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Harley MS 181
- Record Id:
- 040-002046009
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046009
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000196
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 181
- Title:
-
Ars Notoria
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains three texts of the Ars Notoria, including a set of prayers, holy and angelic names, diagrams and rituals used to gain knowledge and understanding by supernatural revelation, apparently as revealed by God to Solomon.
Contents:
ff. 1r-17v: Ars Memorativa, beginning: 'Yf thou wilt be perfect in phisik and surgery thou must begyn this arte in a frydaye in lent in the wexinge of the Moone'.
ff. 18r-74v: Ars Notoria, beginning: 'In nomine sanctae et individuae trinitatis incpit sacratissima ars Notoria, quam creator altissimus per angelum suum super altare templi, quadam nocte Salomoni, dum oraret ministravit'; including a short section, 'contra demones', beginning 'Coniuro te vilissimum demonum' (ff. 21r-22r).
ff. 75r-81r: De Arte crucifixi Pelagij Solitarij Doctrina non vulgaris, beginning: 'Omnia bona in mundo scibilia, huius artis misterio hominis recte operantis intellectui sese miraculose offerunt'.
Decoration:
4 ink diagrams for magical operations: including rectangular diagrams entitled 'Prima' and 'Secunda figura Gramaticae' (ff. 27r-27v), 4 circular diagrams entitled '4 signa a Deo Data Salomoni omnibus artibus communia' (f. 30v), and a set of symbols of 'Arctis Gramaticae' (f. 35v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046009", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 181: Ars Notoria" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046009 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 181 : Ars Notoria - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0180]/040-002046009
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1550
- End Date:
- 1599
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 16th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 150 x 100 mm (text space: 125 x 80 mm).
Foliation: ff. 81 (+ 10 unfoliated paper leaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); 6 unfoliated blank paper leaves after f. 74.
Script: Humanistic cursive.
Binding: Marbled boards with leather spine; rebound in March 1875.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
? 'T. Davie', early 17th century: Inscribed his name in the lower margin and the number '107' in the upper margin of f. 1r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 125).
Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton; listed in his catalogues as A.866 (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 201 [A866]; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 131-37).
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; according to a receipt in Add MS 70478 (Portland Papers) [formerly Loan 29/254 packet 2] (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D’Ewes (1966), pp. 60, 91 n. 308; Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), p. xviii n. 3).
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), p. 62.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. xviii n. 3.
Frank Klaassen, 'English Manuscripts of Magic 1300-1500', in Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, ed. by Claire Fanger (Stroud: Sutton, 1998), pp. 3-31, (pp. 30, 31, nn. 58, 60).
Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science: during the first thirteen centuries of our era, 6 vols (New York: Macmillan, 1923-1958) II, p. 281.
Julien Veronese, L'Ars notoria au Moyen Age: Introduction et édition critique (Florence: Sismel-Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2007), pp. 297-98 ('L4').
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), p. 201 [A.866].
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. 125, 131-37.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- England