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Harley MS 554
- Record Id:
- 040-002046383
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046383
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x00003c
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 554
- Title:
- Vita Vidualis, a Middle English translation of Girolamo Savonarola's Libro della vita viduale
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
f. 1r: A Latin title inscription: 'Vita Vidualis'.
ff. 2r-37r: A Middle English translation of the Italian Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola's Libro della vita viduale [The Book on the Life of the Widow](Florence, c. 1490-1500); introduced as follows: ‘Here folowithe the boke of the lyf of Wedows made by frere Hieroni[mus] Savonarole of ferrare of seynt Domynikes ordere at the desire and contemplacioun of many devout Wedows translated out of the Italion tonge in to Englisshe’; the Prologue ('auctoris prologe') begins: 'Thowgh I fele my self insufficient to wryt of the viduall lyf right welbelovyd sisters in crist Jhesu Neverthelesse constreyned by your desires I shall seche the tresour of holy Scripture trustynge in god that by your merites and prayers he will put suche thinges in my mynde that of my self I am unable not oonlye to write and compile but also to think or to ymagyn them and I tak thies labours moche the more gladher bicause I know þat god hath a singuler love to Wedows and þat he hath a special cure of them'.
The manuscript contains a few additions:
f. 1r, 37v: Pen trials and the name of Jesus written in different late 15th- or early 16th-century hands.
Decoration:
Capitals at the beginning of new chapters are highligted in red. Underlining in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046383", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 554: Vita Vidualis, a Middle English translation of Girolamo Savonarola's Libro della vita viduale" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046383 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 554 : Vita Vidualis, a Middle English translation of Girolamo Savonarola's Libro della vita viduale - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0554]/040-002046383
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1490
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 1490s
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 220 x 165-170 mm (text space: 150-160 x 105-120 mm).
Foliation: ff. 37 (+ 3 unfoliated paper leaves at the beginning + 1 at the end); 51 blank paper leaves have been added at the end to fill the manuscript.
Collation: Indicated by horizontal catchwords; each quire has been mounted onto a paper guard.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum in-house; re-bound on 28 April 1967.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
? London.
Provenance:
Robert Taylor, Clerk of the Works at the Bridgettine monastery of Syon Abbey at Isleworth in the early 16th century, copied the manuscript: also copied the larger part of the prayerbook Harley MS 494 and the Myrour of Oure Lady in Aberdeen, University Library, MS 134, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson C. 941 (according to A. I. Doyle as cited in Barratt, 'Singing from the Same Hymn-Sheet' (2008), p. 141).
? 'Danvers', 17th century: their name ('Danuers') inscribed on f. 1r.
Lady Elizabeth Isham Denton, wife of Paul D'Ewes (d. 1632), early 17th century: her name ('Lady Denton') inscribed on f. 1r (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 346 [Table I]; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 129).
John Stuteuill (fl. c. 1650), relative of Sir Simonds D’Ewes: his name inscribed on f. 1r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 321).
Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton: recorded in his catalogues A.868 (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), p. 201; 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), p. 350.
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 George Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 1966), pp. 201, 346 [Table I].
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. 60, 91 n. 308, 129, 131, 321, 382.
Girolamo Savonarola, A Guide to Righteous Living and Other Works, trans. by Konrad Elsenbichler, Renaissance and Reformation Texts in Translation, 10 (Toronto: Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, 2003), pp. 191-226 [on the text].
Alexandra Barratt, 'Singing from the Same Hymn-Sheet: Two Bridgettine Manuscripts', in Design and Distribution of Late Medieval Manuscripts in England, ed. by Margaret Connolly and Linne R. Mooney (Woodbridge: York Medieval Press in association with the Boydell Press, 2008), 139-160 (p. 141).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Savonarola, Girolamo, Dominican friar, preacher, reformer and prophet, 1452-1498,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121397316 - Places:
- London, England