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Harley MS 633
- Record Id:
- 040-002046462
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046462
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x00008b
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059468560.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 633
- Title:
-
Pseudo-Anastasius Bibliothecarius, Liber pontificalis; Pseudo-Isidore, Decretales pseudo-Isidorianae
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the Liber pontificalis (the Book of the Popes), a collection of biographies of popes from St Peter until Pope Clement III (b. 1130, d. 1191), attributed to Anastasius Bibliothecarius (b. c. 810, d. c. 878). It also contains the Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianae (Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals), a set of medieval forgeries composed in the 9th century.
ff. 1r-2r: A list of popes from St Peter to Lucius II (d. 1145), followed by details regarding each papacy, with the names only for popes from Eugene III (d. 1153) to Gregory VIII (d. 1187): the names of Urban III (d. 1187) and Gregory VIII (d. 1187) have been written by a different hand.
ff. 4r-71r: Pseudo-Anastasius Bibliothecarius, Liber pontificalis, beginning: ‘Beatissimo Damaso Ieronimus’, preceded by the incipit: ‘Incipit liber pontificalis in quo continentur acta beatorum pontificum urbis rome'. The texts incorporate several papal decretals from the Collectio Lanfranci (The Collection of Lanfranc). According to Thompson, the portion of the text covering the years 757-1119 in this copy of the Liber pontificalis and in Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk. 4.6 derive from the exemplar compiled by William of Malmesbury (b. c. 1080, d. 1143) (see Thompson, William of Malmesbury (1987), pp. 120-21).
ff. 72r-89r: Pseudo-Isidore (Isidore Mercator), Decretales pseudo-Isidorianae, excerpt including three epistles of Clement, beginning: 'Clemens urbis rome episcopus Jacobo ierosolimorum episcopo'.
[ff. 1*v, 2v-3r, 71v-[71b]v, 89v-90r are blank].
Decoration:
2 large initials in colours and gold, with foliate decoration, the red oxidised (ff. 4r, 72r). Initials in blue or green with red penwork decoration, or in red with blue penwork decoration. Small initials in blue or red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046462", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 633: Pseudo-Anastasius Bibliothecarius, Liber pontificalis; Pseudo-Isidore, Decretales pseudo-Isidorianae" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046462 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 633 : Pseudo-Anastasius Bibliothecarius, Liber pontificalis; Pseudo-Isidore, Decretales pseudo-Isidorianae - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0633]/040-002046462
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100059468560.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1175
- End Date:
- 1199
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 305 x 200 mm (text space: 225 x 130 mm, in two columns).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 90 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 2 unfoliated blank parchment leaves after f. 71 (f. [71a] and f. [71b]); ff. 1* and 90 are former pastedowns.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
'Brian Stapleton', perhaps Sir Brian Stapleton (d. 1519) of Suffolk, or Brian Stapleton (b. 1534, d. 1606) of Carlton, Yorkshire: his name inscribed 'liber Briani Stapletoni' (f. 1*recto; see also f. 90v). This name also appears in Stowe MS 32, f. 1r, and in Oxford, Bodleian Library, Barlow MS. 37, f. iii recto.
William Camden (b. 1551, d. 1623), antiquary: added list of contents (f. 3v).
Sir Simonds D'Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton, see Wright, Fontes (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.
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), p. 392 (no. 633).
Wilhelm Levison, 'Aus Englischen Bibliotheken', Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde, 35 (1910), 333-431 (pp. 335, 398-431).
Charles Wendell David, Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1920), p. 154 (n. 72).
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), p. 134 (no. A276a).
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, pp. xviii-xix.
Schafer Williams, Codices Pseudo-Isidoriani: A Paleographico-Historical Study, Monumenta Iuris Canonici, Series C: Subsidia, 3 (New York: Fordham University Press, 1971), p. 83.
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. 93, 131, 313.
The Letters of Lanfranc Archbishop of Canterbury, ed. by Helen Clover and Margaret Gibson (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979), p. 183 (n. 5).
Rodney M. Thompson, William of Malmesbury (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1987), pp. 120-21.
Lotte Kéry, Canonical Collections of the Early Middle Ages, Ca. 400-1140: A Bibliographical Guide to the Manuscripts and Literature (Washington: Catholic University of America Press, 1999), pp. 106, 241.
Nicolás Álvarez de Las Asturias, La Collectio Lanfranci: origine e influenza di una collezione della Chiesa anglo-normanna (Milan: Giuffrè, 2008), pp. vii, 81, 273.
- 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.