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Harley MS 2409
- Record Id:
- 040-002048240
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048240
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x000395
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2409
- Title:
-
Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God; Middle English translation of William Flete’s De remediis contra temptaciones; Cleannesse of Sowle; Verses on the Nine Points of Virtue
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-51v: Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God.
ff. 52r-69v: William Flete [but here attributed to Walter Hilton], De remediis contra temptaciones (Remedies against Temptations); Middle English translation.
ff. 70r-75r: Cleannesse of Sowle, most complete extant Middle English version translated by William Flete from Catherine of Siena’s Documento Spirituale; beginning: ‘Here folowes how þe holy mayden Kateryne of Seen first began to sette hyr hert fully to god warde’; followed by texts on Discretio spirituum and divine knowledge as self-knowledge, excerpted from Raymond of Capua’s Legenda major of Catherine of Siena.
ff. 75v-77v: Verses on the Nine Points of Virtue; a Middle English translation of the German 'Neun Punkte', sometimes spuriously attributed to Albertus Magnus, beginning: 'Here ere neghen poyntes of gret vertu’.
Decoration:
3 large initials in gold with purple pen-flourishing (ff. 2r, 52r, 70r). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or red penwork decoration. Paraphs and rubrics in red. Captials marked in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048240", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2409: Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God; Middle English translation of William Flete’s De remediis contra temptaciones;…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048240 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2409 : Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God; Middle English translation of William Flete’s De remediis contra… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2410]/040-002048240
- 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:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 210 x 145 mm (text space: 140 x 90 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 79 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); ff. 1*, 78, 79 are parchment leaves that originally served as flyleaves.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum in-house; rebound in 1967.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
Dame Mald [Maud] Wade, prioress (r. c. 1473-1482) of Swine between Holderness, East Riding of Yorkshire: f. 78v features a late-15th century inscription recording the gift of the manuscript by her to Dame Joan Hyltoft, nun of the Cistercian priory of Nuncotham, Brocklesby, in Lincolnshire, 'Be yt remembryd þat dame Mald Wade priorys of Swyne has gyven þis boke to dame Ioan Hyltoft in Nuncoton' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 322, 339-40)
Dame Joan Hyltoft, nun of the Cistercian priory of Nuncotham, Brocklesby, in Lincolnshire: a late-15th century inscription recording the gift of the manuscript to her from Dame Mald Wade, prioress of Swine on f. 78v [see above] (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 202, 260).
Jorge Hyltoft at Bedwyn, owned in the 16th century: inscribed his name on f. 78v: ‘Iorge Hiltoft duelles in Bedwyn’ (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 202).
Sir Symon Hyltoft of Spettisbury, Dorset, owned in the 16th century: inscribed his name on f. 78v: ‘Sir Symon Hyltoft duellis in dorsetschyre in a toune called spectysbury. And þe nexte marked toune fro him is blandfor Blandford’ (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 202).
Elysabet Loketon, owned in the 16th century: inscribed with her name on f. 78v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 225).
Samuel Knott (d. 1687), rector of Combe Raleigh, Devon (1661-1668), antiquary and collector of manuscripts: his Latin memorandum on f. 1*v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 211).
Robert Burscough (b. 1650/51, d.1709), prebendary of Exeter in 1701, archdeacon of Barnstaple in 1703, rector of Cheriton Bishop in 1705; sold by his widow on 17 May 1715 to Robert Harley, along with other manuscripts: inscribed, his name on f. 1*recto: 'Burscough MS No. 29' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 208 ).
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, '7 Maij 1715' (f. 1r) [the date should be 17 May, see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 208].
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. 690.
Albert Auer, Leidenstheologie im Spätmittelalter, Kirchengeschichtliche Quellen und Studien, 2 (St Ottillien: Eos Verlag, 1952), pp. 98-135 [On the Middle English Verses on the Nine Points of Virtue].
Jennifer N. Brown, ‘The Many Misattributions of Catherine of Siena: Beyon the Orchard in England’, Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures, 41:1 (2015), 67-84 (passim).
Jennifer N. Brown, Fruit of the Orchard: Reading Catherine of Siena in Late Medieval and Early Modern England (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018), pp. 85, 95-110, 147.
F. M. M. Comper, ‘Contemplations on the Dread and Love of God’ from the MS Harleian 2409 in the British Museum, Now Done into Modern English (Washbourne: London, 1916).
Margaret Connolly, 'An Edition of the Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of St Andrews, 1990), p. 18.
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. 11 n. 6.
John B. Friedman, Northern English Books, Owners, and Makers in the Late Middle Ages (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1995), p. 347 n. 19.
Michael Benedict Hackett, 'William Flete and the "De Remediis contra temptationes', Medieval Studies Presented to Aubrey Gwynn, S.J., ed. by John Anthony Watt, John Brimyard Morrall, and Francis Xavier Martin (Dublin: Colm O Lochlainn, 1961), pp. 330-48 (p. 347).
Jeanne Elizabeth Krochalis, ‘Contemplations of the Dread and Love of God: Two Newly Identified Pennsylvania Manuscripts’, The Library Chronicle, 42 (1977), 3-22 (p. 6).
Jessica Michelle Lamothe, ‘An Edition of the Latin and Four Middle English Versions of William Flete's De remediis contra temptaciones (Remedies against Temptations)’ (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of York, 2017), pp. 56-59 (as ‘H1’).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), pp. 140, 184.
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. 88, 202, 211, 225, 260, 322, 339.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Raymond of Capua, c 1330-1399,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000115718021
William of Flete, fl 1352-1380,
see also http://isni.org/isni/000000006698367X - Places:
- England