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Harley MS 2404
- Record Id:
- 040-002048235
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048235
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000390
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2404
- Title:
-
A miscellany of geomantic and astrological texts
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
pp. 1-32: A treatise on geomancy with the title Geomancia Judeana (pp. 18 and 32), beginning: ‘Hec est geomancia Indenea que vocatur filia astronomie quam fecit unus sapientum Indie et est facta per 7 planetas’.
pp. 33-59: Pseudo-Ptolemy, Archanum magni Dei de reductione geomancie; with the following explicit that identifies it as a translation by Bernard de Gordon in 1295: ‘Explicit translatio magistri Barnardi de Gordonio Parhicij [?] regnante Bonefacio papa Et Radulpho electo Imperatore et Philippo Rege Francie filio quandam [sic] Philippi Regis Francie et Iacobo Rege Maioritarum et Beringario Episcopo Magdalecius [sic] et Edwardo rege Anglorum, Anno Domini Millesimo CCmo 95° in Monte Pessulano per .12. .19. Gednay’.
pp. 60-63: Liber de Septem Figuris Septem Planetarum. beginning: ‘Saturnus: Liber de septem figuris septem planetarum per numeros antiquos’.
p. 64: An experimentum (added by different hands), including directions for making an amulet against robbers and other evils made with black parchment on which astrological figures are drawn with the blood of a decapitated black rooster; followed by a Latin note on astrological figures.
Decoration:
Large (2- or 3-line) red initials. Section headings with four vertically organized Arabic numerals in brown or red boxes in the left margins throughout the manuscript. Full-page tables in brown and red ink (pp. 19, 22-25) and small tables in brown ink (pp. 61, 62 [x2], 63 [x2]).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048235", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2404: A miscellany of geomantic and astrological texts" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048235 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2404 : A miscellany of geomantic and astrological texts - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2405]/040-002048235
- 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:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment; and paper (pp. 1-8, 13-20).
Dimensions: 210 x 145 mm.
Foliation: pp. 64 ( + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 9 at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment stub after p. 64; no foliation, early modern pagination only.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Purple half leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate gold-stamped on the outsides of the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
‘Peter Harlakynden’, perhaps Peter Harlakenden (fl. 2nd half of the 15th century or 1st half of the 16th century) of Woodchurch, Kent, son of Roger Harlakenden (d. 1523) and Alice Colepeper (see William Archibald Scott Robertson, 'Harlakenden of Woodchurch', Archaeologia Cantiana, 14 (1982), 358-361 (p. 360)): his ownership inscription on p. 64: ‘Per me Petru[m] Harlakynden’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
An unknown 15th or 16th century owner: their inscription on p. 64: ‘‘fader myller ys will’ (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
Samuel Knott (b. 1661, d. 1668), rector of Combe Raleigh in Devon, antiquary and collector of manuscripts: notes by him throughout the manuscript (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 211).
Robert Burscough (b. 1650/51, d. 1709), Prebendary of Exeter; Archdeacon of Barnstaple: owned since 1697; Harley purchased the manuscript from him through his widow on 17 May 1715 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 88).
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 ‘17 Maij 1715’ (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), p. 408.
David Juste, ‘MS London, British Library, Harley 2404’, in Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus: Manuscripts [accessed 2 March 2020].
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. 407.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- England