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Harley MS 549
- Record Id:
- 040-002046378
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046378
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000037
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056057854.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 549
- Title:
- Boethius, De institutione arithmetica
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1v-57v: Boethius (b. c. 480, d. 524), De institutione arithmetica (On the Principles of Arithmetic), with a preface, incipit: 'In dandis et accipiendis muneribus'.
The manuscript contains a few later additions:
ff. 58r-58v: An unidentified religious poem, added in the late 12th century.
Decoration:
Two zoomorphic initials, outlined in black, with some gold, red, blue and green on a light-brown ground (ff. 1v, 21r). Numerous initials in red or blue, occasionally with a reserved line and penwork decoration in the same or, rarely, in the other colour. Rubrics and letters following the zoomorphic initial (f. 1v) in red. 1 diagram (multiplication table for 1 through 10) decorated with fish and animals in colours and gold (f. 14r). Other tables and diagrams in red, green, blue and light brown, one with animal heads (f. 24r), occasionally with some penwork decoration.
An added drawing of a man rowing a boat, in which a lady with a gaming board sits, late 12th or early 13th century (f. 1r).
A circular diagram with letters in brown ink (f. 59v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046378", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 549: Boethius, De institutione arithmetica" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046378 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 549 : Boethius, De institutione arithmetica - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0549]/040-002046378
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056057854.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 205 x 130 mm (text space: 140 x 70/80 mm).
Foliation: ff. 60 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); f. 60 is a medieval parchment fragment.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England or Northern France.
Provenance:
An unidentified library: its press-mark (?) '.o.xiii.', in a (?) 13th-century script (f. 1v).
'John', unidentified: his name inscribed 'constat Johannis', in a 15th-century script (f. 58v); added a Middle English note about his presence at Westminster during Easter: 'In the begynnyng of the weke of Ester y was at Westemester'; possibly also owned a 12th-century Psalter from Norwich Cathedral, now Durham, Ushaw Collge, MS 7, which features a similar ownership inscription: 'Iste liber constat Johannis mylys'.
'Rogerus Bedford', unidentified: his name inscribed in a 15th-century script (f. 57r); perhaps added a verse on the Cardinal directions 'Eyst oryens / West occidens / Boriens north / South petit auster' (f. 58v); a roundel with a decorated border, inscribed 'A Roundell is my Trust'; and the verse 'Eyste ori west occi boriens / north south petit auster', inscribed at its centre (f. 59r); part of a poem that can also be found in Lansdowne MS 762, f. 99r.
John Dee (b. 1527, d. 1609), mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary: his marks (ff. 1r, 2r); probably his manuscript C. 114; acquired in 1626 by Sir Simonds D'Ewes (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966)).
Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton, included in the catalogue if his library (Add. MS 22918) as manuscript 894 (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (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, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (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:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), I (1808), no. 549.
Andrew G. Watson, 'Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Simonds D'Ewes: an exchange of manuscripts', The British Museum Quarterly, 25 (1962), 19-24 (p. 21).
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), no. A894.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 69, 126, 131.
R. J. Roberts and A. G. Watson, John Dee's Library Catalogue (London: Bibliographical Society, 1990), p. 122.
Codices Boethiani: A Conspectus of Manuscripts of the Works of Boethius, ed. by M. T. Gibson and Lesley Smith, Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts, 25 (London: Warburg Institute, 1995- ), I: Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, pp. 134-35 (no. 110).
Michael Masi, Boethian Number Theory: A Translation of the De Institutione Arithmetica (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2006), p. 60.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.