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Harley MS 3969

Record Id:

040-001687986

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-001687986

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000195.0x000017

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3969

Title:

Works on history, natural history and rhetoric

Scope & Content:

The manuscript includes:

William of Malmesbury, De dictis et factis memorabilibus philosophorum (Polyhistor) (ff. 3r-40v);

5 works on orthography with a summarising 'explicit' note by William of Malmesbury (f. 62r):

Cassiodorus Senator, De orthographia (ff. 41r-52r);
Caprus, Liber de orthographia (ff. 52r-53v);
Agroecius, De orthographia (ff. 53v-56r);
Albinus, Orthographia (ff. 56r-57v);
Bede, De orthographia (ff. 57v-62r);

Censorinus, Ad Cerellium de natali die ( ff. 63r-74v);

L. Apuleius, Secreta Platonica (ff. 75r-91r);

L. Apuleius, De deo Socratis (ff. 91r-96v);

De phisiognomia (ff. 97r-105v);

Marbod of Rennes (Marbodus), Lapidarium, with glosses (ff. 106r-123r);

L. Apuleius, De deo Socratis (fragment) (ff. 124r-129r);

L. Apuleius, De Platone et eius dogmate (ff. 129r-139v);

Priscian, Solutiones physicorum (ff. 139v-160v);

A short chronicle (ff. 161r-164r);

Dares Phrygius, De excidio Troie historia (ff. 164r-167v);

Phisicon Protheron (ff. 168r-196r);

Albericus Casinensis, Liber dictaminum et saluationum (ff. 196r-206r);

De septem septenis (ff. 206v-215v);

Joachim of Fiore, Commentary on Revelation (ff. 216r-224r);

C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), De presagiis temporum (excerpt from the Historia naturalis, book 18, 78-90) (ff. 224r-224v);

Hieronimus, Epistola ad Helvidium (ff. 225r-231v).

Decoration:

2 historiated initials in colours and gold of the author and a bishop, with a foliated tendrils extending into the margin (f. 41r). Large initials in colours and gold with a dragon and ivy tendrils extending into the margin (ff. 83v, 91r, 139v, 164r, 168r, 196r, 206v). Initials in gold with two lion heads (f. 52r), with foliate decoration on a gold ground (f. 73v). Large puzzle initials in red and blue with purple and red pen-flourishing (ff. 77v, 106r), or with brown and red pen-flourishing (f. 225r). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing including foliate motifs. Capitals marked in red or in yellow. Paraphs in red or blue. Space left blank for initial (f. 224r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-001687986", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3969: Works on history, natural history and rhetoric" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-001687987", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 3r-40v: William of Malmesbury, De dictis et factis memorabilibus philosophorum (Polyhistor), imperfect" },{ "id" : "041-001687988", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 41r-52r: Cassiodorus Senator, De orthographia" },{ "id" : "041-001687989", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 52r-53v: Caprus, Liber de orthographia" },{ "id" : "041-001687990", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 53v-56r: Agroecius, De orthographia" },{ "id" : "041-001687991", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 56r-57v: Albinus, Orthographia" },{ "id" : "041-001687992", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 57v-62r: Bede, De orthographia" },{ "id" : "041-001716284", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 63r-74v: Censorinus, Ad Cerellium de natali die (imperfect)" },{ "id" : "041-001716286", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 75r-91r: L. Apuleius, Secreta Platonica (imperfect)" },{ "id" : "041-001716287", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 91r-96v: L. Apuleius, De deo Socratis (imperfect, a leaf excised at the end)" },{ "id" : "041-001716289", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 97r-105v: De phisiognomia (imperfect: missing text at the beginning)" },{ "id" : "041-001716290", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 106r-123r: Marbod of Rennes (Marbodus), Lapidarium, with gloss" },{ "id" : "041-001716292", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 124r-129r: L. Apuleius, De deo Socratis (fragment)" },{ "id" : "041-001716293", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 129r-139v: L. Apuleius, De Platone et eius dogmate" },{ "id" : "041-001716294", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 139v-160v: Priscian, Solutiones physicorum" },{ "id" : "041-001716295", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 161r-164r: A short chronicle" },{ "id" : "041-001716296", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 164r-167v: Dares Phrygius, De excidio Troie historia (imperfect, text missing at the end) in Latin translation" },{ "id" : "041-001716297", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 168r-196r: Phisicon Protheron" },{ "id" : "041-001716298", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 196r-206r: Albericus Casinensis, Liber dictaminum et saluationum" },{ "id" : "041-001716299", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 206v-215v: De septem septenis attributed to Robertus de Cursone or John of Salisbury (imperfect: text missing at the end)." },{ "id" : "041-001716301", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 216r-224r: Joachim of Fiore, Commentary on Revelation (imperfect, text missing at the beginning)" },{ "id" : "041-001716302", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 224r-224v: C. Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder), De presagiis temporum (excerpt from the Historia naturalis, book 18, 78-90)…" },{ "id" : "041-001716304", "parent" : "040-001687986", "text" : "Harley MS 3969, ff 225r-231v: Hieronimus, Epistola ad Helvidium" }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-001687986

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3969 : Works on history, natural history and rhetoric

Contains:

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 3969

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3962]/040-001687986

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

236 folios.

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_3969 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1300

End Date:

1349

Date Range:

1st half of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment codex.

Dimensions: 335 x 240 mm (text space: 200 x 130 mm).

Foliation: v + i + 39* + 236 (ff. i and 236 are paper flyleaves, ff. 1-2, 232-235 are parchment flyleaves; ff. 1and 233 are former pastedowns); ff. 62v, 123v are blank and partly ruled. Numerous folios are missing, including after ff. 2, 96, 215, 224, etc; Catchwords and quire signatures.

Script: Gothic.

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

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

Added table of contents, 14th century (f. 233r). Added ?price, 14th or 15th century (f. 232v).

Emmanuel College, Cambridge (see Wright 1972).

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. i verso), 'Liber Tho: Baker' (f. 236r) and other annotations in his hand (e.g., ff. 2r, 3r, 41r).

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: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III (1808) , no. 3969.

Montague Rhodes James, The Western Manuscripts in the Library of Emmanuel College, (Cambridge: University Press, 1904), p. xiii.

C. H. Talbot, ‘A List of Cistercian Manuscripts in Great Britain’, Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought and Religion, 8 (1952), 402-18 (p. 411).

Marjorie Reeves, The Influence of Prophecy in the Later Middle Ages: A study in Joachimism (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p. 514.

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. 60, 93.

Richard H. Rouse and Rodney M. Thomson, 'Censorius', in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by L. D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 48-50 (p. 49).

Rodney Thomson, William of Malmesbury (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1987) pp. 5, 29, 43, 59, 61, 198-99, 201.

Rodney Thomson, 'Where were the Latin Classics in Twelfth-Century England?', English Manuscript Studies, 7 (1995), 25-40 (p. 38 n. 37).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)