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Harley MS 959
- Record Id:
- 040-002046788
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046788
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0001d1
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 959
- Title:
-
The Cloud of Unknowing
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-1v: A cancelled leaf from The Cloud of Unknowing.
ff. 3r-123v: The Cloud of Unknowing, ending with the colophon: 'laus deo et honor / prey for the wryter / Qui nominatur Walterus ffytzherbert'.
The manuscript contains a few later additions:
f. 1r: A note stating that: 'This leaf is part of the 6th and 7th Chapters, and is here […], the book being perfect without it'; added in the (?) 18th century.
f. 2v: An excerpt from 'valerius maximus : libro vijo de quodam Rege'; added in the 16th century.
f. 123v: Theological notes, beginning: 'omnia est stabilie cor gratie'; added in the (?) 16th century.
f. 124r: Joshua 1:8, beginning: 'Dicit deus: qui non recedeat volumen legis hujus ab ore tuo'; added in the (?) 16th century.
f. 125r: A list of book titles and prices, including: 'Walter Hylton Scala perfectionis', 'Paul the hermyt', 'xiiij. profetes of tribulacion', 'The boke of .iiij. Loves [? Joyes]', 'The .vij. shedynges of bloode of Christ' and 'The fourme of confession'; added in the (?) 16th century.
Decoration:
Large initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Plain initials in red or blue. Rubrics in red. Capitals marked in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046788", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 959: The Cloud of Unknowing" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046788 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 959 : The Cloud of Unknowing - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0959]/040-002046788
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 145 x 100 mm (text space: 110 x 70 mm).
Foliation: ff. 125 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment stub after f. 123; 1 unfoliated folded paper pastedown (bibliographical notes) on the second paper flyleaf at the beginning (f. [ii]recto).
Collation: Indicated by horizontal catchwords and leaf signatures (often cropped).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house: gold-tooled red half leather with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the outside covers. Marbled endpapers. Inscribed on fore-edge: 'The Cloud of Unknowing'.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
Richard Colchester (d. 1643), chancery clerk from 1632 to 1643: his ownership inscription on f. 2r:, 'Rich[ard]us Colchester me possidet 1624' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 107-108.
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. 484.
A Book of Contemplation the Which is Called the Cloud of Unknowing, in the Which a Soul is Oned with God, ed. by Evelyn Underhill (London: Watkins, 1912) [an edition of Harley 674].
The Cloud of Unknowing and the Book of Privy Counselling, ed. by Phyllis Hodgson, Early English Text Society, Original Series 218 (London: Early English Text Society, 1944), p. 218.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 108.
John P. H. Clark, "The Cloud of Unknowing": An Introduction, 3 vols, Analecta Cartusiana, 119:4-6 (Salzburg: Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 1995).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- England