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Harley MS 2632

Record Id:

040-002048463

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048463

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00030a

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2632

Title:

Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Carmina; Epodi; Carmen saeculare

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains copies of the selected works of the Roman poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus (b. 65, d. 8 BC), commonly known as Horace. The texts feature extensive marginal commentary.

Contents:

f. 1r: Vita Horatii (Life of Horace), imperfect, with a number of added pen trials;

ff. 2r-60r: Horace, Carmina;

ff. 60r-72r: Horace, Epodi;

ff. 72r-73v: Horace, Carmen saeculare.

Decoration:

Three-sided white vine border in gold and colours inhabited by birds, with a white vine initial in gold and colours and a coat of arms, supported by putti, in the lower margin (f. 2r). Numerous plain blue initials, some half-filled with yellow-brown ink. Titles of poems in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048463", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2632: Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Carmina; Epodi; Carmen saeculare" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048463

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2632 : Quintus Horatius Flaccus, Carmina; Epodi; Carmen saeculare

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2633]/040-002048463

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:

1425

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 15th century-3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 195 x 125 mm (written space: 130 x 70 mm).

Foliation: ff. 73 (+ 2 unfoliated paper and 1 parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).

f. [iii] is a parchment leaf with a large piece excised and pen trials on the verso.

Script: Humanistic cursive.

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

Custodial History:

Origin: Florence, Italy.

Provenance:

An unidentified Italian owner: a shield bearing the arms, possibly argent a paly of three and a fess sable (f. 2r).

Mattheus Mirax, 1630: inscribed, 'Mathei Mirax of V.C. Floren. 1630' (f. 2r).

Charles Spencer (b. 1674, d. 1722), 3rd earl of Sunderland, politician and bibliophile, developed the library at Althorp, one of Edward Harley's keenest rivals in the acquisition of early printed books and manuscripts: inscribed 'SUND' in Humfrey Wanley's hand (librarian to Robert and, later, Edward Harley), indicating perhaps acquisition from Sunderland's library (f. 1r).

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 the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 2632.

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. 241, 310.

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 (pp. 477-78).

Katherine Swift, 'Poggio's Quintilian and the fate of the Sunderland manuscripts', Quaerendo, 13 (1983), 224-38 (pp. 228-29).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Horatius Flaccus, Quintus, also known as Horace, 65 BC-8 BC,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121452178,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/100227522
Spencer, Charles, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, 1675-1722

Places:

Florence, Italy