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Harley MS 627

Record Id:

040-002046456

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046456

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x000085

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 627

Title:

Peter of Poitiers, Compendium; Petrus Riga, Aurora

Scope & Content:

The manuscript includes:

ff. 1v-6v, Peter of Poitiers Genealogia historiarum, incipit: 'Considerans historie'; a genealogical diagram of interconnected roundels including diagrams of the Tabernacle (f. 2v) and the Mansions in the desert (f. 5v).

f. 7v: Petrus Riga, prologue to Aurora, incipit: 'Omnis scriptura divinitus inspirata'.

ff. 8r-195v: Petrus Riga, Aurora, incipit: 'Scire cupis lector quis codicis istius actor'.

Decoration:

4 initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour (ff. 9r (x3), 16v), including a bearded head on f. 9r. Large coloured initials in red or brown ink (with reserved lines on ff. 29v, 73r, 86v, 140r), sometimes with penwork decoration in the same colour. Smaller initials in alternating red and brown ink. Unfinished drawing of the ark (f. 16v). Marginal note decorated with a dog head in brown ink (f. 30v). Running titles in red ink.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046456", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 627: Peter of Poitiers, Compendium; Petrus Riga, Aurora" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046456

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 627 : Peter of Poitiers, Compendium; Petrus Riga, Aurora

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0627]/040-002046456

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:

1225

End Date:

1249

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 285 x 215 mm (text space: 210 x 70 mm).

Foliation: ff. 196 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves: 2 at the beginning and 2 at the end; 1 unfoliated parchment slip after f. 195; f. 189 is blank). Catchwords, quire signatures.

Script: Gothic; written above the top line.

Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Richard of Stow: 13th-century inscription recording his gift of this manuscript to the abbey of St Peter, Gloucester, 'Liber Ricardi de Stowa de veteri et novo testamento versificatus' (f. 8v); and a list of other manuscripts given by him to the abbey, beginning: 'Hii sunt libri quos Ricardus de Stowa dedit ecclesie sancti Petri Glouc.' (f. 8r) (see Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum (1846) and English Benedictine Libraries (1996)).

The Benedictine abbey of St Peter, Gloucester: given by Richard of Stow in the 13th century (see inscription above); ownership inscription: 'Biblia versificata. Liber Rich[ard]i de Stowa que[m] inter alios dedit Eccl[es]ie S[anc]ti Petri Gloucestr. qu[o]d v[ide?] fol. 8 hic', 16th century (f. 1r) .

Inscribed 'Tomas Gurdon (?)', 15th century (f. 196v).

Inscribed 'Quid non videt qui videntem omnia videt. John Anne[m] W(?)', 17th century (f. 1r).

Sir Simonds d'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st Baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

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.

Administrative Context:

England.

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, 1808-1812), I (1808), no. 627.

Sir William Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum: A History of the Abbies and Other Monasteries, Hospitals, Frieries and Cathedral and Collegiate Churches..., 2nd edn, 8 vols (London: James Bohn, 1846), I, p. 537.

C. R. Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination 1066-1200 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1954), pp. 12, 61, 64, pl. 7a.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 91.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 56-61 and no. A218.

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, 165, 319.

English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues, ed. by R. Sharpe and others, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), p. 247.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names: