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Harley MS 487
- Record Id:
- 040-002046315
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046315
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000596.0x0003c8
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 487
- Title:
-
A Psalter with the Hours of the Holy Spirit
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-6v: Calendar with astronomical information; featuring additional saints added in the late 15th- or early 16th-century.
ff. 7r-177r: The Psalter.
ff. 177r-193v: Canticles, hymns and Athanasian creed (Quicumque Vult).
ff. 193v-200v: Litany and prayers; featuring St Bridget of Sweden.
ff. 201r-215v: The Hours of the Holy Spirit.
The manuscript contains later additions:
f. 1*recto: A title page: 'Psalmi Davidis cum Miscellanea rerum diversarum in Ecclesia antiquitus usitatarum'; added by Sir Simonds D'Ewes.
ff. 215v-216r: Prayers citing Psalm 101:2: 'Domine, exaudi orationem meam, et clamor meus ad te veniat'; and the Commendation of Souls: 'Tibi, Domine, commendamus animas famulorum famularumque tuarum'; added in the 15th century.
ff. 216v-217r: Practice words and pen trials.
f. 217v: A line from William Lily's Carmen de Moribus: 'Sisque animo attentus : quid enim docuisse'; added in the 15th century.
f. 218r: A 4-line music bar in red ink with a few neumes in black ink; added in the (?) 15th century.
Decoration:
Large decorated initial and full border in colours and gold at the beginning of Psalm 1 (f. 7r). Large decorated initial and 3-sided borders in colours and gold at the beginning of the other divisions of Psalm 26, 38, 52, 68, 80, 97, and 109 (ff. 33v, 50v, 66v, 83r, 103r, 121v, 141r). Large historiated initial (A dove with spread wings and rays of light emanating from it) with one-sided border in colours and gold at the beginning of the Hours (f. 201r). Initials in gold with penwork decoration in blue, red, white and green, including gold balls and flowers. Small initials in red with blue penwork decoration, or in blue with red penwork decoration. Small initials in red or brown. Line-fillers in red and blue. Added geometric figures drawn in brown and black ink on f. 1*verso.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046315", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 487: A Psalter with the Hours of the Holy Spirit" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046315 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 487 : A Psalter with the Hours of the Holy Spirit - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0486]/040-002046315
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 175 x 115 mm (text space: 110 x 70 mm).
Foliation: ff. i + 1* + 218 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end); 1 unfoliated blank parchment leaf between f. i and f. 1*.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather with remains of metal clasps on both covers; red-speckled fore edge.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
South-East England (probably London).
Provenance:
The Bridgettine abbey of Sts Saviour, Mary and Bridget, Syon, at Isleworth, Middlesex: based on the Calendar, in which the Nativity, Translation and Canonization of St Bridget are highlighted in rubrics (see Watson, Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 299; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 322-323).
Sister Elizabeth Ogull [Ogle], early 16th century: her name inscribed on f. 218v: 'Suster Elyzabeth Ogull'; listed as a nun at Syon in 1518 and 1539, received a pension in 1554/5; her death is recorded in the Syon Martyrology (Add MS 22285) on f. 23r on 15 January [no year] (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 260-61; Bell, What Nuns Read (1995), p. 189).
Thomas Crow [Grow], 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. 1*verso: 'Thomas Croow [Groow] his boke' written over a previous ownership inscription (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 173).
Richard Houlesworth [Holdworth] (b. 1590, d. 1649), Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge; tutor and friends of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, owned in 1625; according to an inscription on f. 1*recto [transcribed below] (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 197).
Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton, owned in and after 1625: was gifted the manuscript by Richard Houlesworth, according to D'Ewes's note on f. 1*recto: 'f. 1*recto: 'Ex dono amici mei colendissimi, et in Academia Cantabrigiensi quondam Tutorie Magistri Richardi Houlesworth in divnis [sic] Baccalaurij . June . 20 . Anno Domini 1625 - Symonds D'Ewes'; added a title on f. 1*recto, numbered the Psalms throughout, and added a note on f. 177r to indicate where the Psalms end and other materials begin; listed in his catalogues as B.179 (see Watson, Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 299; 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 Additional 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), no. 487.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 185.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest 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, p. 299 (B.179).
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 131, 173, 197, 260-261, 322-323
Christopher de Hamel, Syon Abbey: The Library of the Bridgettine Nuns and Their Peregrinations after the Reformation (Otley: Smith Settle for The Roxburghe Club, 1991), p. 116 (no. 12).
David Bell, What Nuns Read: Books and Libraries in Medieval English Nunneries (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1995), p. 189-90 (no. 24).
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), I, p. 72 n. 14; II, p. 319.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- London, England
Southeastern England