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Harley MS 2450
- Record Id:
- 040-002048281
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048281
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0003be
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2450
- Title:
- Breviary, Use of Le Mans
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript is one of only six known surviving liturgical manuscripts than can be localised to the diocese of Le Mans (see Davis, 'Canons, Huguenots, Movie Stars, and Missionaries', p. 297, n. 2). It has suffered later damage and excision of several leaves, as well as the excision of some initials.
Contents:
ff. 1r-16r: Calendar, which marks the feast of St Julian, first bishop of Le Mans (d. c. 200-300), on f. 2r.
f. 16v: Benedictions.
ff. 17r-98v: Lectionary.
ff. 99r-104r: Office of the Dead.
ff. 105r-199v: Psalter with antiphons, now lacking 1 leaf at the beginning, and imperfect at the end. Begins with Psalm 2: 6.
ff. 200r-265r: Temporale, imperfect at the beginning.
ff. . 266r-526r: Sanctorale, beginning Sts Gervasius and Protasius (martyred in 2nd century), to whom a church in the diocese of Le Mans had been dedicated since at least the 7th century.
f. 526v: Readings at Lauds for the feasts of All Saints, and the Virgin, beginning: ‘In festo yesi [sic] sanctae sanctorum virginis ad laudes’. Probably added in a near-contemporary hand in the 15th century.
ff. 527r-558v : Common of Saints.
ff. 559r-569r: Suffrages.
ff. 104v, 265v, and 569v are blank.
4 parchment stubs between ff. 199 and 200.
Decoration:
6 large initials in colours and gold on a blue ground, with ivy tendrils (in black and gold) extending into the margins (ff. 24v, 146v, 276r, 429v, 497v, 527r).
1 large plain initial in red (f. 526v).
Large and small initials throughout, alternating between gold with black pen-flourishing, blue with red pen-flourishing, and sometimes red with gold pen-flourishing.
Capitals marked in yellow, and rubrics in red. Underlining and ruling in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048281", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2450: Breviary, Use of Le Mans" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048281 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2450 : Breviary, Use of Le Mans - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2451]/040-002048281
- 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:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 125 x 90 mm ( written area 80 x 55 mm).
Foliation: ff. ii + 569 (+ 2 unfoliated leaves after f. 104, 1 unfoliated leaf after f. 252, 1 unfoliated leaf after f. 265, and 5 unfoliated leaves after f. 526); folio ii is a ruled contemporary parchment leaf (f. i is now lacking); several folios excised or torn out (1 after f. 104,1 after f. 157, 1 after f. 193, 5 after f. 199, 1 after f. 208, 2 after f. 274. 3 after f. 558).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. White leather over pasteboards. Spine repaired in-house in 2017, with the gilt-tooled inscriptions of the previous spine kept and pasted onto the new spine.
Condition: Initials excised on ff. 18, 29, 49, 173. Numerous folios with stains (e.g. ff. 5-8, 301-306).
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Diocese of Le Mans, Western France.
Provenance:
Initials excised on ff. 18, 29, 49, 173.
Nicolas Joseph Foucault (b. 1643, d. 1721), marquis de Magny, statesman and archaeologist: his book-plate with the legend 'EX BIBLIOTHECA | NICOLAI JOSEPH FOUCAULT | COMITIS CONSISTORIANI', with his arms, sable a lion rampant, dexter, crowned argent, as supporters two lions, argent, a couronne de marquis surmounting the shield (inside upper cover).
Thomas Ballard, bookseller and book auctioneer in London; his sale, 20 February 1720/21, lot 15, bought for Edward Harley through Nathaniel Noel.
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.
- Information About Copies:
- Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 692, no. 2450.
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. 91 n. 16.
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. 62, 155.
Lisa Fagin Davis, 'Canons, Huguenots, Movie Stars, and Missionaries: A Breviary’s Journey from Le Mans to Reno', Manuscript Studies: A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies, 1 (2016), pp. 293-306 (p. 297, n. 2).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- Kept with the manuscript is an envelope containing preserved plant matter found between folios during conservation work undertaken in 2017.
- Names:
- Ballard, Thomas, bookseller, fl 1690-1725
Foucault, Nicholas Joseph, Marquis de Magny, Councillor of State, 1643-1721 - Places:
- Le Mans, France
- Related Material:
- A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, II (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808), p. 692: 'Breviarium: cum Calendario, Lectionibus, Psalmis, &c. Codex membranaceus. Ex Biblioth. Nic. Jos. Foucault. XVI.'