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Harley MS 2472

Record Id:

040-002048303

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048303

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0003d4

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2472

Title:

Virgil, Aeneid, including the Letter of Lentulus

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-141r: Virgil, Aeneid; with a collection of texts relating to Roman history, including the Letter of Lentulus (ff. 37v-38r). Ending with a colophon: 'Scriptor qui libri post mortem sit paradisi incola sed sospes mundi dum manserit hospes'.

f. 141v: 3 lines from the Aeneid: 'Tante molis erat romanam condere gentem / Vix e conspectu sicule telluris in altum / Vela dabant laeti et spumas salis ere ruebant'.

Decoration:

Historiated initial in gold and colours with flowers, besants, foliate decoration including acanthus leaves extending into the margins on 3 sides (f. 1r). 23 large initials in gold and colours with acanthus extending into the margin (ff. 1r, 11v, 12r, 23r [x2], 33r [x2], 43r, 43v, 55v, 56r, 68v, 69r, 80r, 80v, 90v, 91r, 102v [x2], 115v [x2], 128r, 128v [was cut out and re-placed]).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048303", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2472: Virgil, Aeneid, including the Letter of Lentulus" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048303

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2472 : Virgil, Aeneid, including the Letter of Lentulus

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2473]/040-002048303

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:

1400

End Date:

1424

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 285 x 205 mm (text space: 190 x 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. 141 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Northeastern Italy (? Veneto).

Provenance:

The text may have been written by an English scribe trained in a humanist culture in Italy (see McKendrick, 'Letter of Lentulus' (1990), p. 79 (no. 62).

‘Bruno’ (? Leonardo Bruni, b. 1369, d. 1444): his ownership inscription on f. 141v: 'Hic liber est mei Bruno[n] et suorum amicorum' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 85).

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 Edward Harley on 20 January 1721/2 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 254).

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 ‘20 die Januarij, A.D. 1721/22 (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 (1808), p. 694.

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. 138 n. 8.

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. 85, 253-54.

R. D. Williams, T. S. Pattie, Virgil. His Poetry through the Ages (London: The British Library, 1982), p. 131.

Scot McKendrick, 'Letter of Lentulus', in Fake? The Art of Deception, ed. by Mark Jones, Paul Craddock, and Nicolas Barker (London: British Museum, 1990), p. 79 (no. 62) [exhibition catalogue].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Vergilius Maro, Publius, 70 BC-19 BC,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000430695667

Places:

Northeastern Italy
Veneto, Italy