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Harley MS 561

Record Id:

040-002046390

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046390

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000043

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 561

Title:

Pontifical

Scope & Content:

This manuscript consists of fragments of a Pontifical, for English use and includes:

ff. 1r-8v: Order of the consecration of a bishop, fragment, imperfect at the beginning and the end, beginning: 'Benedixisti domine terram tuam' (Psalm 84); ending: 'quam tibi offerimus pro hiis quos regenerare dignatus.'

ff. 9r-16r: Profession of nuns (virgins), imperfect at the beginning, beginning: 'suis tenentibus benedicat episcopus hii scriptis benedictionibus.

ff. 16r-24v Profession of nuns (non virgins), beginning: 'Forma qualiter sacrimonialis non virgo.'

ff. 24v–37r: English royal coronation order of the 4th recension, 'secundum cronicas et registra in abbathia Westymonasterii inventa'; dependent on the version in the Lytlington Missal or the Westminster Missal (Westminster Abbey, MS 34).

ff. 37r-37v: Coronation Mass, imperfect at the end, ending: 'vini olei serviunt tibi po[puli].'

ff. 38r-45v: Order of the consecration of ministers of the church: ostiarios, lectors, exorcists and acolytes.

ff. 45v-47r: cursive, 17th-century notes, including:

- the text of an obligation between Thomas Astbury of Aston, co. Stafford, and Anthony Greene, beginning 'The condition of this obligation is...'; signed by Edward Smith, John Browne, John Frond (or Froud), John Dutton, Raph Aston, Edward Swan, William Proud (f. 46r). Thomas Astbury is mentioned in The Committee at Stafford 1643-1645: The Order Book of the Staffordshire County Committee, ed. by D.H. Pennington and I.A. Roots (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1957), pp. 8, 32.

- a note mentioning Thomas Dutton of Aston (f. 45v).

- notes including dates: 1646 and 1649 and a name Edward Leigh (?) (f. 46v)

Decoration:

3 large initials in colours and gold with foliate decoration and extensions (ff. 17r, 24r, 37r). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or penwork decoration, and in brown with brown penwork decoration, some with faces in profile. Small plain initials in blue or red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046390", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 561: Pontifical" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046390

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 561 : Pontifical

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0561]/040-002046390

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:

1450

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

Available for research unless otherwise stated

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 240 x 160 mm (text space: 175 x 120 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 47 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end, f. 1* is a ruled parchment leaf). Old foliation starts with 81 (f. 1r); catchwords.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house binding. Rebound in 1963.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England (Winchester).

Provenance:

A copy of a document mentioning Thomas Astbury of Aston and Anthony Greene, and notes in English mentioning Thomas Dutton of Aston and dates '1646' and '1649', 17th century (see comments in Contents) (ff. 45v-47r).

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, née Cavendish 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.

Administrative Context:

England (Winchester).

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts 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, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 561.

Christopher Wordsworth and Henry Littlehales, The Old Service-Books of the English Church, 2nd edn (London: Methuen & Co., 1910), p. 221.

Andrew Hughes, 'The Origins and Descent of the Fourth Recension of the English Coronation,' in Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual, ed. by János M. Bak (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), pp. 197-213 (pp. 201-13).

Richard Kay, Pontificalia: A Repertory of Latin Manuscript Pontificals and Benedictionals (Kansas: The University of Kansas, 2007), no. 374.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Bentinck, Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Portland, née Harley, collector of art and natural history specimens and patron of arts and sciences, 11 Feb 1715-17 Jul 1785,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000115857160,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/2356861
Harley, Edward, second earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, 2 Jun 1689-16 Jun 1741,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000108078249,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/160524259
Harley, Henrietta Cavendish, Countess of Oxford and Mortimer, née Holles, patron of architecture, 4 Feb 1694-9 Dec 1755,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000030125833,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/6045563