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Harley MS 267

Record Id:

040-002046095

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046095

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x00021c

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 267

Title:

Miscellany of scientific texts

Scope & Content:

A composite scientific manuscript of at least six parts (ff. 1-2, 3-9, 10-15, 16-23, 24-174, 175-235) that were produced at different locations and periods of time between c. 1300 and c. 1400.

Contents:

ff. 1r-2r: A computistical text.

ff. 3r-9v: Gregory the Great, Gospel lections.

ff. 10r-15v: St Augustine of Hippo, De Haeresibus.

ff. 16v-19v: Excerpts from various authors.

ff. 19v-22r: ‘Propositiones senece’, excerpted from various works.

f. 22v: ‘Flores de elegendis et fugiendis’, excerpted from the Topica of Aristotle.

ff. 23r-23v: Excerpts from various authors.

ff. 24r-51r: Ptolemy, Quadripartitum, Books I-IV.

ff. 51r-174r: Albumasar, Introductorium maius, translated by John of Seville

ff. 175r-178v: Kalendarium Isenbrandi.

ff. 179r-210v: Prophatius Judeus, Almanach.

ff. 211r-212v: Astronomical tables.

ff. 213r-216v: Toledan tables.

f. 217r: A table for computing the position of the Moon in the zodiacal signs

f. 217v: Instructions concerning the table on f. 217r.

ff. 218r-221v: Zael, De electionibus.

ff. 221v-223v: Zael, Liber temporum

ff. 223v-224v: Gergis, De significatione septem planetarum in domibus

ff. 224v-226r: Tracts of astrological medicine.

f. 226v: A charm against thieves (‘Charme pour latrons’)

f. 226v: An erased text, possibly a charm.

ff. 226v-227r: The Sphere of Pythagoras.

ff. 228r-229r: Thomas Bradwardine, Tractatus proportionum, abridged version

ff. 230r-231v: A tract on movement.

ff. 232r-234r: A tract on light.

The manuscript contains several additions:

f. 2v: A table of contents by Roger Marchall, added in the 15th century.

f. 217v: Astrological notes mentioning Bruges and the year 1296; and a Middle Dutch note about the reception of astronomical notes from a ‘mester janne’, possibly added in the early 14th century.

f. 227v: The horoscope of a ‘Johannes de [..]itan’ born on 31 August 1329, possibly the ‘mester Janne’ whose astrological information is noted on f. 217v; a note with geometrical instructions; a note with chemical instructions a mnemonic verse for the astrological signs, added in (?) 14th century.

f. 235r: A diagram for a medieval horoscope; the name erased, but the year ‘1442’ is still legible, added in the 15th century.

Decoration:

Medium and small blue, green and red initials. The diagram of a sphere on f. 227r. Drawings of human heads and hands added to the lower margins of ff. 219r, 220r, 221v, 223r.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046095", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 267: Miscellany of scientific texts" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046095

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 267 : Miscellany of scientific texts

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0266]/040-002046095

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Dutch, Middle
French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Lao

Start Date:

1295

End Date:

1405

Date Range:

c 1300-c 1400

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 215 x 145 mm.

Foliation: ff. 235 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house: re-bound in 1968.

Custodial History:

Origin: England and/or Southern Netherlands.

Provenance:

An unknown scribe, perphaps from England or the Southern Netherlands, wrote ff. 175r-178v in 1343: a colophon on f. 178v: ‘Explicit Kalendarium novum editum a venerabili patre Fratre Isenbrando ordinis predicatorum anno domini 1329^o sed istud scriptum fuit Anno domini 1343^o’; also wrote ff. 179r-210v.

An unknown (?) 14th-century scribe from the Low Countries, owned ff. 175-235: added Middle Dutch translations of headings in the astronomical tables on ff. 211r-212v; and a Middle Dutch note about the reception of astrological information from a ‘Magister added to f. 217v: ‘ontfaen van mest[er] jan[n]e upte[n] almanac en[de] upte sp[er]e’. The note indicates that this information was meant to be used for the Almanach on ff. 179r-210v, and the Sphere of Pythagoras on ff. 226v-227r; and may have resulted in the horoscope for a certain ‘Johannes’ on f. 227v. These additions suggest that ff. 175-235 may have been produced in the Southern Netherlands as well.

Rogerus Marchall (d. 1477), owned ff. 24r-234v: added a table of contents for this part of the manuscript on f. 2v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 233); it is unknown whether ff. 3-23 (the manuscript’s first 2 quires) were owned by him as well.

John Dee (b. 1527, d. 1609), mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary: Dee’s additions to the table of contents on f. 2v and mark on f. 3r; purchased from him by Sir Simonds d’Ewes (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 127).

Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st Baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton: listed as ‘A.23’ in his library.

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. 101.

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. 376.

Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I: The Text, p. 119 (no. 632); II: The Plates, pl. 227.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England
Southern Netherlands