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Harley MS 2531

Record Id:

040-002048362

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048362

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00015f

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2531

Title:

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a glossed copy of Lucan's Pharsalia.

The manuscript's former binding is now stored separately as Harley MS 2531/1.

Contents:

ff. 3r-164v: Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia; with marginal glosses in red frames and maniculae.

The manuscript contains various later additions:

ff. 1r-2v: A fragment of Yûḥannâ ibn Mâsawayh [Jean Mesue]'s De re medica, including sections on extracting juices (e.g. 'Modus extrahendi fuccum cucumeris afinini'); written in the 14th or 15th century.

f. 1r (lower margin): An inscription in Italian, beginning: 'Tuta la note non […]'; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 1v (upside down): A note relating to Giovanni Galeazzo, duke of Milan: 'Johanes Galeatius dux Mediolani comes que Papie at que Pisarum dominus et dominus Nicholaus de Melis de Assisio comes palatinus miles militum dominus domini Cambii de Zambecariis studens in iure civili'; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 2v (lower margin): A Latin poem on the winds; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 164v: A note: 'Iste Lucani est [Lodoici] qui moratur in scolis magistri Odonis valentis professoris in sua arte. Deo gratias amen [etc.]'; added in the (?) 14th century.

ff. 165r-165v: A fragment of the the Code of Justinian, including the beginning of Book IV, Chapter 52: 'De Communium Rerum Alienatione'; copied in the 13th century.

f. 165r: A note listing several Venetian names: 'Zan de Andrea Dona Bonisegna, Piero Donato, Zan Nicolo Polo magno, Francesco Dandolo, Marino Polani, Lorenzo Morexini'; added to the margin of the Code of Justinian in the (?) 15th century.

f. 165v: Numerous (?) 15th-century inscriptions and a human head drawn over the erased text of the Code of Justinian.

f. iii recto: Fragmentary text and a drawing of a human head.

Decoration:

One large historiated initial possibly painted over or added later into blank (f. 3r). Large interlace or zoomorphic initials in yellow set against blue, purple and yellow backgrounds possibly painted over or added later into blanks (ff. 3r, 31v, 47r, 63v, 79v, 96v, 114r, 131v, 153v). Large puzzle initial in red and blue with pen-flourishing in red and purple (f. 17r). Small initial in blue with penwork decoration in red (f. 150v). Added marginal drawings of knights in armour, human heads, a castle, men and women in contemporary costumes, the sun, a dragon (ff. 9r, 9v, 23r, 29r, 31v, 35r, 41r, 46v, 58v, 60v, 70r, 77r, 78r, 111r, 114r, 119r, 123v, 131v, 136r, 138r, 149r, 153r, 157v, 160r, 164v, 165r, iii recto); one drawing erased (f. 35r). Round diagrams (ff. 139v, 142r). Initials and rubrics in red. Paraphs in blue and red. Verse initials highlighted in red. Running titles in red or black.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048362", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2531: Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048362

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2531 : Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2532]/040-002048362

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:

1275

End Date:

1399

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 13th century-14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 230 x 170 mm (text space: 165 x 70 mm).

Foliation: ff. i-ii + 165 + iii (+ 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); ff. i-ii are two paper leaves at the beginning that originally served as flyleaves; ff. 1-2 are parchment leaves that have been taken from a 14th-century parchment manuscript to serve as flyleaves; f. 165 is a parchment leaf that has been taken from a 13th-century parchment manuscript to serve as a flyleaf; and f. iii is a parchment fragment after f. 165; 1 paper pastedown on f. [167]verso (note of examination).

Collation: i-xii12 (ff. 3-146), xiii10 (ff. 147-156), xiv8 (ff. 157-164), with framed horizontal catchwords.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house; red half leather binding with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the outside covers; rebound in September 1987.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Italy.

Provenance:

The Jesuit College in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne, France), maintained by the Jesuits from 1591 to 1762, owned in the 17th century: their ownership inscription on f. 3r: 'Coll. Agen. Soc. Jesu. Catal. Insc.' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 47-48).

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. 698.

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. 47-48.

Robert Black, 'The Rise and Fall of the Latin Classics', Aevum, 91:2 (2017), 411-64 (p. 430 n. 127).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Annaeus Lucanus, Marcus, Roman poet, 39-65
Yuhanna ibn Masawaih [Mesue], Persian or Assyrian Nestorian Christian physician, 777-857,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000118628136

Places:

Italy

Related Material:

The manuscript's former binding is now stored separately as Harley MS 2531/1.