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Harley MS 2417
- Record Id:
- 040-002048248
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048248
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x00039d
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2417
- Title:
-
John Mirk, Liber Festivalis (or Festial)
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-87v: John Mirk (b. 1382, d. c. 1414), Liber Festivalis (The Book of Festivals or Festial), imperfect at the end. The Festial is a collection of homilies for the festivals of the liturgical year as it was celebrated in Mirk's time in Shropshire. The Festial was the most widely read English sermon book in the 15th century and it may have been the most frequently printed English text before the Reformation. This volume and Harley MS 2420 were originally parts of the same manuscript.
Decoration:
Small initials in red. Rubrics in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048248", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2417: John Mirk, Liber Festivalis (or Festial)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048248 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2417 : John Mirk, Liber Festivalis (or Festial) - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2418]/040-002048248
- 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:
- 1425
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 15th century-4th quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 190 x 135 mm.
Foliation: ff. 87 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); all quires have been mounted onto paper guards; a former spine label (inscribed: ‘HOMILIES OLD ENGL[ISH] MS’) pasted on f. [iv] recto.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house: re-bound in 1968; the previous binding (gold-tooled and blind-stamped brown leather) has been pasted on the inside of the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Midlands, England.
A scribe in Worcestershire: copied both this manuscript and Harley MS 2420 that originally were joined together; the dialect indicates an origin in Worcestershire.
An unknown 16th-century English owner: the sermon for St Thomas of Canterbury (ff. 50r-51v) has been crossed out.
An unknown 17th-century English owner: perhaps added the number ‘7’ to f. 1r; possibly added a pressmark (crossed out) to f. 87v.
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. 691.
Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: The British Library, 2005), nos 462/8, 4068.3/7.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- John Mirk, c 1382-c1414,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000123309404 - Related Archive Descriptions:
- Harley MS 2420