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Harley MS 2397
- Record Id:
- 040-002048228
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048228
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000389
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2397
- Title:
-
Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, The Mixed Life, and Bonum Est
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-72v: Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection (Book II).
ff. 73r-85r: Walter Hilton, The Mixed Life.
ff. 85v-94r: Walter Hilton, Bonum Est (a commentary on Psalm 91).
The manuscript contains later additions:
ff. 1*r-4*v, 95-98v: Fragments of a 14th-century liturgical manuscript, including Decommendatione animarum and De sepultura mortuorum, with musical notation.
Decoration:
Initials in blue, some large, some small. Paraphs in blue. Rubrics in red (ff. 1r-94r).
Large blue initials with red pen-flourishing. Smaller plain initials in blue or red. Rubrics in red. Paraphs in blue. Staves of five lines, ruled in red (ff. 1*r-4*v, 95-98v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048228", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2397: Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, The Mixed Life, and Bonum Est" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048228 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2397 : Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, The Mixed Life, and Bonum Est - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2398]/040-002048228
- 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:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 215 x 150 mm (text space: 160 x 110 mm) [ff. 1*r-4*v, 95-98v]; 215 x 150 mm (text space: 140 x 100 mm) [ff. 1r-94r].
Foliation: ff. 1*- 4* + 98 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); ff. 1*r-4*v, 95-98v are parchment leaves from a 14th-century liturgical manuscript that have been reused as flyleaves for this manuscript; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto (bibliographical notes).
Script: Gothic [ff. 1*r-4*v, 95-98v]; Gothic cursive [ff. 1r-94r].
Binding: British Museum in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Southern England.
Provenance:
Dame Elizabeth Horwode, abbess of the convent of Franciscan nuns without Aldgate, London: a late-15th century colophon requesting that the book remain at the convent and that the sisters pray for her father and mother, Thomas and Beatrix Horwode and for Robert Alderton on f. 94v: ‘Dame Elyzabeth horwode abbas of the Menoresse off london to her gostle Comfforthe bowȝtes thys boke hyt to Remayne to the vse off þe [s]ysterres of þe sayde place to pray for þe yeuer and ffor þe sowles off hyr ffader and her moder Thomas horwode and beatryxe and þe sowle of mayster [Th] Robert Alderton’; the same text appears to be in an erased inscription on f. 94r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 197).
The Abbey of the Blessed Virgin Mary/Abbey of the Minoresses of St Clare without Aldgate: its late 15th-century ownership inscription on f. 94v: 'thys bok longyth to þe abbesry' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 226).
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. 684.
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. 123.
Minor Works of Walter Hilton, ed. by Dorothy Jones (London: Burns, Oates and Washbourne, 1929), pp. xvi, xix, xx, xxii, xxxvi, xlv.
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. 197, 226.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Hilton, Walter, c 1343-1396,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000118213408