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Harley MS 1671
- Record Id:
- 040-002047502
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047502
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0000b3
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100161513866.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 1671
- Title:
- The Weye of Paradys
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-85v: The Weye of Paradys; a Middle English translation of the Middle French Voie de Paradis; imperfect at the beginning and end.
The manuscript contains a few later additions:
f. 1*recto: An English poem on St Erasmus, beginning 'Of Synt herassimus here may a man rede' [the prologue to the Passio Sancti Erasmi]; added in the 15th century.
f. 1*recto: The English poem Erthe upon Erthe; added in the 15th century.
f. 1v: A fragment of a Latin letter by King Henry V on a peace treaty with King Charles VI of France, 24 October 1417.
Decoration:
1 coloured drawing (monk kneeling before a bishop, f. 1r). Numerous unfinished drawings in black ink and occasionally gold, including depictions of the vices as figures mounted on animals, and of the Ten Commandments (ff. 4r, 5r, 8v, 9r, 9v, 10r, 11r [added], 12r, 12v (x2), 19 (x2), 20, 20v, 23v [whole drawing seems original], 24v, 26, 28v, 29, 29v, 38, 38v, 39, 39v, 40v, 41, 42, 42v, 43, 43v (x2), 44 (x2), 44v (x2), 45 (x2), 45v (x2), 46, 46v, 47, 62, 63v, 67v, 75, 76, 77, 77v, 78v, 84, 85, 85v). The faces have been left blank and a later hand has added crude facial features to most of the illustrations. Fainter sketches (ff. 79, 79v (x2), 80 (x2), 80v). Initial in red, occasionally with purple pen-flourishing. Spaces for initials left blank. Guide letters. Line-fillers in red ink.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047502", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1671: The Weye of Paradys" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047502 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 1671 : The Weye of Paradys - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[1673]/040-002047502
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100161513866.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1375
- End Date:
- 1424
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of 14th century-1st quarter of 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 260 x 175 mm (text space: 170 x 105 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 85 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment stub between f. 32 and f. 33.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum in-house; re-bound on 26 May 1965.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
William Aradon Ardern, owned in the 16th century: his initials inscribed on f. 1r (‘W. A. A.’) and his name inscribed on f. 86r: ‘Willelmus Aradon Ardern’ (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 53).
Richard Mors, owned in the 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 70r (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
‘Master Haryson’, owned in the 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. 86r: ‘Thys ys master Harysons boke’ (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 181).
An unknown 16th-century owner: his ownership inscription, partly erased, on f. 86r: ‘Iste liber constat [(E/C]hsale [...]’.
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), pp. 361-62).
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:
-
Walter De Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Ilustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster, 1879), p. 15.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 167 (no. 1671).
F. N. M. Diekstra, ‘Robert de Sorbon and the sources and analogues of The Weye of Paradys’, English Studies Journal, 68.1 (1987), 40-65.
The Middle English Weye of Paradys and the Middle French Voie De Paradis: A Parallel-Text Edition, ed. F. N. M. Diekstra, (Leiden: Brill, 1991), esp. pp. 3-7.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Miller, 1996), II, pp. 145, 353.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, pp. xix-xx.
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. 53, 181, 361.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)