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Harley MS 108

Record Id:

040-002045936

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002045936

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000125

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 108

Title:

Historia Caroli Magni et Rolandi, an account of an expedition against Egypt, a letter from the Patriarch of Jerusalem to Pope Innocent III, the Navigatio S. Brendani, extracts from the Speculum Historiale, and a chronicle of the archbishops of York

Scope & Content:

The manuscript contains:

f. 1r: Title page with post-1600 title: ‘Liber Turpini Archiepiscopi Remensis De gestis Karoli et pugna inter Rotholand et Gigantem Feracutum et morte eiusdem’.

f. 2r: Title page with post-1600 label: ‘Volumen sive Tomus 80’.

f. 3v: Table of contents, with heading: ‘In hoc volumine continentur . vij . tractatus’. The contents are those of the volume, as reproduced in the 1808 Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts.

ff. 4v-31v: Historia Caroli Magni et Rolandi (Turpin's Chronicle) in thirty-six chapters. Folio 4 is a post-1600 addition, carrying a title (‘Liber Tuprini Archiepiscopi Remensis…’) under which the original medieval page has been pasted, to continue normally on f. 5r. The text as it appears in this manuscript is not the standard version, opening with a brief section paraphrasing later episodes as, for example, the duel between Charlemagne and Ferracutus (see Jones 1936); incipit: ‘Post mortem aygolandi nunciatum est karolo quod apud vageram erat gigas quidam nomine feracutus de genere Goliad….’ The text proper begins on f. 8v, under the rubric ‘Incipit liber Turpim Archiepiscopi Remensis quomodo karolus rex francorum adquisiuit hyspaniam . hunc librum dicit kalixtus Papa esse autenticum’; incipit: ‘Gloriosissimus christi apostolus iacobus . alijs apostolis & dominicis discipulis diversa….’ Text ends on f. 31v; explicit: ‘quem scilicet urbem in primis temporibus beatus matheus apostolus & ewangelista sua predicacione ad deum convertit’.

ff. 31v-40v: An account of an expedition against Egypt lead by John de Brienne, king of Jerusalem. See Iohannis de Tulbia gesta obsidionis Damiatae et liber duelli Christiani in obsidione Damiatae exacti, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, ed. by O. Holder-Egger (Hanover: Impensis Bibliopolii Hahniani, 1808), 31, pp. 669-705.

ff. 40v-44r: A letter from the Patriarch of Jerusalem to Pope Innocent III.

ff. 45r-62r: Navigatio S. Brendani (Voyage of St Brendan).

ff. 62v-125r: Extracts relating to biblical history from the Speculum Historiale by Vincent of Beauvais.

ff. 125r-159v: A chronicle of the archbishops of York from Paulinus to William Le Zouche (d. 1352). Incipit: ‘Super statu eboracensis ecclesie et illa famosa professionis exaccione….’

The front and back cover pastedowns are each copies of James Ussher, A Body of Divinitie, or The Summe and Substance of Christian Religion, Catechistically Propounded, and Explained, by Way of Question and Answer: Methodically and Familiarly Handled (London: Downes and Badger, 1645), pp. 429-30. The front cover pastedown is positioned with p. 430 showing, while back pastedown has p. 429 visible.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002045936", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 108: Historia Caroli Magni et Rolandi, an account of an expedition against Egypt, a letter from the Patriarch of Jerusalem to Pope Innocent…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002045936

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 108 : Historia Caroli Magni et Rolandi, an account of an expedition against Egypt, a letter from the Patriarch of Jerusalem to Pope…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0107]/040-002045936

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:

1425

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

2nd or 3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Dimensions: 255 x 170 mm (text space: 175 x 110 mm).

Foliation: ff. ii + 159 + vi (2 unfoliated flyleaves at the beginning are paper and modern, 5 unfoliated flyleaves at the end are parchment, followed by 1 unfoliated flyleaf that is paper and modern; an unfoliated blank parchment leaf has been inserted between ff. 2 and 3).

Script: Gothic

Binding: Post-1600. Pastedowns are from a 1645 printed book. Brown leather binding with the gold-tooled arms of Sir Simonds D'Ewes on the upper and lower covers. Clasps missing. Fragments of the brown leather spine of a previous binding are pasted onto f. [ii].

Custodial History:

Origin:

England (York?).

Provenance:

Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1602-1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright 1972): binding with his arms.

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 (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (1689-1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (1694-1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (1715-1785), 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), I (1808), no. 108.

Harry Leigh Douglas Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, p. 574; II (1893), p. 535.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 131.

Cyril Meredith Jones, Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi, ou Chronique du pseudo-Turpin (Paris, 1936), pp. 7-8.

Jonn F. Hinnebusch, ‘Extant manuscripts of the writings of Jacques de Vitry’, Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 51 (1997), 156-64 (p. 159).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Bentinck, Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Portland, née Harley, collector of art and natural history specimens and patron of arts and sciences, 11 Feb 1715-17 Jul 1785,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000115857160,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/2356861
D'Ewes, Simonds, 3rd Baronet, grandson of the Antiquary, c 1670-1722
D’Ewes, Simonds, 1st Baronet, diarist and antiquary, 1602-1650,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000083393524,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/12656415
Harley, Edward, second earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, 2 Jun 1689-16 Jun 1741,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000108078249,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/160524259
Harley, Henrietta Cavendish, Countess of Oxford and Mortimer, née Holles, patron of architecture, 4 Feb 1694-9 Dec 1755,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000030125833,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/6045563
Harley, Robert, first Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, 5 Dec 1661-21 May 1724,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000083423906
Innocent III, Pope, 1160/61-1216,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000122769169,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/16017787
Vincent of Beauvais, 1189/94 - c 1264

Related Material:

Excerpt from: A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 108:

Codex Membranaceus in 4^to. in quo scribuntur,

1. Liber Turpini Archiepiscopi Rhemensis de Gestis Karoli Regis Francorum: De Pugna inter Rotholandum & Gigantem Ferracutum; et quomodo adquisivit Hispaniam. (partim ineditus uti notavit D Sim. D’Ewes). 1.

2. Cronica D^~ni Johannis Regis Jerusalem (Inedita). 28. b.

3. Chronica de D^~no Innocentio Papa, et Patriarcha Jerosolimitano, i.e. Responsio Patriarchae, ad quaestiones Papae, de moribus Turcarum et Saracenorum. 37. b.

4. Vita B. Brandani Abbatis, de diversis Miraculis que vidit in Oceano. 42.

5. Excerpta e Vincentij Belluacencis Speculo Historiali. 59. b.

6. Chronica Pontificum Ecclesiae Eboracensis, usq; ad sepulturam Willelmi la Souch, f. per Thomam Stobaeum sive Stubs; sed qu. 122.