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Harley MS 178

Record Id:

040-002046006

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046006

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000193

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 178

Title:

Anselm of Canterbury, Meditationes

Scope & Content:

ff. 1r–93v: Anselm of Canterbury, Meditationes.

Decoration:

Numerous puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing and infill in red and some blue; infill frequently includes trifoliate leaf motifs; tendrils of pen-flourishing frequently end in heart-shaped leaf. Rubrics in red. Capitals marked with red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046006", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 178: Anselm of Canterbury, Meditationes" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046006

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 178 : Anselm of Canterbury, Meditationes

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0177]/040-002046006

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

Parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1300

End Date:

1349

Date Range:

1st half of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Dimensions: 135 × 85 mm (written area 95 × 55 mm).

Foliation: ff. ii + 93 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end; f. i–ii are parchment flyleaves, f. ii at the end of the manuscript).

Collation: i, i–xi⁸ (ff. 1–88), x^8–3 (ff. 89–93; 6th–8th cancelled), i.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Fore-edges painted with a geometric design in red and black; traces of turn-ins and of wooden boards of a previous binding on ff. i, ii [= 94].

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

William Lynford: inscribed, early 16th century 'Willelmus Lynford de Stokehold' (?); added (apparently by same hand) arms (f. i verso).

John Bury, 16th century: inscribed with his name (ff. 1r, ?68r).

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 (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.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 178.

Anselmi Opera Omnia, ed. by F. S. Schmidt, 6 vols (Rome and Edinburgh: Secovii, 1938 - 68) [edition of the text].

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), no. A851.

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. 90, 131, 230.

Benedicta Ward SLG, The Prayers and Meditations of Saint Anselm (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1973) [translation of the text].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Anselm of Canterbury, Saint, Abbot of Bec and Archbishop of Canterbury, c 1033-1109,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121451191,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/100187025