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Harley MS 101
- Record Id:
- 040-002045929
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002045929
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x00011e
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059297570.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 101
- Title:
-
Origen, Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum; Hrabanus Maurus, De institutione clericorum
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript was produced at the Benedictine abbey of St Mary the Virgin in Reading. It was produced in a stylistic period of manuscript production at the abbey that has been dated to between 1150 and 1180. Many of the abbey’s manuscripts from this period contain patristic writings, which is indicative of the perceived importance of writings by the Church Fathers for biblical interpretation (Coates, The Reading Abbey Collections (1999) pp. 58-59). This manuscript contains the commentary on the Song of Songs by the Greek theologian Origen (b. 184/185, d. 253/254). It also contains a manual for monks and clerics, De institutione clericorum (On the Education of the Clergy) by the Benedictine monk Hrabanus Maurus (d. 856).
Contents:
ff. 1r–93v: Origen, translated by Rufinus of Aquileia (b. c 345, d. 411), Commentary on the Song of Songs, beginning 'Epithalamium origenis super cantica canticorum'.
ff. 94r–118v: Hrabanus Maurus, De institutione clericorum, beginning 'Incipit prefacio rabani mauri mogontiacensis æcclesiæ episcopi' (followed by a table of contents).
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
f. 1* recto: A book curse (13th century), 'Hic lest liber Sancte Marie de Rading Quem qui celaverit vel fraudem de eo fecerit ; anathema sit').
f. 2* verso: A table of contents (13th century), 'In hoc volumine continentur iii libri Epythalaminum origenis super cantica cantirorum Liber Rabine de institutione clericorum'.
f. 119r: The opening of a sermon, ‘Sciendum est fratres karissimi. et exponendum omnibus fidelibus quod post ascensionem domini nostri iesu cristi saluatoris mundi. cum magna gloria descendit’ (see Barré, Les homéliaires carolingiens (1962), no. 49).
f. 120v: Musical notation on black ink staves (13th century), with a versicle for the office of the dead, ‘O utinam consumptus essem’.
[ff. 1* verso, [1*a] recto, [1*a] verso, 2* recto, [92a] recto, [92a] verso, [92b] recto, [92b] verso, 119v, [119a] recto, [119a] verso, 120r are blank].
Decoration:
5 large initials in red and green with foliate or geometric penwork decoration at the beginning of the preface, books, and texts (ff. 1r, 30r, 64r, 94r, 95v). Large and small initials in green or red, a few with simple penwork decoration. Headings and numerals in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002045929", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 101: Origen, Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum; Hrabanus Maurus, De institutione clericorum" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002045929 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 101 : Origen, Commentarium in Canticum Canticorum; Hrabanus Maurus, De institutione clericorum - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0100]/040-002045929
- 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_100059297570.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1180
- Date Range:
- 1150-1180
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 265 x 185 mm (text space: 180 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 2* + 120 ( + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end); f. 1* and f. 2* are medieval parchment flyleaves; 1 unfoliated parchment between f. 1* and f. 2* (f. 1*[a]); 2 unfoliated parchment leaves between f. 93 and f. 94 (f. [93a] and f. [93b]); 1 unfoliated parchment between f. 119 and f. 120 (f. [119a]); the quires have been mounted on paper guards.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum, rebound on 9 July 1965.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England, S. (Reading).
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of St Mary, Reading, Berkshire, founded in 1125: listed in its late-12th century book list as 'Epithalamium Origenis super Cantica Canticorum, ubi etiam est liber Rabani Mauri, de institutionibus clericorum' (Sharpe and others, English Benedictine Libraries (1996), p. 437 (no. B71.112)); an early 13th-century inscription, 'Hic est liber sancte marie de Rading’ on f. 1* recto. This manuscript belongs to the 'Second phase' of manuscript production at Reading which took place from the 1150s to the 1170s (see Coates, The Reading Abbey Collections (1999) p. 59.)
Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright 1972): inscribed '16' in his hand (f. 1r), and no. 221 in his list in Add. 22918 (see Watson, Fontes Harleiani, (1966), p. 124).
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, Fontes Harleiani, (1966), pp. 56-61).
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/.
Complete digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digital Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, p. 31 (no. 101).
Henri Barré, Les homéliaires carolingiens de l'école d'Auxerre, Studi e Testi, 25 (Vatican City: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, 1962), pp. 22 (no. 49), 239-344.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil Ripley Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 156.
Alan Coates, English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 30, 47, 56, 59 (no. 43).
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), p. 124 (no. A221).
Registrum anglie de libris doctorum et auctorum veterum, ed. by Richard H. & Mary A. Rouse, and R. A. B. Mynors, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 2 (London: British Library in association with the British Academy, 1991), pp. 101, 128.
English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues, ed. by R. Sharpe and others, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), p. 437.
- 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.