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Harley MS 2178

Record Id:

040-002048009

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048009

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0002ae

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2178

Title:

Collection of philosophical tracts

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-7r: Fragment of a treatise on motion, perhaps by Johannes Chilmarchus [Chilmarcus], according to A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, II (1808), p. 547.

ff. 7r-10r: 'Universalia Mylleverley'.

ff. 10v-21v: 'Universalia Magistri W. P. cum expotione super librum Prophirii'.

ff. 22r-28v: Unidentified work.

ff. 29r-77v: 'Literalis sententia super predicamenta per magistrum Robertum Alyngton'.

ff. 78r-100v: 'Materia de sex principis'; possibly by William Mylleverley.

ff. 100v-107r: 'Universalia magistri Tartousi'.

ff. 107v-125v: 'Universalia Scerpe'; imperfect at the end.

The manuscript contains later additions:

ff. 1*recto-2*verso, 126r-127v: Fragments of a legal document in English, all written in the same hand, the first one referring to payment to 'William Gough gentleman Clarke of the Tolsall of Dublin in Ireland'; the second one begins 'Interrogatories to be ministred unto [...] witnesses upoon the parte [...] behalf of William Alcock [...] against William Minshull Complaynant'; the third one begins: 'William Anyon of the Cyttie of Chester aged xxiiij yeares or thereaboute'; and the fourth one, dated to 25 November in the 34th year of the reign of Elizabeth I (1591), begins: 'Exposicions of witnesses taken in the Queenes Majesties Court of Exchequer in the Castle of Chester the xxvjth daie of Novembre Anno Regni Reginae Elizabethe et xliijo upon the part e and behalf of William Minshull Complaynant againste William [William Anyon of the Cyttie of Chester]'.

Decoration:

Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. 1 initial in red with red penwork decoration (f. 87v). Plain initials in red. Paraphs in red or blue. Cadels.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048009", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2178: Collection of philosophical tracts" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048009

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2178 : Collection of philosophical tracts

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2180]/040-002048009

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:

1400

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 270 x 185 mm (text space: 200 x 130 mm, in 2 columns).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 2* + 127 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 1 at the end); 2 unfoliated blank parchment leaves after f. 28; 1 unfoliated parchment stub after f. 75; ff. 1*, 2*, 126, 127 are reused paper fragments of a legal document.

Collation: Indicated by leaf signatures and catchwords.

Script: Gothic cursive; written by more than one scribe.

Binding: British Museum in-house; gold-tooled brown speckled binding with the initials 'M. B.' gold stamped on the outside covers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

'Thomas Birkhened', 2nd half of the 16th century or 1st half of the 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 1r: 'Tho: Birkened' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

The Holme family, Chester, arms painters and antiquaries: acquired with other Holme manuscripts by Robert Harley in 1710 through the mediation of Francis Gastrell, bishop of Chester: their shelf-mark 'E. 9. 13' on f. 2*recto; their name inscribed on an unfoliated paper fragment with a binding note after f. 125 (f. [125a]recto): 'Variorum Universalia & Opuscula Philosoph. e Coll. Holm. 2178' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 194).

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. 547 (no. 2178).

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 194.

Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and Other Libraries, 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), p. 157.

Marshall Clagett, The Science of Mechanics in the Middle Ages (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1959), pp. 632 n. 3, 687.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England