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Harley MS 401

Record Id:
040-002046229
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
040-002046229
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x000332
LARK:
SLARK:
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Harley MS 401
Title:

Floretum evangelicum

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains the Floretum evangelicum, a Lollard text composed in Oxford between 1384 and 1396. It contains 509 sections on theological subjects that are organised alphabetically.

Contents:

ff. 1r-6v: A table of contents.

ff. 7r-334v: Floretum evangelicum; ending: ‘Explicit floretum anno domini .1396.’.

Decoration:

2 depictions of hands with stigmata emerging from a purple cloud in colours used for cross-referencing; featuring on f. 233r with a reference to the plagues of Egypt described further in the manuscript; and f. 334v, which contains a note and list of the ten plagues of Egypt.

1 large gold initial in a partial (1-sided) border in blue, purple and gold, with foliate penwork decoration in green and red (f. 1r); 1 large blue initial in a gold frame, with partial (three-sided) foliate borders (acanthus leaves) in blue, purple and gold (f. 7r); medium and small gold initials in blue and purple frames (‘Champ’ initials) with foliate penwork decoration in red and green; medium and small initials in blue or gold with red or purple penwork decoration. Capitals highlighted in red. Numerals in blue and gold throughout the manuscript. Paraphs in red or blue.

Collection Area:
Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Harley Collection
Hierarchy Tree:
[{ "id" : "040-002046229", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 401: Floretum evangelicum" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-002045828
040-002046229
Is part of:
Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

 

Harley MS 401 : Floretum evangelicum
Hierarchy:
032-002045828[0400]/040-002046229
Container:
View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
Record Type (Level):
File
Extent:
1 volume
Digitised Content:
Languages:
Latin
Scripts:
Latin
Start Date:
1396
End Date:
1396
Date Range:
1396
Era:
CE
Access:

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User Conditions:
Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 210 x 145 mm.

Foliation: ff. 334 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 2 unfoliated parchment leaves between f. 6 and f. 7; 1 paper pastedown on f. [i]recto (bibliographical notes); all quires have been mounted onto paper guards.

Collation: Indicated by catchwords.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house: re-bound in 1967; blue and green speckled fore-edge.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), Old English scholar and librarian: his ownership inscription (‘Liber Humfredi Wanley’) on f. [v]recto (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 343).

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. 234.

Samuel Harrison Thomson, Latin Bookhands of the Later Middle Ages, 1100-1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969), pl. 103.

Émile Van Balberghe, 'Un album paléographique de manuscrits datés', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 25 (1971), 304-16 (p. 310).

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. 343.

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), no. 633.

Anne Hudson, Lollards and Their Books (London: The Hambledon Press, 1985), pp. 5, 16-22, 28, 32.

Christina Von Nolcken, 'Notes on the Lollard Citation of Jon Wyclif's Writings', The Journal of Theological Studies, 39 (1988), 411-37 (pp. 413 n. 10, 419, 433).

Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II, p. 22.

Kathleen L. Scott, Dated and Datable English Manuscript Borders c. 1395-1499 (London: British Library, 2002), pl. III.

Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)
Places:
England