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Harley MS 874
- Record Id:
- 040-002046703
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046703
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x00017c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058663460.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 874
- Title:
-
Apocalypse in English with prose commentary
- Scope & Content:
-
English version of the Apocalypse/Revelation of St John, with a prose commentary following each section of the text.
f. 1*r: Added paper leaf with Frederic Madden's notes about the manuscript, citing Harley 1203, Harley 171, and Royal 17 A XXVI.
f. 1v: Pen trials, 15th century.
f. 2r–v: Prologue to the Apocalypse: 'Seint poule þapostle seiþ þat alle ƿoo þat willen …' (written at the top of f. 2r, ‘Ad omnea principia tibi salua dico maria’).
ff. 2v-31r: Apocalypse with prose commentary: ‘Ich John ȝoure broþer …’.
f. 31v: 'St Michael III', from the South English Legendary, ending imperfectly: a catchword at the bottom of the leaf indicates that at least one quire is missing.
f. 32r: Pen trials, 15th century.
Decoration:
Simple red initials. Paraphs in red ink at the head underlining the commentary. Spaces left blank for the rubrication.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046703", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 874: Apocalypse in English with prose commentary" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046703 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 874 : Apocalypse in English with prose commentary - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0874]/040-002046703
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058663460.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1335
- End Date:
- 1370
- Date Range:
- c 1340-1370
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Dimensions: 285 × 200 mm (text space: 210 × 150 mm).
Foliation: ff. 32 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end). f. 1 and f. 32 are former pastedowns.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house, 1877.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
Edited by two main scribes. The first scribe who had edited the first part of the text is nearly contemporary with the text, the other is slightly later (see Elis Fridner, An English Fourteenth Century Apocalypse version (1961), p. ii).
Inscription in a late 14th-century hand 'Ric Schepard presbyter' (f. 1r).
Inscriptions and pen-trials by two late 14th-century or early 15th-century hands (ff. 1v; 32r).
Inscription in a cursive and neat hand followed by the date '1563' (f. 13r).
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/.
- Publications:
-
Anna C. Paues, A Fourteenth century English Biblical version, consisting of a Prologue and parts of the New Testament edited from manuscripts, togerther with some introductory chapters on Middle English Biblical versions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1902), pp. xxi-xxx.
Anna C. Paues, A Fourteenth century Biblical version (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1904), p. xxvii.
Elis Fridner, An English Fourteenth Century Apocalypse version with a prose commentary, edited from MS Harley 874 and ten other MSS (Lund: C. W. K, Gleerup 1961), pp. vii-lviii and pp. 1-206.
Sarah M. Horrall, 'A Fragment of St. Michael, part III' from the South English Legendary', Notes and Queries, 32.3 (1985), 302-03.
Christina Von Nolcken, 'The Recluse and its readers: Some observations on a Lollard interpolated version of Ancrene Wisse', in A companion to Ancrene Wisse, ed. by Yoko Wada (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2003), pp. 176-79.
Ralph Anna, 'English biblical texts before Lollardy and their fate', in Lollards and their influence in late Medieval England (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2003), pp. 146-47.
Ralph Anna, London Literature 1300-1380 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 7, 17, 154.
Brent A. Pitts, 'The Middle English Apocalypse Gloss in British Library MS Additional 18633', Notes and Queries, 53.3 (2006) 293-95.
Nigel Morgan, ‘Latin and vernacular Apocalypses’, in The New Cambridge History of the Bible, 4 vols (Cambridge, 2012-2015), II: From 600 to 1450, ed. by Richard Marsden and E. Ann Matter (2012) pp. 404-26 (p. 416).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)