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Harley MS 100

Record Id:

040-002045928

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002045928

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x00011d

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 100

Title:

Psalter

Scope & Content:

ff. 3r–8v: Calendar, including various English saints: Wulstan, Cuthbert and his translation, Edward, Dunstan, Aldhelm, Edmund, Etheldreda, Kenelm, Oswald, Cuthbert, Wulfran, translation of Wenefrede, and in red, translation of Swythune, Margaret, Mary Magdalene, Anne, translation of Edward, Gregory.

ff. 9r–132r: Psalms.

ff. 132r–143r: Canticles and Quicumque vult.

ff. 143r–148v: Litany and various prayers, including Alban, Oswald, Dunstan, Cuthbert, Swithune, Edward, Wulstan, Wulfram, Etheldreda, Mildreda, Wythburga, Sexburga, Ermenadis, Radegund.

ff. 149r–176v: Office of the Dead, followed by various prayers.

Decoration:

Large initial in colours and gold combined with a full foliate bar border (f. 9r), or with a partial foliate bar border where the gold is sometimes replaced by yellow (ff. 27v, 40r, 62r, 76v, 90r, 104r, 149r). Large puzzle initial in red and blue with foliate decoration in colours forming a partial bar border (f. 155r). Large puzzle initial in red and blue with flourishing forming a partial border (f. 173r). Partial foliate bar border accompanying prayers to be said on Easter Sunday (f. 165r). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing including foliate motifs. Coloured initials in alternating blue or red. Line-fillers in red or blue. Catchwords written on scrolls. Initials marked in red (or in yellow, ff. 167r-176v only). The decoration on f. 155r is unusual in its blending of flourishing and full colours.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002045928", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 100: Psalter" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002045928

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 100 : Psalter

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0099]/040-002045928

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1449

Date Range:

1st half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Format: parchment.

Dimensions: 265 × 185 mm (written area 170 × 105 mm)

Foliation: ff. 176 (+ 3 modern unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginnning + 1 unfoliated ruled parchment leaf after f. 2 + 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 3 modern paper flyleaves at the end).

Collation: i, i–vi⁸ (ff. 1–48), vii^8–1 (ff. 49–55; 3rd excised), viii–xiv⁸ (ff. 56–111), xv^8–1 (ff. 112–118; 7th excised), xvi–xxi⁸ (ff. 119–166), xxii¹⁰ (ff. 167–176), i. Ends imperfectly. ff. 1–2b are ruled parchment leaves with later inscriptions.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound in 1964.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

?The Benedictine abbey (nuns) of Barking, Essex, 15th century: added in the calendar, 'in die sancte ethelburge de Barkyng' (10 October; f. 7v).,

Various added inscriptions, 15th-16th century (ff. 1v-2v).

?Bettres [?Beatrice] Torbrow, early 16th century: inscribed 'Remember the sowll of Bettres Torbrow' (f. 8v, in lower margin).

?Peter Newp[ort?], 16th century: inscribed with his name (f. 175).

Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright 1972).

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 Watson 1966).

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:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 100.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), no. A259.

Christopher Wordsworth and Henry Littlehales, The Old Service-Books of the English Church, 2nd edn (London: Methuen & Co., 1910), p. 61.

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. 64, 131, 251, 330.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Barking Abbey, Essex