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 3487

Record Id:

040-001716325

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-001716325

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000195.0x00001d

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3487

Title:

Aristotle, Libri naturales

Scope & Content:

The manuscript includes Aristotle, Libri Naturales (corpus vetustius), with glosses:

Physica (ff. 4r-65v);

De coelo et mundo (ff. 65v-121r);

De generatione (ff. 121v-140v);

Meteora, appended with Avicenna, De mineralibus (ff. 140v-173r);

De anima (ff. 173r-197r);

De memoria et reminiscentia (ff. 197r-200r);

De vita et morte (ff. 200r-202r);

Pseudo-Aristotle, De differentia spiritus et animae (ff. 202r-208r);

De somno et vigilia (ff. 208r-216r);

De sensu et sensato (ff. 216r-224r);

Nicholas of Damascus, De plantis (ff. 224r-235v).

Decoration:

29 historiated initials in colours and gold, with animated extensions or partial bar borders, and pen-flourishing in gold, red and blue (ff. 4r, 4v, 10r, 16v, 22v, 34r, 39v, 47v, 52r, 65v, 103v, 116r, 121v, 140v, 145r, 152r, 161r, 173r, 180r, 191r, 197r, 200r, 202r, 202v, 208r, 211v, 214v, 216r, 224r).

Initials in red with pen-flourishing in red, and blue. Running headers in blue, and red and sometimes gold, with penwork decoration, some in the form of heads. Paraphs in blue. Rubrics in while, red, or blue. Marginal diagrams in red, brown, and blue, with green and blue, and sometimes yellow washes (ff. 69r, 69v, 70v, 76v, 90r, 90v, 92v). Marginal drawing of an animal, in colours (f. 142v). Sketches for the illuminator (ff. 16v, 22r, 34r, 52r, 103v, 116r, 140v, 152r, 161r, 173r, 180r, 191r, 197r, 200r, 202v, 202r, 208r, 211v, 214v, 216r, 224r).

The illuminations are attributed to the Glazier Bible group. Other manuscript attributed to the same workshop or artist are Organon, Cambridge, Pembroke College, MS 193; Averroes, Commentary on Aristotle, Methaphisica, Oxford, Merton College, MS 269 (see Camille 1985); and Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee. 2. 31 (see Morgan 1988).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-001716325", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3487: Aristotle, Libri naturales" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-001779603", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 4r-65v: Aristotle, Physica" },{ "id" : "041-001779607", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 65v-121r: Aristotle, De coelo et mundo" },{ "id" : "041-001779613", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 121v-140v: Aristotle, De generatione" },{ "id" : "041-001779616", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 140v-173r: Aristotle, Meteora" },{ "id" : "041-001779617", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 173r-197r: Aristotle, De anima" },{ "id" : "041-001779618", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 197r-200r: Aristotle, De memoria et reminiscentia" },{ "id" : "041-001779619", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 200r-202r: Aristotle, De vita et morte" },{ "id" : "041-001779620", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 202r-208r: Pseudo-Aristotle, De differentia spiritus et animae" },{ "id" : "041-001779621", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 208r-216r: Aristotle, De somno et vigilia" },{ "id" : "041-001779622", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 216r-224r: Aristotle, De sensu et sensato" },{ "id" : "041-001779623", "parent" : "040-001716325", "text" : "Harley MS 3487, ff 224r-235v: Nicholas of Damascus, De plantis" }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-001716325

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3487 : Aristotle, Libri naturales

Contains:

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 3487

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3488]/040-001716325

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_3487 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1250

End Date:

1274

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 13th century

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:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment codex.

Dimensions: 370 x 245 mm (text space: 175 x 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. vii + 235 + iiii (ff. i-3 and ii-iii are medieval parchment flyleaves). Catchwords. Quire signatures consisting of a series of short lines.

Script: Gothic; written below top line.

Binding: Post-1600; black leather binding with blind tooling.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England (Oxford?).

According to Morgan (1988), the shield, quarterly sable and argent, a crescent gules in the first and fourth, on f. 216r suggests that the manuscript belonged to a member of the family of Beauchamp of Bedford, perhaps the son of Geoffrey Beauchamp (fl. c. 1256).

Provenance:

Added 15th-century list of contents (f. 1v) and notes, 13th-14th century (ff. 2r, 3v).

Nicholas of Cusa [Nicholaus von Kues, or Nicholas Cusanus] (1401–August 11, 1464), cardinal and theologian; given by him with other books from his library to St Nicholas hospital, founded by him in Cues in 1451: ownership inscription of St Nicholas hospital 'Liber hospitalis sancti Nocolai prope cusam' (f. 235v).

Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681-c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the continent, where his agent was George Suttie: acquired from him for the Harley collection.

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 with the date of acquisition by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘18 die Januarii, A. D. 1723/4' (f. i).

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. 3487.

Eric. G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth Century (Paris: Van Oest, 1926), p. 128.

Paul Lehmann, Mitteilungen aus Handschriften, 2, Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Abteilung, 2 (Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,1930), pp. 3-55 (p. 24).

George Lacombe, Aristoteles Latinus (Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1939), no. 302.

Loren MacKinney and Thomas Herndon, Medical Illustrations in Medieval Manuscripts, Wellcome Historical Medical Library, New Series, 5 (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965), no. 86.44.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, pp. xxxix-xl.

R. Haubst, 'Cod. Harl. 3487', Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellschaft, 12 (1977), 21-36.

Michael Camille, 'Illustrations in Harley MS 3487 and the Perception of Aristotle's Libri Naturales in Thirteenth-Century England', in England in the Thirteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by W.M. Ormrod (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1985), pp. 31-44.

Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London: Harvey Miller, 1982-1988), II: 1250-1285, no. 145.

Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 68, 185, figs 108-09.

Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (London: Reaktion, 1992), pp. 22-23, pl. 7.

Sophie Page, Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), p. 37, pl. 27.

C. M. Kauffmann, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1500 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003), p. 312 n. 74.

Kathryn A. Smith, Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England: Three Women and their Books of Hours, (London: British Library, 2003), p. 277.

The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), pp. 371, 373

M. A. Michael, 'Urban production of manuscript books and the role of the university towns', in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain (Cambridge: University Press, 1999- ), II: 1100-1400, ed. by Nigel Morgan and Rodney M. Thomson (2008), pp. 168-94 (p. 179 n. 69).

Orietta da Rold, 'Codicology, Location and MS Laud. Misc. 108', in Makers and users of medieval books: essays in honour of A.S.G. Edwards, ed. by Carol M. Meale & Derek Pearsall, (Cambridge: Brewer, 2014), pp. 48-60 (pp. 57-58).

Exhibitions:

Greek Manuscripts, (online), 18 September 2016-
Writing: Making Your Mark, British Library, 26 April 2019 - 27 August 2019

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)