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Harley MS 2320

Record Id:

040-002032695

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002032695

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000153.0x000200

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2320

Title:

Miscellany of treatises relating to prognostication, astrology and braiding in verse and prose

Scope & Content:

The miscellany comprises texts on prognostication, astrology and braiding. Medical recipes and other notes were added at a later stage to the endleaves (ff. 71r, 74r).

Contents include:

1. Calendar (ff. 1r-4v);

2. Prognostication attributed to Bartholomew of Parma (ff. 5r-30v);

3. A lunar prognostication in verse (ff. 31r-52r);

4. Directions for braiding (ff. 52r-70v);

5. Medical recipe (f. 71r);

6. Prognostication by dominical letter (added in the late 15th century) (f. 73r);

7. A table of contents (late 16th or 17th cent.) on f. 73v;

8. Two medical recipes for mothers with their later transcriptions (ff. 73v-74r).

Decoration:

Three large historiated initials in red or blue on gold ground, with decorated borders (ff. 5, 31). The subjects of the illustrations are: f. 5r, 'F'(ader): a man kneeling in prayer; f 31r, 'H'(e): a scribe at work; 52r, 'I'(n): a woman making lace.

Smaller initials in blue with red pen-flourishing adopting foliate patterns. Initials in red or blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002032695", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2320: Miscellany of treatises relating to prognostication, astrology and braiding in verse and prose" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-002032696", "parent" : "040-002032695", "text" : "Harley MS 2320, ff 1r-4v: Calendar" },{ "id" : "041-002032697", "parent" : "040-002032695", "text" : "Harley MS 2320, ff 5r-30v: Prognostication attributed to Bartholomew of Parma" },{ "id" : "041-002032698", "parent" : "040-002032695", "text" : "Harley MS 2320, ff 31r-52r: A lunar prognostication in verse" },{ "id" : "041-002032699", "parent" : "040-002032695", "text" : "Harley MS 2320, ff 52r-70v: Directions for braiding" },{ "id" : "041-002032700", "parent" : "040-002032695", "text" : "Harley MS 2320, f 71r: Medical recipe" },{ "id" : "041-002032701", "parent" : "040-002032695", "text" : "Harley MS 2320, f 73r: Prognostication by dominical letter" },{ "id" : "041-002032702", "parent" : "040-002032695", "text" : "Harley MS 2320, ff 73v-74r: Medical recipes for mothers" }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002032695

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2320 : Miscellany of treatises relating to prognostication, astrology and braiding in verse and prose

Contains:

Harley MS 2320, ff 1r-4v : Calendar
Harley MS 2320, ff 5r-30v : Prognostication attributed to Bartholomew of Parma
Harley MS 2320, ff 31r-52r : A lunar prognostication in verse
Harley MS 2320, ff 52r-70v : Directions for braiding
Harley MS 2320, f 71r : Medical recipe
Harley MS 2320, f 73r : Prognostication by dominical letter
Harley MS 2320, ff 73v-74r : Medical recipes for mothers

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 2320

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2322]/040-002032695

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_2320 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

English
English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 15th century-17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment codex.

Dimensions: 157 x 123 mm (text space: 103-105 x 75 mm).

Foliation: ff. iv + 74 (all flyleaves are paper). Modern foliation in pencil '1-74' (ff. 71, 72v-74 originally blank).

Collation: Gatherings individually mounted on guards: i^6-3(first and second missing; sixth now attached to the second gathering),ii⁸⁺¹ (first added from first gathering), iii^8-1 (second missing), iv-ix⁸, x^8-1 (fifth cancelled), with horizontal catchwords^.

Layout: Ruled in ink for single columns of 17 lines, first line below top line (33 lines with first above top line on ff. 1-4v, calendar).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum/British Library binding with the Harley arms and motto gilt-tooled at centre of covers. The brown-leather covers from the previous Harleian binding pasted onto modern pastedowns; possibly attributable to C. Chapman as the blind-tooling is identical to Chapman Roll 5 illustrated in H. Nixon, 'Harleian Bindings', in Studies in the Book Trade in Honour of Graham Pollard, Bibliographical Society Publications, n.s., 18 (Oxford, 1975), pl. 14.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Added inscriptions and texts including medical recipes, 15th -16th century (ff. 70v, 71r, 72v-74r).

Inscribed 'Born the 5 of September in the morn. 1552. Richerd Havell. Richerd Hooper, Maud Derrye' 16th century (f. 19v).

John Warburton (1682-1759), herald and antiquary: sold to Edward Harley (1689-1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, on 15 July 1720 together with other manuscripts from his collection: the sale endorsement noted on 16 July 1720 (f. 1r) by Harley's librarian, Humfrey Wanley (1672-1726): 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 ‘16 July 1720’ (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. Harley shelfmarks '100.A.12 / 2320' in dark brown ink and '2 / IV A' in pencil (f. i recto).

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2320.

Rossel Hope Robbins, ‘English Almanacks of the Fifteenth Century’, Philological Quarterly 18, 4 (1939), 321-331 (p. 321, n. 2).

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 61 n. 4.

Rossel Hope Robbins, 'Medical Manuscripts in Middle English', Speculum, 45 (1970), 393-415 (p. 403 n. 28).

C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 346-47.

E. G. Stanley, ‘Directions for Making Many Sorts of Laces’, in Chaucer and Middle English Studies in Honour of Russell Hope Robbins, ed. by Beryl Holland (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1974), pp. 89-103.

Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), I, p. 72 n. 25 and II, p. 78.

R. Carroll, 'Recipes for Laces: An Example of a Middle English Discourse Colony', in Discourse Perspectives on English: Medieval to Modern, ed. by R. Hiltunen and J. Skaffari (Amsterdam, 2003), pp. 137-165.

J. Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: British Library, 2005), p. 304.

L. Mooney, D. Mosser, E. Solopova and D. Radcliff, 'The Digital Index of Middle English Verse' [the entry for the present manuscript is at: http://www.dimev.net/Records.php?MSS=BLHar2320].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)