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Harley MS 989
- Record Id:
- 040-002046818
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046818
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0001ef
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 989
- Title:
- Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius
- Scope & Content:
-
ff. 1r-52r: Seneca’s Moral Letters to Lucilius, also known as Moral Epistles and Letters from a Stoic, imperfect, containing letters 1-52 out of 124. Glossed, mostly in the same hand.
f. 52v: late medieval inscriptions, including ownership inscriptions.
Decoration:
Large blue initial with green pen-flourishes (f. 1r). Green pen-flourishes on capitals (f. 1r).
Red initials throughout.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046818", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 989: Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046818 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 989 : Seneca, Moral Letters to Lucilius - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0989]/040-002046818
- 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:
- 1125
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 12th century-3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 170 x 115 mm (text space: 140 x 90 mm).
Foliation: ff. 52 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house. Rebound in 1966.
Condition: Water damage to inside lower portion of the folios has caused some initials to smudge.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England or France.
Provenance:
Late-medieval ownership inscriptions: 'ffrater Willm[us] Well[us]' and 'frater Thom Kynerduseye' (f. 52v).
Augustine Steward (d. 1597), student at Trinity College Cambridge (1557-58); admitted to Inner Temple, 1564: inscribed, 'Sum Augustini Senascalli liber' (f. 1); and 'A. Stywarde' (f. 52v).
Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1635, d. 1699), bishop of Worcester and theologian (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani, 1972).
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, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 989.
Montague Rhodes James, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge, 1903), p. 507.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. Neil Ripley Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London, 1964), p. 39.
Leighton Durham Reynolds, The Medieval Tradition of Seneca's Letters (Oxford, 1965), pp. 71, 109.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1972), p. 316.
B. Munk Olsen, L’Étude des auteurs classiques latins aux XIe et XIIe siècles, 3 vols (Paris, 1982-1989), II (1985), p. 413, C. 99.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)