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Harley MS 654

Record Id:

040-002046483

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046483

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0000a0

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 654

Title:

Eutropius, Historiae Romanae; Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-20v: Eutropius, Historiae Romanae.

ff. 20v-31r: Additions of Paul the Deacon to Eutropius.

ff. 31v: List of Roman emperors.

ff. 31v-96r: Orosius, Historiae contra paganos.

The manuscript contains a few additions:

Annotations in several 16th and 17th-century hands throughout.

ff. 1*recto-1*verso: A hitherto unidentified fragment of the Office for the Feast Day of St Thomas Becket (28 December) from the Sarum Breviary, beginning imperfectly in lection V: 'Quinto vero Dominice nativitatis dei veniunt Cantuariam alici quatuor viri quidem preclari genere sed male factis famosi'. and continuing to lection VIII; written in the 14th century.

f. 96v: A table of contents, added in the (?) 17th century.

ff. 97r-98v: A hitherto unidentified fragment of Albertus Magnus's De Animalibus; the two leaves contain a section of Book XXII; f. 98 (Marter-Ferret) originally was placed before f. 97 (Wolf-Mouse); written in the 14th century.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046483", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 654: Eutropius, Historiae Romanae; Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046483

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 654 : Eutropius, Historiae Romanae; Orosius, Historiae adversus paganos

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0654]/040-002046483

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:

1300

End Date:

1399

Date Range:

14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 355 x 220 mm (text space: 265 x 155 mm, in 2 columns).

Foliation: ff. 98 (+ 3 unfoliated blank paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); ff. 1*, 97 and 98 are parchment leaves that have been taken from other manuscripts and originally served as flyleaves for this manuscript; 1 unfoliated parchment pastedown on f. 1*recto (featuring Harleian shelfmarks).

Collation: Indicated by horizontal catchwords in brown frames; each quire has been mounted onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house; red half leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate goldstamped on the outside covers; re-bound on 20 September 1966.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Willelmus Childe (d. 1487), Rector of West Lydford, Somerset (1450-1487), owned until 1482: according to an inscription on f. 96v: 'Hunc librum habuit Magister Johannes Gunthorp decanus wellensis xiiija septembris anno domini 1482o de Magistro Willelmo childe rectore de Westludford bathonensis & Wellensis diocesis pro quo impignoratus est liber continens Augustinus de vita christiana et de singularitate clericorum cum alijs. 2o folio stomachum faciat: et ultimo folio Impedimentum perpetuum' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 104).

Johannes Gunthorp (d. 1498), Dean of Wells, owned from 1482: according to an inscription on f. 96v [see above] (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 174).

John Dee (b. 1527, d. 1609), mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary: his annotations in the manuscript (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), pp. 138 [A.292], 291 [B.49]; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 127)

Sir Simonds D’Ewes (b. 1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton: listed in his catalogues as A.292 and B.49 (see Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1966), pp. 138, 291; 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. 398 [no. 654].

L. B. Mortensen, 'The Diffusion of Roman Histories in the Middle Ages. A List Of Orosius, Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus and Landolfus Sagax Manuscripts', Filologia Mediolatina, VI-VII (2000), 101-200 (pp. 121, 132, 178).

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. xviii n. 3.

Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 138 [A.292], 291 [B.49].

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. 104, 127, 174, 131.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Eutropius, Flavius, fl 370,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121248871,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/25396473
Orosius, Paulus, c 380-c 418,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121178754,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/2479624
Paul the Deacon, Benedictine monk, scribe and historian, c 720-799,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000454758685,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/40174477

Places:

England