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Harley MS 468
- Record Id:
- 040-002046296
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046296
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0003b5
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 468
- Title:
- The Book of St Gilbert
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-128v: The Book of St Gilbert, written after c. 1202. Gilbert of Sempringham (b. 1083, d. 1189) was canonized by Innocent III in 1202 and the 'Liber sancti Gilberti' (in this manuscript headed by the rubric '(...) vita sancti gilberti confessoris') was probably assembled as a 'canonization dossier' (see Golding 2004).
Decoration:
1 large and framed puzzle initial in red, blue and brown, with foliate motifs on a coloured ground (f. 4v). Numerous initials in blue or red with penwork decoration in the alternate colour. 2 initials in red with penwork decoration in brown (ff. 1r, 9r), one including a tonsured head (f. 9r). Simple initials in red or blue. Rubrics in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046296", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 468: The Book of St Gilbert" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046296 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 468 : The Book of St Gilbert - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0467]/040-002046296
- 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:
- 1200
- End Date:
- 1249
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 160 x 115 mm (written space: 125/135 x 85/95 mm).
Foliation: ff. 129 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end).
Script: Gothic, written above the top line.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
A Gilbertine house (?); the exemplar might have been Cotton MS Cleopatra B I, ff. 33-168 (see The Book of St Gilbert, p. lxvii).
Added, ?13th/14th century, three inscriptions (ff. 51v, 88v, 120v), including '(...) Simone de (...) magi[str]o de oyen[(...)]' (f. 120v), texts including drafts for letters (f. 128v), notes in Latin and English (ff. 129, 129v).
Added, 16th century: prayer to St Gilbert (f. 129 and repeated on f. 129v; transcribed in The Book of St Gilbert 1987, p. lxvi).Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright 1972): inscribed '34' (f. 1r); no. A852 in his catalogue.
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 (see Watson 1966).
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), no. 468.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 131.
The Book of St Gilbert, ed. by Raymonde Foreville and Gillian Keir (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987), pp. lxv-lxvii.
Brian Golding, 'Gilbert of Sempringham [St Gilbert of Sempringham] (1083-1189)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/10677, accessed 7 Aug 2007].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- England