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Harley MS 979

Record Id:

040-002046808

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002046808

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0001e5

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 979

Title:

Theological miscellany, including Innocent III, De contemptu mundi

Scope & Content:

f. 2*: Added table of contents in a near-contemporary hand.

f. 1r: Three verses: ‘Sunt sacramenta septem. lauacrum caro cristi. / Ordo sacer. crismatio presulis et patientis. / Unctio postrema. confessio coniugiumque.’

ff. 1r–37v: ‘Ysagoge magistri Hugonis in euidentiam theologie. et primum de eius cognicione. que constat quadrifarie. Triplex est diuine scripture cognitio …’

ff. 37v–39r: Robert Grosseteste, Sermo de decem preceptum decalogi, an addition to the manuscript in a contemporary hand (printed in McEvoy 2001).

f. 39r: Verse summary of the Decalogue: ‘Item versus de decem preceptis. Disce deum colere nomenque dei reuerare …’, added in a contemporary hand.

ff. 39v–40r: ‘Exposicio super oracionem dominicam. Octo sunt beatitudines quarum septem impetrantur …’

ff. 40–46v: Bruno of Asti, De sacramentis ecclesiasticis.

ff. 47r–50r: William de Montibus, Peniteas cito, here given the heading Cherubin de confessione.

ff. 50r–72v: Innocent III, De contemptu mundi.

f. 73r–v: ‘Questio de aperta negligentia corporis aut sanguinis domini nostri Jesu cristi. Queritur si aperta neglegentia de corpore aut sanguine domini acciderit …’ Another copy in Edinburgh, University Library, MS 107, ff. 28v–29r.

f. 74r–v: ‘De .vii. uiciis capitalibus. et eorum speciebus. et circumstanciis. qualiter uere penitens debeat de eis confiteri. et primo de superbia. que est origo omnium malorum. Si scienter deum offenderit. quod est magnum genus superbie …’

ff. 75r–81r: Robert Grosseteste, Templum domini.

ff. 81r–82v: Excerpts from Gregory the Great: ‘Incipiunt sentientie beati Gergorii pape. Diuino flagello humanum addere superfluum est. Reprobi nunquam …’

Decoration:

Large puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in both colours. Some large and numerous small initials in red or blue, frequently with pen-flourishing in the other colour. Simple initials in red or blue. Added (?) penwork drawings, one including elaborate interlace motifs, in black ink (f. 1*v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002046808", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 979: Theological miscellany, including Innocent III, De contemptu mundi" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002046808

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 979 : Theological miscellany, including Innocent III, De contemptu mundi

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[0979]/040-002046808

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:

1250

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

2nd half of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 195 × 155 mm (written area 150–160 × 105–110 mm; ff. 1–39, 74, 81–82 in two columns).

Foliation: ff. 1*, 2* + 83 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end; f. [iv] is conjoined with f. 1*; ff. 1*, 2* and 83 are medieval parchment flyleaves).

Collation: i, i¹²⁺¹ (ff. 2*, 1–12; 1st added), ii¹² (ff. 13–24), iii¹⁴ (ff. 25–39), iv^18–2 (ff. 40–54; 15th/16th/18th cancelled), v¹² (ff. 55–66), vi⁸ (ff. 67–74); vii⁸⁺¹ (ff. 75–83).

Script: Gothic, written below top line.

Binding: British Museum in-house; rebound 20 May 1968.

Custodial History:

Origin:

The Benedictine abbey of St Mary, Reading, Berkshire: ownership inscriptions (ff. 1*v, 83).

Provenance:

Deposited at the Augustinian abbey of Cirencester, Gloucestershire, in exchange for a Cirencester copy of Alexander Neckam, Laus sapiencie diuine: inscribed, 13th century, ‘Libellus iste tempore aluredi prioris fuit apud cyrencestr’ memoriale pro libello alex’ nequam qui dicitur Laus sapiencie. Quem revocari fecit frater pag’’ (f. 1*v; cf. Coates, English Medieval Books, 1999, p. 115).

Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1635, d. 1699), bishop of Worcester and theologian; no. 157 in his catalogue, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson D.878 (Coates, English Medieval Books, 1999, p. 159).

Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1661, d. 1708), physician and Church of England clergyman, son of the former; in 1707 acquired by Robert Harley (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani, 1972).

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, no. 979.

Walter De Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Ilustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 6.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 156.

C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 265, 283, 316.

Alan Coates, English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 97, 115, no. 77.

James McEvoy, 'The Edition of a Sermon on the Decalogue attributed to Robert Grosseteste', in Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 68 (2001), pp. 228-224, http://doi.org/10.2143/RTPM.68.2.952.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names: