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Harley MS 59
- Record Id:
- 040-002045887
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002045887
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0000e4
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059466858.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 59
- Title:
-
Pseudo-Hegesippus, Historia Iosephi de Bello Iudaico et Excidio Urbis Hierosolymitanae
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript preserves the work known as Historia Iosephi de Bello Iudaico et Excidio Urbis Hierosolymitanae (The History of Josephus on the Jewish Wars and the Destruction of the City of Jerusalem), a 4th-century adaptation of Josephus' (b. 37, d. 100) Jewish Wars. The work was attributed to Hegesippus, which may have been a misspelling of ‘Josephus’.
Contents:
ff. 2r-73v: Pseudo-Hegesippus, Historia Iosephi de Bello Iudaico et Excidio Urbis Hierosolymitanae, beginning: ‘Quaecunque scriptura complexa est’.
[ff. 74r-75v are blank].
Decoration:
3 large initials in blue or in red, with reserved designs and penwork decoration alternating between green and brown (ff. 2r, 36r, 46r). 3 large initials in red with penwork decoration in blue or in blue with penwork decoration in red (ff. 2r, 26r, 54v). Numerous small initials in red or green with penwork decoration in the alternate colour (ff. 33v-73v), one in blue with penwork decoration in red (f. 38v). Numerous initials in red or green, occasionally with some penwork decoration in the same colour. Rubrics in red (ff. 2r, 26r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002045887", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 59: Pseudo-Hegesippus, Historia Iosephi de Bello Iudaico et Excidio Urbis Hierosolymitanae" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002045887 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 59 : Pseudo-Hegesippus, Historia Iosephi de Bello Iudaico et Excidio Urbis Hierosolymitanae - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0058]/040-002045887
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100059466858.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1125
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 280 x 185 mm (text space: 205 x 120 mm).
Foliation: ff. 75 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated blank parchment leaf between f. 73 and f. 74 (f. [73a]); ff. 1, [73a], 74-75 are medieval parchment flyleaves.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Rebound in 1966; the remains of the previous binding (blind-tooled dark brown leather) pasted inside covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
The Augustinian abbey of Holy Cross, Waltham, Essex, founded in 1177: inscribed with library's press-mark ('xlv. al[mario] supp[rioris]' on f. 1r in a 14th-century script (see The libraries of the Augustinian canons, ed. by Webber and Watson (1997), p. 428).
Henry Norbridge of Ilford, owned in the 16th century: inscribed with his name 'Henricus Norbrgge of Hilford' in a 16th-century script (f. 75r).
Unknown 16th- or 17th-century English owner: inscribed with the initials ‘P. W.’ in a late 16th-early 17th century hand (f. 2r).
Sir Simonds D'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton: inscribed with number '52' (f. 2r), recorded in his catalogue (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, p. 123).
Sir Simonds D’Ewes (d. 1722), 3rd baronet and grandson of the former: inherited and later sold the D’Ewes library to Robert Harley on 4 October 1705 for £450 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani, p. 131).
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 Cavendish, née 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.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 15 (no. 59).
Montague R. James, 'Manuscripts from Essex Monastic Libraries', Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 21 (1937), 34-46 (p. 39).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 193.
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 123 (no. A216), 160.
Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 131, 258, 264, 341.
The libraries of the Augustinian canons, ed. by Teresa Webber and Andrew G. Watson, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 6 (London: British Library, 1997), p. 428.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.