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Harley MS 261
- Record Id:
- 040-002046089
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046089
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000216
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059309165.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 261
- Title:
- William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum and Gesta Pontificum Anglorum; Henry of Saltrey, Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii
- Scope & Content:
-
This late 12th- or early 13th-century manuscript may have been produced by the cathedral priory of St Andrew in Rochester, but was certainly at the priory in the 13th or 14th century and may have remained there until the priory was dissolved in 1540. The manuscript contains the Gesta regum Anglorum (Deeds of the Kings of the English) and Gesta pontificum Anglorum (Deeds of the Bishops of the English) by William of Malmesbury (b. c. 1090, d. in or after 1142), historian, man of letters, and Benedictine monk. It also includes the popular Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii (Treatise on Saint Patrick's Purgatory) by Henry of Saltrey (fl. c. 1184), a monk at the Cistercian monastery of Sawtry (Cambridgeshire). The manuscript originally included an additional section (ff. 173-223), containing the Liber Exceptionum (Book of Exceptions) by Richard of Saint-Victor (d. 1173), that was separated from the manuscript in the 17th century, and is now Harley MS 23 (it is listed in the 13th-century table of contents on f. 2r as ‘allegoriae historiarum magistri petri veteris et novi testamenti’). Harley MS 261 may have been the exemplar for the copy of William of Malmesbury’s Gesta regum Anglorum in Harley MS 528 (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 331 (no. X108).
Contents:
ff. 4r-103v: William of Malmesbury, Gesta regum Anglorum (Books I-V).
ff. 108r-167r: William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum (Book I-III).
ff. 167v-175r: Henry of Saltrey, Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii.
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
ff. 1v-2r: Memoranda, written in a 13th- or 14th-century script.
f. 2r: A table of contents, in a 13th-century script.
f. 2v: A Latin note, beginning ‘Contra malos mores in regibus’, added in the ?13th or 14th century.
f. 3r: Albus Ovidius Juventinus (Pseudo-Ovid), Elegia de Philomela (Elegy of Philomela), imperfect (missing the first eight lines, beginning ‘Garrus enim quamqua per noctem tinnipet’), written in a 13th-century script.
f. 3r: A table of contents, in a ?14th-century script.
f. 3v: A list of texts with shelfmark references, added in the ?13th or 14th century.
ff. 103v-106r: An index for the Gesta regum Anglorum, written in a ?13th-century script.
ff. 106r-106v: An index for the Gesta pontificum Anglorum, written in a ?13th-century script.
ff. 106v-107v: A list of monastic foundations, added in a ?13th-century script.
[ff. 1r, 175v are empty].
Decoration:
1 large puzzle initial in red and green with red penwork decoration (f. 58v); 2 large puzzle initials in red and blue with blue penwork decoration (ff. 73r, 93r). Large and medium initials in red, green, blue or, rarely, in light brown, occasionally and after f. 108 frequently with penwork decoration and/or pen-flourishing in red and/or blue. Small initials highlighted in red. Rubrics and running headers (ff. 4v-103v) in red. Red line-fillers. Manicules added to margins in brown ink (f. 113r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046089", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 261: William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum and Gesta Pontificum Anglorum; Henry of Saltrey, Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046089 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 261 : William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum and Gesta Pontificum Anglorum; Henry of Saltrey, Tractatus de Purgatorio Sancti Patricii - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0260]/040-002046089
- 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_100059309165.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1175
- End Date:
- 1224
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 12th century-1st quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 300 × 210 mm (text space: 220 × 150 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 175 ( + 3 paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end of the manuscript); f. 1 is a torn leaf of parchment repaired with paper; ff. 1-3 originally were flyleaves; some corners have been repaired with paper; medieval and early modern foliation throughout the manuscript.
Collation: Two sets of quire marks (in the centre of the lower margin of the verso of the last leaf of the quires) for ff. 4–108 ('i'–'xiii') and ff. 108-155 ('i'-'vi'); catchwords.
Script: Protogothic, written above top line.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house: gold-tooled red half-leather binding with Harley's bookplate gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers, the spine inscribed in gold: 'WILLELMUS MALMESBURIENSIS DE GESTIS REGUM ET PONTIFICUM ANGLORUM'. Remains of the previous binding (gold- and blind-tooled dark brown leather with Harley's bookplate gold-stamped at the centre) pasted on the inside covers; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Rochester, South-eastern England.
Provenance:
The cathedral priory of St Andrew, Rochester; perhaps owned by Alexander, precentor of Rochester in the early 13th century: his ownership inscription in a 13th- or 14th-century century script on f. 4r: 'Liber de claust[ro] Roffens[is]. Alexand[er] p[re]ce[ntor]' (for this type of ownership inscription and its reliability see English Benedictine Libraries, ed. by Sharpe and others (1996), pp. 465-467; see ibid. p. 526 for information on Alexander, the precentor); perhaps no. 120 ('Hystoria Willelmi Malmesburiensis') in the library catalogue of 1202 (the entry is identified with this manuscript in Ker, Medieval Libraries (1964), p. 161; and Richards, 'Texts and Their Traditions' (1988), p. 35; but not in English Benedictine Libraries, ed. by Sharpe and others (1996), p. 512 (B79.120)). The manuscript contains several additions indicating that the manuscript was annotated at the cathedral priory: a 13th- or 14th-century note about Lanfranc (d. 1089), Archbishop of Canterbury, and Gundulf (d. 1108), Bishop of Rochester, that refers to the cathedral priory of St Andrew on f. 2r; a (?) 13th-century list of works with shelfmark references on f. 3v that refers to other extant works from the cathedral priory: e.g. ‘de sanctorum corporibus qui in anglia requiescunt’, extant in Harley MS 3680 (f. 177v); the list also refers to an account of the flooding of the river Medway at Rochester (‘De fluvio medewey [a] que Roffensam praeterfluit libro 2 c 66’). The 13th- and 14th-century memoranda (ff. 1v-2r), tables of contents (ff. 2r, 3v), Latin poem (f. 3r), list of texts (f. 3v), indices (ff. 103v-106v), list of monastic foundations (ff. 106v-107v), and marginal notes throughout the manuscript, were probably also added at the cathedral priory. The 'Robertus' who inscribed his name twice on f. 2v may have been a monk at the cathedral priory; perhaps his annotation on f. 2r ('The[se] [...]') and f. 151r: 'To the Ryg[ht]'), in a 15th- or 16th-century script.
W. P., owned in the 16th or 17th century: inscribed with these initials (f. 4r).
Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton: annotated the list of contents (f. 2r) and added no '13' (f. 4r); the manuscript is recorded in his catalogue as no. A278 (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 135 (A278)).
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.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised 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 (1808), p. 100.
Harry Leigh Douglas Ward and John Alexander Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), II (1893), pp. 457-58.
C. H. Talbot, ‘A List of Cistercian Manuscripts in Great Britain’, Traditio, 8 (1952), 402-18 (p. 410).
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. 161.
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 124 (no. A. 219), 135 (no. A278), 331 (no. X108).
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. 48, 131, 264, 288.
Mary P. Richards, 'Texts and Their Traditions in the Medieval Library of Rochester Cathedral Priory', Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, n.s., 78 (1988), i-xii, 1-129 (p. 35).
- 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.