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Harley MS 495

Record Id:

040-002046324

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046324

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000001

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 495

Title:

Theological miscellany

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a miscellany of tales, sermons and short treatises.

Contents:

ff. 1r-3r: Excerpt from the Historia Regum Britanniae of Geoffrey of Monmouth concerning Merlin, ending, '...proferrem taceret spiritus qui me docet nec aliter ualerem loqui quam ceteri homines. Hec sunt sumpta de libro bruti";

ff. 3r-9r: Vindicta Salvatoris (CANT 70; BHL 4221);

ff. 9r-10r: A list of patriarchal churches and relics in Rome, beginning, 'Quinque sunt sedes in Roma patriarchales. Prima in ecclesia lateranensi. Secunda in ecclesia sancte marie maioris....' (Cf: Lambeth Palace MS 527, f. 67v);

ff. 10r-11r: Prophecy of Thomas of Canterbury: a vision in which the Virgin Mary gives him a vial with oil for the coronation of English kings during his exile in France, beginning, 'Quando ego Thomas Cantuariensis archiepiscopus exul ab Anglia...'. (Cf: Cotton MS Titus D VII, f. 28r);

ff. 11r-35r: Liber Isidori Hispalensis de Numero;

ff. 35r-39v: Sermon on the Assumption of the Virgin;

ff. 39v-41v: Sermon on the Nativity of the Virgin;

ff. 41v-43r: A selection of religious poems, beginning, 'Contempletur homo quid sit, quid erat, quid erit...';

ff. 43r-50r: The apocryphal history of Adam and Eve;

ff. 50r-51r: Prophecy on Richard II;

ff. 51r-58r: History of the Wood of the Cross;

ff. 58r-117r: Lives and legends of saints.

Decoration:

A marginal drawing representing knights on horseback attacking Jerusalem in ink and colours (f. 3r). Puzzle initials in red (f. 35r). Initials in red, occasionally with penwork decoration. Rubrics in red. Initials and paraphs highlighted in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046324", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 495: Theological miscellany" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046324

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 495 : Theological miscellany

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0495]/040-002046324

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:

1300

End Date:

1399

Date Range:

First half of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 175 x 115 mm (text space 130 x 90).

Foliation:ff. 107 (ff. 1-2 are the original flyleaves; + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves both at the beginning and the end of the volume).

Collation: Gatherings mostly of 8, occasionally with horizontal catchword in the lower right corner of the last verso of gatherings.

Script: Gothic cursive (Anglicana).

Binding: British Museum in-house. 19th century.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Watson 1966, Wright 1972): his list of contents and titles (f. 2v and passim; see Watson 1966).

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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts: https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.atm

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, no. 495.

Harry L. D. Ward and John A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), III: John A. Herbert (1910), pp. 534-36.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), p. 274 no. [E32].

Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 131, 380.

Richard W. Hunt, The Schools and the Cloister: The Life and Writings of Alexander Nequam (1157-1217), ed. by Margaret Gibson (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984), p. 15 n. 73.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

D’Ewes, Simonds, 1st Baronet, diarist and antiquary, 1602-1650,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000083393524,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/12656415
Geoffrey of Monmouth, historian and Bishop of St Asaph, c 1100-c 1154,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000123212370,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/89028232