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Harley MS 2199

Record Id:

040-002048030

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048030

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0002c3

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2199

Title:

A treatise on mortification

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 3r-60v: An English treatise on mortification.

The manuscript contains a few later additions:

f. 1r: A title 'The maner and method to true mortification'; added in the 16th century; with another inscription added in a different 16th- or 17th-century hand: 'By the Godly Father Henry Harp. / As Fr. Willam Peryn Bachelour in Divinity Sayeth in his Spirituall Exercises & Ghostly Meditations'. Hendrik Herp ['Henricus Harpius'] (d. 1477) was an Observant Franciscan and mystic born in Brabant or Flanders, but Humfrey Wanley refutes the conjecture that he is the author of this treatise (see Catalogue (1808), II, pp. 555-56). Wanley argues that the work is not listed among Herp's writings, but the work's structure does match that of The Twelve Mortifications ('De XII stervingen') that is part of his Mirror of Perfection ('Spiegel der Volcomenheit'), a work on the various phases of contemplation. Wanley also argues that work is a later product since the 'Preface' (ff. 2r-2v) refers to Elizabeth I, but this 'Preface' is a letter that was added later and has no relation to the treatise.

ff. 2r-2v: An English letter that alludes to 'the Queenes Highnes', beginning: 'Right and honourable and worshipfull I read of extreeme famine and hunger that diversly hath haunted and fallen upon certaine Cityes and Townes - I meane upon the Inhabitantes and Souldiers being with the same'; perhaps written in the 1590s, during the last years of the reign of Elizabeth I.

Decoration:

Large initials with cadels in brown ink, some with faces in the bowls or foliate or floral motifs. Smaller initials in brown ink. Underlining in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048030", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2199: A treatise on mortification" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048030

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2199 : A treatise on mortification

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2201]/040-002048030

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1500

End Date:

1599

Date Range:

16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 315 x 210 mm (text space: 215 x 140 mm).

Foliation: ff. 60 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound on 6 February 1964.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

'Pernell D W. W.' and 'Elynore ff W. W.', 16th-century owners or readers: their names inscribed at the opening of the treatise on f. 3r (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

An unknown (?) 17th-century English owner: annotated the treatise throughout and added the inscription to the title on f. 1r: 'The Godly Father Henry Harp. / As Fr. William Peryn Bachelour in Divinity Sayth in His Spirituall Exercises & Ghostly Meditations'.

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), I (1808), pp. 555-56.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England