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Harley MS 237

Record Id:

040-002046065

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046065

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0001e6

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 237

Title:

Theological miscellany, including Speculum Christiani

Scope & Content:

f. 1*r: Added table of contents, 17th-century.

ff. 1r–2v: Contemporary table of contents.

ff. 3r–73v: Speculum Christiani.

ff. 73v–75v: De horis canonicis, a note on how the canonical hours are to be said, beginning, ‘Hore canonice propter laudem humanum …’ Other copies in Royal MS 8 C I and Royal MS 8 F VII.

ff. 76r–92r: Sermon on the Song of Songs, ‘Amore langueo … Reuerendi magistri patres atque domini ista uerba iam dicta …’ A note at the end indicates that the conclusion is lacking.

f. 92*v: Note on the absolution of the sick.

ff. 93r–94v: Sarum order for the visitation of the sick, in Latin and English (see Appleford, Learning to Die in London).

ff. 95r–96v: Sermon on John 10:11, ‘Ego sum pastor bonus’.

f. 97r: Notes on the Ten Commandments, Creed, seven virtues, works of mercy, the five senses of the body, and seven mortal sins.

f. 97v: Note on the visitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury (first line truncated).

ff. 97v–99r: Constitutions of a church, with additions on confession and consecration at the end.

f. 99v: Poem addressed to Christ, ‘Vulnera sustento pro te mi quanta memento’; prayers to the Virgin Mary.

f. 100r: Notes on ordination.

f. 100r: Carta humane redemptionis, in English, ‘I haue gyue and made a grante …’ (cf. Steiner, ‘Charters of Christ’).

f. 100v: Formulae for prayers, intercessions, and absolution.

f. 121r–v: Hymn based on the Salve regina, ‘Salue uirgo uirginum stella matutina …’

f. 102r: Prayers to the Virgin Mary.

f. 102v: Formula for absolving the sick (also on f. 100v).

ff. 103r–118v: Speculum ecclesie (called Speculum sacerdotum in some other manuscripts), beginning, ‘Quoniam circa deum non est scientia …’

f. 119r: Medical recipe, ‘Medecyn for the Worme

ff. 120r–149v: Honorius Augustodunensis, Elucidarium.

ff. 150r–199v: Speculum spiritualium, part 2, ending imperfectly.

Decoration:

Some new sections open with two-line capitals in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046065", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 237: Theological miscellany, including Speculum Christiani" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046065

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 237 : Theological miscellany, including Speculum Christiani

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0236]/040-002046065

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1430

End Date:

1470

Date Range:

Mid 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 220 × 150 mm.

Foliation: ff. 1* + 199 (+ 3 modern flyleaves at the beginning and end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Charterhouse of the Assumption of St Mary the Virgin, Mount Grace (in East Harsley), Yorkshire: inscribed, ‘Montis gracie liber est iste’ (label pasted to f. 2v), ‘Liber domus montis Gracie ordinis Cart’’ (f. 3r, at head).

Provenance:

Henry Savile of Banke (b. 1568, d. 1617), collector of manuscripts: in his catalogue, no. 179.

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (Watson 1966, no. A881).

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.

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, ed. by Robert Nares and others, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808–12), i,

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D’Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), no. A881.

Andrew G. Watson, The Manuscripts of Henry Savile of Banke (London: Bibliographical Society, 1969).

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

Jonathan Hughes, ‘The Administration of Confession in the Diocese of York in the Fourteenth Century’, in Studies in Clergy and Ministry in Medieval England ed. by David M. Smith (York: University of York press, 1991), p. 108 n. 108.

Richard Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540, Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin, 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997), no. 11.

Emily Steiner, ‘Lollard community and the Charters of Christ’, Documentary Culture and the Making of Medieval English Literature (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 193–228.

Amy Appleford, Learning to Die in London, 1380–1540 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), pp. 28, 231.

Neil R. Ker, Richard Sharpe, and James Willoughby, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, 2015, http://mlgb3.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Honorius of Autun, c 1080-c 1155,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000117981982,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/100201145