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Harley MS 993
- Record Id:
- 040-002046822
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002046822
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0001f3
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 993
- Title:
- Walter Hilton, The Eight Chapters on Perfection; Treatise of Discretion of Spirits
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-23v: Walter Hilton, The Eight Chapters on Perfection, English translation of a work by written by the Aragonese Franciscan Luis de Fontibus (fl. 1383-1394); beginning: ‘Heere bigynneþ a tretis of viij chapitres necessarie for men þat ʒiven hem to perfection . whiche was founden in a book of maister lowes de fontibus at Cantebrigge . and turned into englisch bi maister water [sic] Hilton of thurgartoun’.
ff. 24r-37v: Treatise of Discretion of Spirits, imperfect at the beginning.
ff. 38r-38v: The ‘Common Profit’ inscription of Robert Holond: ‘This book was maad of þe goodis of robert holond for a comyn profite þat þat persoone þat haþ þis book committid to him of þe persoone þat haþ power to committe it ; have þe uss [sic] þerof þe terme of his lijf . praynge for the soule of þe same Robert / And þat he þat haþ þe forseid uss of commissioun whanne he occupieþ it not ; leeve he it for a tyme to sum oþer persoone. Also þat persoone to whom it was committid for þe teerme of lijf ; undir þe forseid condiciouns delivere it to anoþer persoone þe teerme of his lijf / And so be it delivered and committed from persoone to persoone man or womman as longe as þe book enduriþ’.
Decoration:
Puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in the same colours extending into the margins to form a partial border (f. 1v). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Paraphs in blue. Line-fillers in red and blue.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002046822", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 993: Walter Hilton, The Eight Chapters on Perfection; Treatise of Discretion of Spirits" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002046822 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 993 : Walter Hilton, The Eight Chapters on Perfection; Treatise of Discretion of Spirits - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[0993]/040-002046822
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English, Middle
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1425
- End Date:
- 1449
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 165 x 115 mm (text space: 105 x 70 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1*-3* + 40 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house: Red half leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate gold-stamped on the outside upper covers. Rebound in 1949.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
Financed from the estate of Robert Holond (Holland) (? Robert Holland, shearman, who died intestate in 1441, the administration of his goods being granted to John Collop, of the parish of St Michael in the Royal; see discussion of Holland in Jones, Minor Works (1929), p. xxxiii): an inscription declaring that the manuscript was made for him on ff. 38r-38v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 195-96 and Plate XIV).
Sister Anne Colvylle (d. 1531), a nun at the Bridgettine abbey of St Saviour at Syon, Middlesex, in 1516, 16th century: her ownership inscription on f. 2*recto: 'thys boke is suster anne colvylle' (f. 2*); and her name inscribed twice on f. 39v: ‘D Anne Colvilee'. This is one of two books she is known to have owned; the other manuscript is now Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 416 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 110).
Thomas Holland, late 16th century: inscribed his name on f. 39v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 192).
James Palmer, 16th-17th century: inscribed his name ('James Palmer') and an ownership inscription with an 'anti-papist' note on f. 38v: ‘James Palmer owneth this Booke yet without ye least intent to pray for ye Soule of Robert Holland, being a wicked simple Custome of sottishly ignorant Papists. J. Palmer Junior’ (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 265).
Edward Stillingfleet (b. 1635, d. 1699), bishop of Worcester and theologian (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 316).
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), p. 316).
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:
-
Virginia R. Bainbridge, ‘Syon Abbey: Women and Learning c. 1415-1600’, in Syon Abbey and Its Books: Reading, Writing and Religion, c. 1400-1700, ed. by E. A. Jones and Alexandra Walsham (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2010), pp. 82-103 (p. 89).
David N. Bell, What Nuns Read: Books and Libraries in Medieval English Nunneries, Cistercian Studies Series, 158 (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1995), p. 190.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), p. 501 [no. 993].
Deonise Hid Diuinite: And Other Treatises on Contemplative Prayer Related to the Cloud of Unknowing: A Tretyse of Þe Stodye of Wysdome Þat Men Clepen Beniamyn. A Pistle of Preier. A Pistle of Discrecioun of Stirings. A Tretis of Discrescyon of Spirites, ed. by Phyllis Hodgson, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 231 (London: Oxford University Press, 1955), pp. x-xi, 80-93.
Mary C. Erler, Women, Reading, and Piety in Late Medieval England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), p. 147.
Rebecca Krug, Reading Families: Women’s Literate Practice in Late Medieval England (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002), p. 192.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 184.
Minor Works of Walter Hilton, ed. by Dorothy Jones (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1929), pp. xxxiii-xxxv.
Jo Ann Hoeppner Moran, 'A "Common Profit" library in Fifteenth-Century England and Other Books for Chaplains', Manuscripta, 28:1 (1984), 17-25.
Jane Roberts, Guide to Scripts used in English Writings up to 1500 (London: British Library, 2005), p. 229 [with additional bibliography].
Michael S. Sargent, 'Walter Hilton's "Scale of Perfection": The London Manuscript Group Reconsidered', Medium Ævum, 52:2 (1983), 189-216 (p. 206).
The Southern Version of Cursor Mundi, ed. by Laurence M Eldredge and Anne L. Klinck (Ottawa: University of Ottowa Press, 2000), p. 18.
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. 110, 192, 195-96, 265, 316.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Hilton, Walter, c 1343-1396,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000118213408
Luis de Fontibus, Franciscan friar of Aragon, fl 1383-1394 - Places:
- England