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Harley MS 1246
- Record Id:
- 040-002047075
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047075
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000652.0x0002f0
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056033316.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 1246
- Title:
- Homiliary
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
f. 1v: A table of content of the collection of sermons contained in this manuscript.
ff. 2r-141r: A collection of 63 homilies mainly excerpted from the commentaries on the Four Gospels by the Church Fathers and Doctors of the Church, arranged for the liturgical year, beginning with Bede's commentary on the Gospel of St Mark: 'Principium evangelii Ihesu Christi [...] Conferendum est hoc evangelii Marci principium'; ending with St Ambrose's commentary on the Gospel of St Luke.
Decoration:
Decorated initials in blue, green, red or light brown, frequently with reserved lines, geometric or arabesque motifs in the same or one or more alternate colour. A few simple initials in red or green. Rubrics in red. Quire signatures. Guide script for rubricator in outer margins (e.g., f. 102v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047075", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1246: Homiliary" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047075 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 1246 : Homiliary - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[1246]/040-002047075
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056033316.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Foliation: ff. 1*+ 141 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end); f. 1* is a fragment of a 13th-century manuscript containing the Corpus Iuris Civilis, used as a flyleaf.
Dimensions: 380 x 270 mm (text space 280 x 165 mm), in 2 columns.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Rebound in 1966; fore-edge inscribed 'Omelie diversorum'; rust stains from two metal fastenings (f. 141v).
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Reading, Southeastern England.
Provenance:
Probably written at the Benedictine abbey of St Mary, Reading in the 3rd quarter of the 12th century, according to Coates, English Medieval Books (1999), pp. 47, 52, 59 (assigned to Reading on the basis of the script).
The Benedictine priory of St Peter, Leominster, Herefordshire (a cell of Reading): recorded in the inventory of books at Leominster of c. 1192 as one of two sermon collections 'Due omeliarii diversorum tractatorum utrosque incipiente Beda' (see Sharpe, English Benedictine Libraries (1996), B75.12); partly erased ownership-inscriptions 'Iste liber [...] in com[munitatem] Herff[ordensis] (f. 1r), and a anathema written by the same 13th-century hand (141r).
Added, 15th-century drawings in crayon (margins of ff. 38v, 83v, 84r, 88r).
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 at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, no. 1246.
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. 114.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 222.
English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues, ed. by R. Sharpe and others, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), p. 455 (B75.12).
Alan Coates, English Medieval Books: The Reading Abbey Collections from Foundation to Dispersal (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1999), pp. 34, 47, 52, 59, no. 51 (p. 153).
Richard Sharpe and James Willoughby, Medieval Libraries of Great Britain (Oxford: The Bodleian Libraries, 2015) http://mlgb3.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/mlgb/book/3563/?search_term=Harley%201246&page_size=500 [accessed 3 February 2017].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.