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Harley MS 327

Record Id:

040-002046155

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046155

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000298

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 327

Title:

The Pauline Epistles, Acts of the Apostles, Catholic Epistles, and Apocalypse in the later Wycliffite version

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-64v: The Pauline Epistles, in the later Wycliffite version.

ff. 64v-98v: The Acts of the Apostles, in the later Wycliffite version.

ff. 98v-112r: The Catholic Epistles, in the later Wycliffite version.

ff. 112r-128v: Apocalypse, in the later Wycliffite version.

The manuscript contains later additions:

f. 1*verso: A table of contents in English; added in the late 16th or early 17th century.

f. [1*c]verso: A modern title in pencil: 'Wiclyf's Version'; followed by a note by Sir Frederic Madden (b. 1801, d. 1873), Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum: 'No Purvey[s]'; referring to John Purvey (b. c. 1354, d. 1414), who was long identified as author of the general prologue to the Wycliffite Bible, and associated with the later version of the bible translation.

f. 129v: A practice alphabet, starting with a capital 'A' that is decorated with cadels; followed by three more capitals with similar decoration; added in the 15th or 16th century.

f. 130v: A fragment of a text: 'Charite'; written in the (?) 16th century.

ff. 131r-131v: Lines from prayers or lyrics: 'Jhesus Jhesus […] amor meus est amor tuus'; 'Secundum ordinem melchisedech'; and 'per Jhesu Christi domini qui terrum vivit […]'; added in the 16th century.

f. [132]recto: An erased inscription (perhaps prayers).

Decoration:

Large (4-6 line) puzzle initials in red and blue with full or half page borders with red and blue penwork decoration at the beginning of each book. Smaller (3-line) initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Paraphs in blue. Capitals marked in red. Rubrics in red. Underlining and corrections in red. A drawing of a woman with long hair, wearing a crown and dress, and holding her hands up (? in prayer), was added to f. 131r, but has subsequently been erased (visible with UV light).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046155", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 327: The Pauline Epistles, Acts of the Apostles, Catholic Epistles, and Apocalypse in the later Wycliffite version" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046155

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 327 : The Pauline Epistles, Acts of the Apostles, Catholic Epistles, and Apocalypse in the later Wycliffite version

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0326]/040-002046155

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1424

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 245 x 175 mm (text space: 175-180 x 120 mm, in 2 columns).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 131 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaves and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); f. 1*is a parchment leaf; 3 unfoliated blank parchment leaves after f. 1* (ff. [1*a]-[1*c]); bookmark tabs; f. 130 is a fragment of a parchment leaf; the outer margin of f. 22r features a red star that was used to mark display pages in an 1884 British Museum exhibition of Wycliffite writings.

Collation: Quaternions; indicated by quire signatures with leaf numbers, and catchwords in frames in black ink.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house: gold-tooled half black leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate gold-stamped on the outsides of the upper covers; marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

'Richard Crook', 15th or 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 129v: 'Rychard Crooke'; erased by legible with UV light (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

? 'M. B.', 15th century: their initials inscribed on f. 75v (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 285).

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton: listed in his catalogues as E150; added his number '23' to the top of f. 1r; and a table of contents on f. [1*]verso (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 285; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 131).

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. 200 (no. 327).

The Holy Bible Containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal Books, in the Earliest Versions Made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his Followers, ed. by Josiah Forshall and Frederic Madden, 4 vols (Oxford: Clarendon, 1850), I, xl.

Edward Maunde Thompson, Wycliffe Exhibition in the King’s Library (London: Clowes, 1884), p. 47 (no. 60).

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.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 60, 91 n. 308, 285.

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. 131.

Elizabeth Solopova, 'Index of Manuscripts of the Wycliffite Bible', in The Wycliffite Bible: Origin, History and Interpretation, ed. by Elizabeth Solopova (Leiden: Brill, 2016), p. 487.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England