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Harley MS 649
- Record Id:
- 040-002046478
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046478
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x00009b
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059468932.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 649
- Title:
-
Bede, In Canticum Canticorum Expositio; Venantius Fortunatus, Vita Sancti Radegundis; Bede, Expositio Actuum Apostolorum; Commentarius in Epistolas Canonicas; Homiliae Evangelii; In Tobiam; Anonymous sermons on Luke 11:33 and Luke 4:14
- Scope & Content:
-
This early 12th-century manuscript contains a collection of biblical commentaries and homilies by the Benedictine monk Bede (b. 672/3, d. 735), and the Vita Sancti Radegundis (Life of St Radegund) by Venantius Fortunatus (b. c. 530, d. c. 600/609), a poet at the Merovingian court. The manuscript was owned by and perhaps also produced at the Benedictine abbey of St Mary and St Benedict at Ramsey (Cambridgeshire) since it contains a 15th-century ownership inscription from the abbey. Two of the manuscript’s flyleaves contain an unidentified theological work that, according to an inscription, is a lecture by Henry of Saltrey (fl. c. 1184) on the ‘sentencias’, perhaps the Sententiae (Sentences) of Peter Lombard (b. c. 1096, d. 1160). Ramsey abbey's access to the lecture may be explained by the monastery's close proximity to the Cistercian abbey at Sawtrey.
Contents:
f. 1v: A table of contents.
ff. 2r-98r: Bede, In Canticum Canticorum Expositio (Commentary on the Song Of Songs): ff. 2r-8r: Book I (‘contra iulianum’); ff. 8r-9r: A table of contents for Books II-VII; f. 9r: A prologue for Books II-VII; ff. 9r-98r: Books II-VII.
ff. 98r-100v: A sermon on Luke 11:33.
ff. 100v-103v: Venantius Fortunatus, Vita Sancti Radegundis.
ff. 103v-104v: A sermon on Luke 4:14.
ff. 105r-152v: Bede, Expositio Actuum Apostolorum (Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles): ff. 105r-106v: A prologue; ff. 106v-147v: Commentary; ff. 148r-152v: A description of places ('Descriptio situs terrea beato beda Provintiarum civitatum insularum huic libro congru[a]endum').
ff. 152v-222r: Bede, Commentarius in Epistolas Canonicas (Commentary on the Seven Catholic Epistles).
ff. 223r-251r: Bede, Homiliae Evangelii (Homilies on the Gospels), I-XI.
ff. 252r-258r: Bede, In Tobias (Commentary on the Book of Tobit).
ff. [iii] recto-[iii] verso; [260] recto-[260] verso: An unidentified theological text (in 2 columns), written in the 13th century (?); perhaps a commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sententiae by Henry of Saltrey; in the lower margin of f. [260r] is a later, partially legible inscription: ‘lectura super sentencias h[en]r[i] de sautre’.
ff. [259] recto-[259] verso: A letter by Sir Simonds D'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650).
[ff. 1r, 222v, [222a] recto, [222a] verso, 251v, [251a] recto, [251a] verso, and 258v are empty].
Decoration:
Large initials in red, green or purple, decorated with arabesque motifs in the same and/or alternate colour and occasionally in blue (ff. 2r (2x), 9r, 9v, 10v, 38v, 73v, 90r, 105r, 106v, 148r, 153r, 171v, 186r, 196r, 216r, 217r, 218r, 223r, 226r, 226v, 237r, 240v, 243r, 246v, 252r). 1 large initial in red and green, decorated with foliate motifs in both colours (f. 57r). Smaller initials in red or green, or black ink. Letters highlighted in red and/or green. Display capitals in green, red, blue or purple. Rubrics in red or green, one decorated with green dots (f. 42r). Running headers and book numbers in brown or red ink. Underlining in red. Line-fillers in red and/or green.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046478", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 649: Bede, In Canticum Canticorum Expositio; Venantius Fortunatus, Vita Sancti Radegundis; Bede, Expositio Actuum Apostolorum; Commentarius…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046478 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 649 : Bede, In Canticum Canticorum Expositio; Venantius Fortunatus, Vita Sancti Radegundis; Bede, Expositio Actuum Apostolorum;… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0649]/040-002046478
- 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_100059468932.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1100
- End Date:
- 1124
- Date Range:
- 1st 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: 320 x 220 mm (text space: 235 x 170 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 258 ( + 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment leaf between f. 222 and f. 223 (f. [222a]) and f. 251 and f. 252 (f. [251a]); 1 unfoliated parchment stub between f. 98 and f. 99; f. 222 and f. [222a]; and f. 251 and f. [251a]; a paper with bibliographical notes has been pasted on f. [ii] recto; medieval folio numbers in brown and modern folio numbers in pencil (crossed out).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Gold-tooled brown half leather binding with Harley’s bookplate gold-stamped on the upper and lower cover, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘BEDÆ EXPOSITIONES. &c.’; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ?Ramsey, Eastern England.
Provenance:
Robert of Beeston (Beeston, Norfolk?), owned in the 13th or 14th century: his name inscribed in a 13th- or 14th-century script: 'iste liber est domini Roberti fratris / Willelmi de bestone' (f. [260]); perhaps a monk at the Benedictine abbey of St Mary and St Benedict at Ramsey (Cambridgeshire).
Robert Gotham, monk at the Benedictine abbey of St Mary and St Benedict at Ramsey, owned in the 15th century: his name inscribed in a 15th-century script: 'liber rameseye Roberti Gotham' (f. 258v); for this type of inscription see Sharpe, English Benedictine Libraries (1996), p. 327. Gotham's name is inscribed twice more in the same hand on f. 258v. Inscribed apparently in the same hand are the names of 'Johannes Eney iiii'; ‘Johannes Clopton vj’ ; ‘Ricardus Chefforthe’; ‘Henricus lichefeld’, 'Johannes Clopton vi', 'Ricardus Chefforthe' and 'Henricus Lichefeld' (f. 258v); a list of names (‘Johannes’ (5x); ‘Robertus’; ‘Ricardus’; ‘Laurentius’); and a citation from Bede, Homily XXIX (‘quid nobis inter hec . fratres karissimi restat agendum’) on f. 258v.
Sir Simonds D'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)): the manuscript is recorded in his catalogue (Watson, The Library (1966), pp. 166 (A.165), 20 (B.30)); a letter in his hand (f. [259]); his foliation.
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, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, p. 397.
Bedae Venerabilis: Expositio Actuum Apostolorum et Retractatio, ed. by M. L. W. Laistner (Cambridge Mass.: The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1939), p. xxx (no. 52).
Max Ludwig Wolfram Laistner and Henry Hall King, A Hand-List of Bede Manuscripts (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1943), pp. 21, 33, 80.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil Ripley Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 154.
Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 116 (A.165), 290 (B.30).
Cyril Ernst Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 72, 103, 106, 131, 145, 168, 223, 280-85.
George Beech, 'England and Aquitaine in the Century before the Norman Conquest', Anglo-Saxon England, 19 (1990), 80-101 (p. 92 n. 41).
English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues, ed. by Richard Sharpe and others, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), p. 327.
Richard Gameson, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066-1130) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 106 (nos 434-37).
- 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.