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Harley MS 459

Record Id:

040-002046287

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046287

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0003ac

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 459

Title:

Office of St Martha

Scope & Content:

f. 2r: Table of contents (‘Contenta’), in a 16th/17th-century hand listing five texts which were bound together at that time, now Harley MSS 459–463: ‘Fragmentum veteris letaniæ / Index librorum Bibliothecæ quondam prioratus Lantoniæ / Expositio super Ezechielem ad litteram / Expositio imperfecta in Evangelia / Fabulosa quaedam narrationes moralizatæ’, with an annotation below 'Pro [dolor]! desunt!' (f. 2v).

ff. 3r–9r: Office of St Martha: 'In solempnitate sancte marthe uirginis ad primas uesperas. Diffusa est gratia …’. Neumes on four-line red staves (B, C and F clefs).

Decoration:

2 puzzle initials in blue and red (ff. 6r, 7v). Large initials in red with blue penwork decoration or in blue with red penwork decoration. Rubrics in red. Staves in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046287", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 459: Office of St Martha" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046287

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 459 : Office of St Martha

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0458]/040-002046287

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:

1130

End Date:

1170

Date Range:

Mid 12th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 280 × 180 mm (written area 195 × 125 mm).

Foliation: ff. 9 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and 22 at the end; f. 1 is a modern paper flyleaf, f. 2 is a medieval parchment flyleaf).

Script: Protogothic.

Binding: British Museum, rebound 23 March 1964.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England (South-West).

Provenance:

(?) The Augustinian priory of St Mary and St John the Baptist, Lanthony (Secunda), Gloucestershire: Harley MS 460 includes a library catalogue of 1380.

Peter Le Neve (b. 1661, d. 1729), Richmond herald (1704) and Norroy King of Arms (1704), antiquary: inscribed ‘Liber Petri Le Neve Norroy 1704 (f. 1r); bought from him by Robert Harley in 1704 (see Wright 1972).

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, 1808-1812), I (1808), no. 460.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 108.

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), pp. 215–16, 219.

K. D. Hartzell, Catalogue of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1200 Containing Music (Woodbridge: Boydell Press in Association with the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society, 2006), pp. 278-79, no. 154.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Bentinck, Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Portland, née Harley, collector of art and natural history specimens and patron of arts and sciences, 11 Feb 1715-17 Jul 1785,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000115857160,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/2356861
Harley, Edward, second earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, 2 Jun 1689-16 Jun 1741,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000108078249,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/160524259
Harley, Henrietta Cavendish, Countess of Oxford and Mortimer, née Holles, patron of architecture, 4 Feb 1694-9 Dec 1755,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000030125833,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/6045563
Harley, Robert, first Earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, 5 Dec 1661-21 May 1724,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000083423906
Le Neve, Peter, herald and antiquary, 1661-1729
The Augustinian priory of St Mary and St John the Baptist, Lanthony Secunda, Gloucestershire, 1137-1539

Related Archive Descriptions:

Harley MS 460
Harley MS 461
Harley MS 462
Harley MS 463