Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 2433

Record Id:

040-002048264

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048264

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0003ad

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2433

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Tournai

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 2v-3r: Offsets and sewing holes from pilgrim badges on blank pages.

ff. 3v-4r: A table to calculate the date of Easter with an explanation in Middle Dutch.

ff. 5r-16v: A calendar, in Middle Dutch, including in red: Sts Veerele (Pharaildis of Ghent), Amant (Ghent), Eloy (Tournai), Amelberghe (Ghent), Bave (Bavo of Ghent), Denijs, Lievin (Ghent), Barbele (Barbara); and in brown: Wouborch (Walburga).

ff. 17r-v: Instructions on how to find the start of Advent and the start of the four seasons and a statement on annual communion, in Middle Dutch.

ff. 18r-24v: The mixed Hours of the Compassion of the Virgin and of the Cross, beginning imperfectly in the middle of Prime due to loss of leaves, in Latin with rubrics in Middle Dutch.

ff. 25r-80v: The Hours of the Virgin, in Latin with rubrics in Middle Dutch.

ff. 81r-89v: The Penitential Psalms, in Latin.

ff. 89v-99r: The Litany, including Sts Livine, Amande, Vedaste (Arras), Eligi, Egidi, Bavo (Ghent), Bricti, Gislene (Hainault, Cambrai), Bernarde, Pharahildis (Ghent) and Amelberga (Ghent).

ff. 99v-116r: Prayers, including a prayer to God, a devout prayer to Christ and a prayer to the angels, in Middle Dutch.

ff. 116v-119r: Prayers, including the 8 Verses of St Bernard and prayers to the Virgin Mary, in Latin with rubrics in Middle Dutch.

Decoration:

The margins contain designs based on the Master of the Playing Cards, and appear to be copied from a model book shared by a manuscript of Privileges and Statutes of Ghent (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 2583), attributed to The Master of the Ghent Privileges.

2 historiated initials in colours and gold with full borders: the Virgin and Child on a crescent, at the beginning of the Hours of the Virgin (f. 25r); the Resurrection, at the beginning of the Penitential Psalms (f. 81r).

10 decorated initials in colours and gold with three-sided borders at other important divisions of the text (ff. 33r, 41r, 49r, 57v, 61v, 65r, 68r, 71r, 76v, 99v).

Decorated borders featuring acanthus leaves and hybrid creatures, animals, birds and arms, including: an angel playing a stringed instrument, the arms gules a bend or, in sinister chief an escallop argent, the bend charged in chief with a crescent argent, impaling sable three escallops argent (f. 25r); an owl (f. 33r); a cockerel (f. 57v); an angel playing a stringed instrument and a lion blowing a trumpet (f. 65r); a bear, a pelican and a lion (f. 68r); fighting hybrids, peacocks, and an angel holding the arms sable three escallops argent (f. 71r); a climbing bear, a bat and a wild man fighting a lion (f. 76v); a lion playing a trumpet and the arms gules a bend or, in sinister chief an escallop argent, the bend charged in chief with a crescent argent (f. 81r).

Initials in colours and gold, sometimes containing a lion rampant or, some with a one-or two-sided border with acanthus leaves, ivy and flowers (ff. 18r, 18v, 19v, 20v, 21v, 22r, 23r).

Smaller initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in gold with grey or ochre pen-flourishing. Line-fillers in blue and gold. Capitals marked in red.

Missing leaves after ff. 17, 80 and probably f. 16 which may have contained full-page miniatures, especially after f. 80, as no text is missing at the beginning of the Penitential Psalms.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048264", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2433: Book of Hours, Use of Tournai" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048264

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2433 : Book of Hours, Use of Tournai

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2434]/040-002048264

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Dutch, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1425

End Date:

1449

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 3165 x 110 mm (text space: 105 x 65 mm).

Foliation: ff. 119 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather with gold fillets.

Custodial History:

Origin: Southern Netherlands (Ghent-Tournai area).

Provenance:

Unidentified arms of two families, both separately and impaled: sable three escallops argent (f. 71r); gules a bend or, in sinister chief an escallop argent, the bend charged in chief with a crescent argent (f. 81r); and gules a bend or, in sinister chief an escallop argent, the bend charged in chief with a crescent argent, impaling sable three escallops argent (f. 25r).

Inscribed, late 15th century or early 16th century: 'Stuuaert meligavit' with an initial S with elaborate cadels (f. 1v).

Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie; sold to the Harleys on 8 December 1720 (see Wright, Fontes (1972)).

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 ‘8 Septembris 1720’ (f. 2r).

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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage: Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2433.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 69 n. 4.

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. 253-54.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)