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Harley MS 1661

Record Id:

040-002047492

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002047492

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0000a9

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 1661

Title:

Bible, without the Psalms

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-448v: Bible, without the Psalms.

ff. 449r-484v: The Interpretation of Hebrew names (added slightly later).

Decoration:

Puzzle initial in red and blue with pen-flourishing in the same colours at the beginning of most books (except Esther) and some prologues. Initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour. Bas-de page decoration: animal head with pen-flourishing coming out of its mouth (f. 4r). Paraphs in red or blue, some with penwork decoration. Running titles (some with pen-flourishing). A few line-fillers in red ink.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002047492", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1661: Bible, without the Psalms" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002047492

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 1661 : Bible, without the Psalms

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[1663]/040-002047492

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:

1225

End Date:

1274

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 13th century-13rd quarter of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 170 x 120 mm (text space: 115-120 x 75-80, in 2 columns [ff. 1-449]; and 3 columns [ff. 449v-484v]).

Foliation: ff. 484 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 2 unfoliated parchment leaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end); Part of f. 271 is missing.

Collation: i¹⁸ (ff. 1-18), ii-vii¹² (ff. 19-90), viii-xiv¹⁶ (ff. 91-202), xv^16-1 (ff. 203-217; folio cut out after f. 217, no lacuna), xvi-xxxiii¹² (ff. 218-433), xxxiv^16-1 (ff. 434-448; folio cut out after f. 448, no lacuna), xxxv-xxxvi⁸ (ff. 449-464), xxxvii⁶ (ff. 465-470), xxxviii⁸ (ff. 471-478), xxxix⁶ (ff. 479-484).

Script: Gothic, written below the top line.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound in 1964 (note inside lower cover).

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

James Burgundy, from Abbots Ann (Hampshire), owned in the 15th century: according to an inscription recording his donation of the manusript on ff. 18v-19r: 'Iste liber ex dono mag[iste]ri Jacobi Bowerguondy Rectoris Eccl[es]ie b[eat]e marie de An[n]a Abb[a]t[is]' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

Thomas Dackomb (b. 1496, d. c. 1572), rector of Colbrooke, Winchester: inscribed his name on f. [ii]recto (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 122).

John Lay Coke, owned in the (?) 16th century inscription: his ownership inscription on f. 105r: 'John Lay Cokes Boke thys ys' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

Henry Worsley (b. 1675, d. 1747), scholar and manuscript collector, envoy at the Court of Portugal (1714-21) and governor of Barbados (1721-31); donated by him to Robert Harley together with other manuscripts from Worsley's collection (now Harley 1585-1747, 1811, 1812) before December 1712 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 361).

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), II (1808), p. 168.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, pp. xix-xx.

Christopher de Hamel, The Book: A History of the Bible (London: Phaidon, 2001), p. 129.

A. G. Watson, 'A Sixteenth-Century Collector, Thomas Dackomb, 1496-c. 1572', The Library, 18 (Sept. 1963), 204-217.

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. 122, 361.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England