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Harley MS 2371
- Record Id:
- 040-002048202
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048202
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x00036f
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2371
- Title:
-
John Mirk, Festial
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-141v: John Mirk, Festial (Group B version); beginning imperfectly towards the end of Advent and ending imperfectly with the opening of the Dedication of the Church; the sermon for the feast of St Thomas of Canterbury has been largely cut out (see ff. 73*-[73c]), and the remaining opening of the sermon on f. 73v has been made illegible with black ink; the quire with the larger part of the sermon of the Dedication of the Church has also been removed, and the remaining opening on f. 141v has been made illegible with black ink; the sermon for the feast of St Margaret begins imperfectly on f. 105r.
ff. 142r-148r: Counsels of St Isidore; beginning imperfectly.
ff. 148v-149r: Latin enumerations of years between and after biblical events, beginning: 'Ab adam usque ad diluvium Noe - milia ijC xiij'.
f. 149r: Latin poem on the Virgin Mary, beginning: Virgo parens vixit sexaginta cum tribus annis / Quatuor atque decem fuit in partu benedicta'.
The manuscript contains a later addition:
f. 148v (outer margin): A note in English, largely erased, beginning: 'There was a […] this […]'; added in the 16th century.
Decoration:
Large (2-line) initials in blue with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing. Capitals highlighted in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048202", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2371: John Mirk, Festial" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048202 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2371 : John Mirk, Festial - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2372]/040-002048202
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1475
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 200 x 145 mm (text space: 150 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 73* + 149 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); f. 73* is a paper stub; 2 unfoliated paper stubs after f. 10; 3 after f. 73*; 1 after f. 127; 1 after f. 143; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [152]verso (conservation notes).
Collation: Indicated by leaf signatures and catchwords; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.
Script: Gothic cursive (Secretary).
Binding: British Library in-house; brown half leather binding with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside cover; re-bound in 1977.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England (? Rutland, as suggested by dialectal features).
Provenance:
? '[?William] Stilman', 'Thomas', 'Jeffrey', 16th century: their names inscribed on 49v.
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), pp. 671-72 (no. 2371).
Veronica O’Mara and Suzanne Paul, A Repertorium of Middle English Prose Sermons, 4 vols, Sermo: Studies on Patristric, Medieval, and Reformation Sermons and Preaching, 1 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), Part 2: London, British Library (Arundel), to London, Westminster Abbey Library, p. 1328.
Martyn F. Wakelin, 'The Manuscripts of John Mirk’s Festial’, Leeds Studies in English, 1 (1967), 93-118 (p. 99).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- John Mirk, c 1382-c1414,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000123309404 - Places:
- England
Rutland, England