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Harley MS 2532

Record Id:

040-002048363

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048363

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000160

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2532

Title:

Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-65r: Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia; begins with Lucan's epitaph on f. 1r.

Numerous medieval and post-medieval inscriptions and pen-trials including the outline of white-vine decoration.

Decoration:

2 historiated initials in gold and colours with a lady and a man holding a mirror?, combined with a full border of acanthus leaves, naturalistic flowers and besants (f. 1r). 3 historiated initials in colours containing bust-length knights in armour (ff. 25r, 37v), and a bust-length lady (f. 51v), with acanthus leaves extending into the margin. Large initial in colours with acanthus leaves (f. 12v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048363", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2532: Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048363

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2532 : Marcus Annaeus Lucanus, Pharsalia

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2533]/040-002048363

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:

1375

End Date:

1424

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 14th century-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: 255 x 185 mm (text space: 175 x 100 mm).

Foliation: ff. 65 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [i]recto (bibliographical notes).

Collation: Mostly in quires of 8.

Script: Semi-humanistic.

Binding: Post-1600. Binding of brown mottled calf with gold fillets and blind tooling.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Northern Italy (Lombardy).

Provenance:

Francesco I Sforza (b. 1401, d. 1466), condottiere, married Bianca Maria Visconti in 1430, Duke of Milan, from 1450, owned in the 15th century: inscribed his name ('Sfortia (Franciscus) Vicecomes') written over an erased ownership inscription on f. 65r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 303).

'Jhohanes ?Luca[..]', 15th or 16th century: his partly erased name on f. 65r.

'R. F. Fredulfus', 15th or 16th century: his signature inscribed on f. 65r (and perhaps repeated without 'Fredulfus' on f. 65v).

'Johannes Petrus de Ca[?n]stsio[?]', 15th or 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 65v).

Caesar Veggius, of Lodi ('laudensis'), Italy (possibly of the same family as the humanist scholar Mafeus Veggius), owned in the 16th century: inscribed with his name on f. 65r and f. 65v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 337).

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.

Otto Pächt, Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Illuminated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford, 3 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press: 1966-73), II (1970): Italian School, p. 19.

Élisabeth Pellegrin, La bibliothèque des Visconti et des Sforza, ducs de Milan, au XVe siècle, Publications de l'Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes, 5 (Paris: C.N.R.S., 1955), p. 365.

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. 303, 337.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Annaeus Lucanus, Marcus, Roman poet, 39-65

Places:

Lombardy, Italy
Northern Italy