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Harley MS 1802
- Record Id:
- 040-002047633
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047633
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000136
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165166459.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 1802
- Title:
- Gospels of Máel Brigte
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript, known as the Gospels of Máel Brigte, is a Latin Gospel-book with additional texts and extensive marginal and interlinear glosses in Latin and Irish, especially in the Gospel of St Matthew. The glosses used to be associated with the cathedral school in Paris (following Glunz, 'The Gospel Glosses' (1933), 328-41), but they are now regarded as within the Hiberno-Latin tradition (see Bischoff ‘Turning-points’ (1976), 145-49; Rittmueller, ‘The Gospel Commentary’ (1983)).
The Irish colophons at the end of each Gospel provide detailed contextual information about the manuscript (ff. 60r, 86r, 127v and 156v). Each colophon asks for prayers for the scribe, Máel Brigte. The colophon on f. 60v commemorates Cormac mac Muiredaig, who died in 1138. The colophon on f. 127v records the scribe's age as 28, and that the manuscript was written in the second year after the great storm, probably the storm recorded in the Annals of the Four Masters and the Annals of Lough Key under 1137. The colophon on f. 156v records the full name of the scribe, Máel Brigte úa Máel Úanaig, and that he wrote in Armagh in the time of High King Donnchad Ua Cerbaill, in the year when the Kalends of January fell on the 16th day of the moon, and in which King Cormac Mac Carthaig was killed. This information also corresponds with a date of 1138. (For editions, translations, and additional bibliography of these colophons, see Sharpe, ‘Humfrey Wanley’ (2017), 251–92).
Contents:
ff. 1r-3r: St Jerome's letter to Pope Damasus.
ff. 3r-v: Prologue to the Gospel of St Matthew.
ff. 3v-4v: Gospel of St Matthew 1:1-17.
ff. 4v-5v: Interpretation of Hebrew names.
f. 5v: Irish poem on the Magi.
f. 6r-v: Prologue to the Gospel of St Mark.
ff. 6v-7v: Prologue of the Gospel of St Luke.
ff. 7v-8v: Prologue to the Gospel of St John.
f. 9r: Exegetical text on the Evangelists (ed. O’Reilly, 'The Hiberno-Latin Tradition' (1995), 305-06).
f. 9v: Irish poem on Christ and the Apostles.
ff. 10r-60r: Gospel of St Matthew, beginning Matthew 1:18.
f. 60r: Colophon, 'Orait do Maelbrigte qui scribsit hunc librum. Is mór in gním Cormac mac Carthaig do marbad o Tairdelbach hua Briain' ('Prayer for Mael Brigte who wrote this book. It is a great crime that Cormac Mac Carthaig was killed by Toirdelbach Ua Briain', trans. Sharpe, ‘Humfrey Wanley’ (2017), 262).
ff. 61r-86r: Gospel of St Mark.
f. 86r: Colophon, 'Orait do Maelbrigte qui scribsit hunc librum' ('Prayer for Máel Brigte who wrote this book', trans. Sharpe, ‘Humfrey Wanley’ (2017), 264).
ff. 87r-127v: Gospel of St Luke.
f. 127v: Colophon, 'Orait do Maelbrigte qui scribsit hunc librum in xxo viiio anno etatis suae. In dara bliadain iarsin goethaig moir sein' ('Prayer for Máel Brigte who wrote this book in the twenty-eighth year of his age. This was the second year after the great storm', trans. Sharpe, ‘Humfrey Wanley’ (2017), 264).
ff. 128r-56v: Gospel of St John.
f. 156v: lengthy colophon requesting prayers for Máel Brigte, recording the location as Armagh, listing the contemporary kings of Ireland, and the Abbot of Armagh; incipit, 'Orait do Maelbrigte hua Maeluánaig qui scribsit hunc librum. i. in nArd Macha' (Prayer for Mael Máel Brigte úa Máel Úanaig, who wrote this book, i.e. in Armagh', trans. Sharpe, ‘Humfrey Wanley’ (2017), 264-65).
Decoration:
2 full-page miniatures of Evangelist symbols in colours: the lion (f. 60v) and the ox (f. 86v). 4 large zoomorphic and interlace initials in colours: the Chi-Rho page (f. 10r) and the incipits to the Gospels of Sts Mark (f. 61r), Luke (f. 87r) and John (f. 128r). Numerous small zoomorphic and interlace initials in colours. Numerous enlarged initials with coloured infill.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047633", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1802: Gospels of Máel Brigte" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047633 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 1802 : Gospels of Máel Brigte - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[1804]/040-002047633
- 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_100165166459.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Irish
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1138
- End Date:
- 1138
- Date Range:
- 1138
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Dimensions: 165 × 120 mm (written area: 120 × 70 mm).
Foliation: ff. 156 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf, 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf, and the British Museum's paper list of notices at the beginning, and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the end).
Collation: Irregular, with singletons inserted or added and some leaves excised. In most cases the arrangement of leaves is uncertain: i (ff. 1-9; a leaf is missing after f. 9), ii (ff. 10-22; ff. 3 and 7 are additions, possibly the first leaf is missing before f. 10), iii (ff. 23-37; f. 26 is an addition), iv (ff. 38-55; f. 48 is an addition), v (ff. 56-75), vi (ff. 76-84), vii (ff. 85-101; a leaf is missing after f. 90), viii (ff. 102-113), ix (ff. 114-127), x (ff. 128-139), xi (ff. 140-156).
Script: Irish minuscule, by the scribe Mael Brigte Ua Maeluanaig.
Binding: Post-1600. Covered with red leather with gold tooling.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Northern Ireland, Armagh.
Provenance:
Máel Brigte úa Máel Úanaig, scribe of Armagh, 1138: names himself as the scribe, records his age as 28, his location as Armagh, and provides dating information for 1138 in the colophons (ff. 60r, 68r, 156v).
13th-century added glosses and notes throughout the manuscript.
Pierre Dupuy (b. 1582, d. 1652) and Jacques Dupuy (b. 1591, d. 1656), collectors, mid-17th century: listed as one of the manuscripts brought by them to the Bibliothèque du Roi, Paris, in 1645, and bequeathed to the collection in 1657, in the Bibliothèque’s 1682 catalogue compiled by Nicolas Clémont (Omont, Anciens inventaires iii, p. 410).
Paris, Bibliothèque du Roi, 1645-1707: appears in the library’s 1682 catalogue as Regius 4583; described by Père Richard Simon in his Bibliothèque critique published in 1708; the manuscript together with others was taken from the library by Jean Aymon in 1707.
Jean Aymon (b. 1661, d. 1734), priest and writer: removed the manuscript from the Bibliothèque du Roi and took it to the Hague, Netherlands, where it was examined and described in 1709 by John Toland (b. 1670, d. 1722) (Toland, Nazarenus (1718), p. x), and on 29 January 1711 by Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach (b. 1683, d. 1734) (von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen (1753-54), iii, 478-80). In 1712/13, Aymon sold this and other manuscripts to Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), through negotiations with Harley’s librarian Humphrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726) and the agent Philip Stubbs (b. 1666, d. 1738) (Heyworth, Letters (1989), pp. 265-68).
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:
-
John Toland, Nazarenus: or Jewish, Gentile, and Mahometan Christianity (London: J. Brotherton, J. Roberts and A. Dodd, 1718), p. x.
Zacharias Conrad von Uffenbach, Merkwürdige Reisen durch Niedersachsen, Holland und Engelland, 3 vols, ed. by J. G. Schelhorn (Memmingen: Ulm, 1753-54), III, 478-80.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), I, pp. 229-43 (no. 1802).
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 5.
Whitley Stokes, 'The Irish Verses, Notes and Glosses in Harl. 1802', Revue Celtique, 8 (1887), 346-69.
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 4th edn, ed. by Edward Miller, 2 vols (London: George Bell & Sons, 1894), II, p. 77.
Facsimiles of Biblical Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Frederic G. Kenyon (London: British Museum, 1900), no. XVIII.
Henri Auguste Omont, Anciens inventaires et catalogues de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 5 vols (Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale, 1908-13), III (1910), p. 410.
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 82.
Standish Hayes O'Grady and Robin Flower, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1926-1953), II (1926), pp. 428-32.
James Kenney, Sources for the Early History of Ireland, I: Ecclesiastical (New York, 1929), p. 648, n. 85.
Hans H. Glunz, 'The Gospel Glosses in the Harleian MS 1802 (about 1140, from Armagh)', in History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933), 328-41.
Theodor Klauser, Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen, 28 (Munster: Aschendorffschen, 1935), p. XXXVI, no. 6.
Louis Gougaud, 'The Remains of Ancient Irish Monastic Libraries', in Essays and Studies Presented to Professor Eoin MacNeill, ed. by John Ryan (Dublin, 1940), 319-34 (321).
B. Bischoff, 'Wendepunkte in der Geschichte der lateinischen Exegese im Frühmittelalter', Sacris Erudiri, 6 (1954), 189-281 (274-79).
Françoise Henry and G. I. Marsh-Micheli, 'A Century of Irish Illumination (1070-1170)', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 62 (1962), 101-64 (102-03, 111, 148-52, pls XXVI-XXVII).
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I, pp. xxiii, 2.
Françoise Henry, Irish Art in the Romanesque Period: 1020-1170 A.D. (London: Methuen, 1970), pp. 47, 63-66.
Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 53, 56-57, 266.
David N. Dumville, 'Biblical Apocrypha and the Early Irish: A Preliminary Investigation', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Section C, 73 (1973), 299-338 (316-17, 328-29).
Bernard Bischoff, 'Turning-Points in the History of Latin Exegesis in the Early Irish Church: AD 650-800', in Biblical Studies: the Medieval Irish Contribution, ed. by Martin McNamara (Dublin, 1976), 145-49.
J. J. G. Alexander, Insular Manuscripts: 6th to the 9th Century, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1978), no. 77 [with additional bibliography].
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 644.
Jean Rittmueller, ‘The Gospel Commentary of Mael Brigte ua Maeluanaig and its Hiberno-Latin background’, Peritia, 2 (1983), 185-214.
Jean Rittmueller, 'Postscript to the Gospels of MáelBrigte', Peritia, 3 (1984), 215-18.
Martin McNamara, 'The Echternach Gospels and Mac Durnan Gospels: some common readings and their significance', Peritia, 6-7 (1987-1988), 217-22.
P. L. Heyworth, Letters of Humphrey Wanley, Palaeographer, Anglo-Saxonist, Librarian (Oxford: Clarendon, 1989), pp. 265-68.
Alan Harrison, ‘John Toland and the Discovery of an Irish Manuscript in Holland’, Irish University Review, 22 (1992), 33-39.
C. R. Dodwell, The Pictorial Arts of the West 800-1200 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 92-93, 414.
Jennifer O'Reilly, 'The Hiberno-Latin Tradition of the Evangelists and the Gospels of Mael Brigte', Peritia, 9 (1995), 290-310.
Michelle P. Brown, Painted Labyrinth: The World of the Lindisfarne Gospels (London: British Library, 2003), p. 46.
Jean Rittmueller, 'Matthew 10:1-4: The Calling of the Twelve Apostles: the Commentary and Glossesof Máel Brigte úa Máeluanaig (Armagh, 1138) (London, British Library, Harley1802, fol. 25v-26v): Introduction, Edition, Translation', in Felicicuriositate: studies in Latin Literature and Textual Criticism fromAntiquity to the Twentieth Century: In Honour of Rita Beyers, ed. by GuyGuldentops, Christian Laes and Gert Partoens, Instrumenta Patristica etMediaevalia 72 (Turnhout, 2017), 55-70.
Richard Sharpe, ‘Humfrey Wanley, Bishop John O’Brien, and the colophons of Mael Brigte’s gospels’, Celtica, 29 (2017), 251–292.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)