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Harley MS 2388

Record Id:

040-002048219

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048219

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000380

LARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100165166507.0x000001

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2388

Title:

Of Three Arrows on Doomsday; Mirrour for Maydenes; The Five Wiles of King Pharaoh; Adam and Eve; Four Errors; A Sentence of Saint Bernard; Te Deum; Speculum Sacerdotis; Litera de Vita et Morte; Speculum Christiani (excerpts); Contra obstinatos; collection of Latin sermons

Scope & Content:

This theological manuscript may consist of two parts (ff. 1r-37v and ff. 38r-112v) that were produced separately and joined at a later point in time. The manuscript contains Middle English theological treatises and poems and Latin sermons. Among its contents is a the unique copy of the Mirrour for Maydenes (ff. 4r-7v) which provides spiritual advice to women who want to dedicate themselves to a life of contemplation.

Contents:

ff. 1r-4r: Of Three Arrows on Doomsday, beginning imperfectly: 'cleping of þe dom. where of crist spekith in his gospel seying þus'.

ff. 4r-7v: Mirrour for Maydenes, beginning: 'Here begynnith a se[n]tence þe wych ys a mirror for maydenes þat wolden be cristis spouse and forsake to be wedded to mannis flessh'.

ff. 7v-20r: The Five Wiles of King Pharaoh, beginning: 'Here sueþ a prologue of a ful nobly tresyse þat tellith of þe .v. wylis þat king pharaoh dede to þe Children of Israel to kepe hem in his lond. by wych ys wyttly undirstronden. þe wilis of the fende'.

ff. 20r-35v: Adam and Eve, with an introductory rubric: 'Here begynnythe a tretis of Adam and Eve þat telleþ. what peyne þey suffrid for her sinne'.

ff. 36r-36v: Four Errors, with an introductory rubric: 'Here sueþ a short tretis of iiij errours þat lettiþ man to have trew undirstondyng of holy scripture'.

ff. 36v-37r: A Sentence of Saint Bernard, with an introductory rubric: 'Here byginneþ a sentence of seynt Bernard how a man shulde knowe him selfe'.

f. 37v: Te Deum in Middle English.

ff. 38r-49v: Pseudo-Edward the Confessor, Speculum Sacerdotis, beginning: 'Sanctus Edwardus rex et confessor in extremitate vite positus per revelationem divinam vidit spiritualibus oculis'; with 'quod Thomas Averey' on f. 48r; and ending: 'Explicit visio et exhortacio sancti Edwardi Regis et Confessoris et vocatur Speculum Sacerdotis quod T. A.'; Thomas Avery was a priest who held an Oxford BA (c. 1452) and MA (c. 1472) and died after 1483.

f. 50r: Theological notes 'pro illis qui volunt ire ad Celum' and 'pro illis qui volunt ire ad bellum'.

ff. 50v-51r: Litera de Vita et Morte, beginning: 'Ecc. xii: deum time et mandata eius observa: hoc est omnis homo'.

f. 51r: A tract 'contra eos qui habent excommunicatum sive peccatorem graviter in societate'.

ff. 51v, 52v: Latin theological notes.

ff. 52r-54r: A Latin sermon, beginning: 'Attendite popule meus legem meam'.

ff. 54v-55r: A Latin sermon, beginning: 'Litteratissimi viri quanto dilectionis incendio'

f. 55v: A Latin sermon, beginning: 'Ezechiel prophet: Anima que peccaverit ipsa morietur'.

ff. 56r-57v: Mores Mundiales, beginning with a Latin quotation: 'Augustinus in Regula: Magis innocentes non estis si fratres vestros quos indicando corrigere potestis, tacendo perire permittitis'; followed by a Middle English rhyming exortation (119 lines broken up by prose) in the Speculum Christiani (Septima Tabula), beginning: 'I prey you all my frendes dere / Sumwhat of the boke of Wysdom here' [see NIMEV 1342 and DIMEV 2245].

f. 57v: 'Septem peccata capitalia'; the Septem mortalia peccata from the Speculum Christiani (Septima Tabula), beginning: 'Of pride and envy and fowle lecherye'.

ff. 57v-58v: 'Contra dei precepta'; the Contra dei precepta excerpted from the Speculum Christiani (Septima Tabula), beginning: 'Of fals goddess wurshippyng ful unwysely'.

f. 58v: Theological notes, beginning: 'Me plus offendit vidas et plus reprehendit'.

f. 58v: The opening of a draft or example letter: 'Reverendo in Christo Patri ac domino, domino [domino] Ja[...] dei gracia abbati monasterii sancti ger. [etc.]'.

f. 58v: Contra obstinatos, beginning: 'He ys in sowle ful sekely ; lyggande on his couche þat may not suffer mekely ; correccioun hym to touche' [see NIMEV 1136.3 and DIMEV 1827].

ff. 59r-64v: Untitled Middle English treatise on vices and virtues (Northern dialect), beginning: 'In oure lord Ihesu cryst wsa grett pacyens'; ending with the colophon: 'Robertus Selby Monachus: Explicit hoc Opus Christo reddantur honores / Et manibus lotis tu qui legis accipe mores'.

ff. 65r-111r: Collection of Latin sermons and sermon notes, including sermons for the Temporale and Sanctorale, and two for the dedication of a church; one of which (f. 75r) stipulates a prayer for the soul of Duke Humphrey of Gloucester (d. 1447), who is identified as the benefactor of 'the university, our mother' ('almam matrem universitatem'). The collection contains a sentence of Middle English on f. 102v: 'A cup of my ale and a kiss of my mouth is enough for a penny'.

Decoration:

ff. 1r-37v: Small (1-line) red initials in frames of red penwork decoration. Capitals highlighted in red or drawn in red with frames of brown ink (f. 37v). Rubrics in red. Paraphs in red.

ff. 38r-112v: Large (3-line) initials in red (ff. 38r, 59r). Capitals highlighted in red. Rubrics in red. Medial punctus in red. Paraphs in red. Underlining and corrections in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048219", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2388: Of Three Arrows on Doomsday; Mirrour for Maydenes; The Five Wiles of King Pharaoh; Adam and Eve; Four Errors; A Sentence of Saint…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048219

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2388 : Of Three Arrows on Doomsday; Mirrour for Maydenes; The Five Wiles of King Pharaoh; Adam and Eve; Four Errors; A Sentence of…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2389]/040-002048219

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165166507.0x000001

Thumbnail:

Languages:

English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

2nd half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 140 x 210 mm (text space: 160-180 x 100-115 mm).

Foliation: ff. 112 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper stub after f. 112; 1 unfoliated modern paper pastedown (bibliographical notes) on f. [iv]recto.

Collation: Each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house; red half leather binding with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; the previous covers (blind-stamped and gold-tooled brown speckled leather) are pasted on the inside covers; rebound on 18 March 19[6]6.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

John Batteley (b. 1647, d. 1708), Church of England clergyman and antiquary: sold to Edward Harley with the rest of his collection through his nephew John Batteley on 5 November 1723 (Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), II, p. 263 n. 1; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 67).

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 '5 die Novembris, A.D. 1723' (f. 1r).

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. 678-79 (no. 2388).

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 263 n. 1.

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. 66-67.

Siegfried Wenzel, '"Somer Game" and Sermon References to a Corpus Christi Play', Modern Philology, 86:3 (1989), 274-83 (pp. 281-82).

Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), nos 1136.3, and 1342. Siegfried Wenzel, Latin Sermon Collections from Later Medieval England: Orthodox Preaching in Later Medieval England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 214-15 (as 'I').

‘London, British Library Harley 3288', in the Digital Index of Middle English Verse [=DIMEV, individual poems can be found under nos 1827, and 2245] [accessed 17 March 2022].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England