ibi fuit occasus dominus Manfredus cum multa habundancia saracenorum et alemanicorum qui erant ex parte sua'; 'Anno domini 1264 14 kl augusti visa est cometa et duravit eius apparicio usque ad kl octobris aparuitque in cancro'; 'Anno domini 1265 nonas februari visa est cometa apud parisienses et aparuit in ariete. et prius visa est in occidente...'; 'Illo eodem anno eiusdem mensis die 26 Karolus illustris rex Italie frater regis Francie comes andegavenie debellavit Manfredum', 13th century (f. 25v).

Erased inscription (partially visible) mentionning Capua and a date of 1350 (or 1352?) (f. 37r).

Added date of 1293 in the calendar for February (f. 114v).

Added note recording the latitude of Paris and the elevation of Aries there, late 13th century (f. 119v).

Added table for the years 1140 to 1544, ?14th century (concerned with bissextile years) (f. 120v).

Added inscription, post-medieval (f. 3r).

Pen trials and list of contents, 18th century (f. 121v).

James Woodman (d. 1728), London bookseller: acquired from Woodman by Edward Harley on 2 July 1724 (f. 1r; see Wright 1972).

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 ‘2 Julij 1724’ (f. 1r).

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. 4350.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 296 n. 3.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 358-59.

R. B. Thomson, 'Jordanus de Nemore: Opera', Mediaeval Studies, 38 (1976), 97-144.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)