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Harley MS 1916
- Record Id:
- 040-002047747
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002047747
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0001a8
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059307807.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 1916
- Title:
- St Augustine, Tractatus in evangelium Iohannis and In epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos tractatus
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century manuscript contains an incomplete version of the commentary on Gospel of St John and the First Epistle of St John by the Church Father St Augustine of Hippo (b. 354, d. 430). The manuscript's first leaf has been removed and bound into Harley MS 5958 (f. 87). It contains a list of periscope readings for the Gospel of St John and an inscription that explains how a monastic community, probably that of Glastonbury Abbey, should select passages for reading in the refectory during the liturgical season of Lent.
Contents:
ff. 2r-180r: St Augustine, Tractatus in evangelium Iohannis (Commentary on St John’s Gospel), lacking the first part (I.1-7), beginning: ‘Quomodo omnia per ipsum facta sunt et sine ipso factum est nichil’.
ff. 180r-207r: St Augustine, In epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos tractatus (Commentary on the First Epistle of St John), beginning: ‘Meminit sanctitas vestra evangelium secundum Iohannem’.
Decoration:
One large initial in red with red penwork decoration of foliage and a hybrid creature (f. 180r). One large initial in blue with penwork decoration in green and red (f. 129r). One large initial in red with penwork decoration in red (f. 202r). Large initials in blue, purple, or red, one with penwork decoration in another colour (f. 136v). Small initials in brown or red. Rubrics in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002047747", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1916: St Augustine, Tractatus in evangelium Iohannis and In epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos tractatus" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002047747 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 1916 : St Augustine, Tractatus in evangelium Iohannis and In epistulam Iohannis ad Parthos tractatus - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[1918]/040-002047747
- 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_100059307807.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1100
- End Date:
- 1149
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 360 x 210 mm (text space: 270 x 150 mm, in two columns).
Foliation: ff. 207 ( + 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ? Glastonbury, Southwestern England.
Provenance:
? The Benedictine abbey of Glastonbury of St Mary the Virgin, founded in 712: the first leaf of this manuscript is bound in Harley MS 5958, f. 87. In the lower margin of this leaf is a 13th-century inscription 'lector refectorii' (the reader in the refectory) after which has been added 'scilicet Abbatiae Glastoniensis' (that is, of Glastonbury Abbey) by Humfrey Wanley, Edward Harley's librarian (see Ker, Medieval Libraries (1964), p. 91 n. 9); The lower part of f. 207r is ripped, just on the last line of text. A colophon containing provenance information may have been entered there, and later cut out.
An unknown 16th-century owner: his coat of arms on f. 70v and marginal notes (see, for instance, f. 185v), and a drawing of a shark on f. 195v.
? 'William ffollet', unidentified, c. 1600: his name ('by me William ffoll[e]t') inscribed (f. 207v).
? 'John Knot', unidentified, c. 1600: his name ('John knot his [...]') inscribed (f. 207v).
? Henry Morgan, unidentified, c. 1600: his name is in a fragment of a 16th-century indenture (f. 1r).
Samuel Knott (d. 1687), rector of Combe Raleigh, Devon (1661-1668), antiquary and collector of manuscripts: his notes in pencil (ff. 3v, 125r) (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 211).
Robert Burscough (b. 1651, d. 1709), prebendary of Exeter in 1701, archdeacon of Barnstaple in 1703, rector of Cheriton Bishop in 1705: sold by his widow on 17 May 1715 to Robert Harley, along with other manuscripts (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 87-88).
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, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley, ‘17 Maij 1715’ (Harley MS 5958, f. 87v).
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), II, p. 345 no. 1916.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 91.
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. 87-88, 154, 165, 211, 244.
Michael Gullick, 'The Scribe of the Carilef Bible: A New Look at Some Late-Eleventh-Century Durham Cathedral Manuscripts', in Medieval Book Production: Assessing the Evidence, ed. by Linda l. Brownrig, Proceedings of the Second Conference of The Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Oxford, July 1998 (Los Altos Hills, California: Anderson-Lovelace, 1990), pp. 61-83 (p. 80 no. 48).
English Benedictine Libraries: The Shorter Catalogues, ed. by Richard Sharpe and others, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), B39.60.
- 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.