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Harley MS 2448

Record Id:

040-002048279

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048279

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0003bc

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2448

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Rome

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-12v: Calendar.

ff. 14r-93r: Hours of the Virgin Mary ('Officium sancta marie virginis secundum consuetudinem romane curie').

ff. 94r-153v: Office of the Dead ('Officium in agenda mortuorum').

ff. 154r-189v: Hours of the Passion ('Officium sacratissimae passonis domini nostri ihesu Christi').

ff. 190r-193r: Little Hours of the Cross ('Officium sancta crucis minor').

ff. 194r-209v: The Seven Penitential Psalms ('Septem psalmi penitentiales').

ff. 209v-221v: Litany of saints; followed by prayers.

ff. 222r-236v: The Gradual Psalms ( 'Canticum gradum').

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. [ii]recto: 'The arms on ff. 13v and 14 are those respectively of Moretti and Lottini of Florence. The volume was probably executed on the occasion of a marriage between members of their families R.H.'; added in pencil at the British Museum.

Decoration:

1 full-page miniature of the Annunciation, followed by 1 large historiated initial, with full foliate borders including heraldic arms, in colours and gold (ff. 13v-14r). 5 large historiated initials mostly with full foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 94r, 154r, 190r, 194r, 222r [three-sided border]).

The subjects of the historiated initials are:

f. 14r: The Virgin with Christ Child.

f. 94r: Death holding a scythe.

f. 154r: Christ as the Man of Sorrows.

f. 190r: The Holy Cross.

f. 194r: David with a harp or lyre.

f. 222r: A woman holding a book.

Large initials in blue, with reserved designs, with red pen-flourishing, for the Hours of the Virgin after Matins (ff. 27r, 42r, 47v, 53v, 59r, 64v, 74r). Smaller initials in red with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Small initials in plain red or blue. Decorated catchwords.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048279", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2448: Book of Hours, Use of Rome" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048279

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2448 : Book of Hours, Use of Rome

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2449]/040-002048279

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:

1455

End Date:

1485

Date Range:

c 1460-c 1480

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 125 x 90 mm (text space: 70 x 45 mm).

Foliation: ff. 136 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 original unfoliated parchment leaf [pasted to a paper leaf] and 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end).

Collation: Indicated by horizontal catchwords in black or red ink framed between cadels in the same colours.

Script: Gothic Rotunda.

Binding: British Museum in-house; gold-tooled diced brown calf with the initials 'M.B.' (Museum Britannicum) gold stamped on the outside upper cover; gilt and gauffered edges.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Florence, central Italy.

Provenance:

Members of the Moretti and Lottini families, Florence, late 15th/16th century: heraldic arms covering the original arms (ff. 13v-14r).

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 '18 Januarij, 1723/4' (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, p. 692 (no. 2448).

Cyril Ernest Wright, 'Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition', in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 475).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

Central Italy
Florence, Italy