Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Harley MS 2666
- Record Id:
- 040-002048497
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048497
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00036c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056035465.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2666
- Title:
-
Sextus Iulius Frontinus, Strategemata
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the Strategemata (Stratagems) by Sextus Iulius Frontinus (b. c. 30, d. 104), a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history. It represents the oldest extant copy of Frontinus’ work (see Bachrach, ‘A Lying Legacy’ (2007), p. 160).
Contents:
ff. 1r-37v: Frontinus, Strategemata, beginning: 'Cum ad instruendam rei militaris scientiam'.
Decoration:
Small initials in brown and black ink. A contemporaneous doodle depicting Frontinus in brown ink (f. 1r). Capitals in black.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048497", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2666: Sextus Iulius Frontinus, Strategemata" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048497 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2666 : Sextus Iulius Frontinus, Strategemata - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2667]/040-002048497
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056035465.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0825
- End Date:
- 0849
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 9th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 300 x 220 mm (text space: 240 x 160 mm).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 37 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning +3 at the end); f. 1* is a parchment leaf.
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600. Red leather binding with tooled and gilt decoration.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ? Paris, Ile-de-France.
Provenance:
A scriptorium in the region of Paris: according to Bischoff, Katalog (2004), p. 113 (no. 2444).
William Cecil (b. 1520, d. 1598), royal minister: sold with his library in 1687 (see Wright, Fontes (1972), p. 99).
Ambrose Bonwicke the Elder (b. 1652, d. 1722), Head Master of the Merchant Taylors’ School: sold to William Bowyer (see Wright, Fontes (1972), p. 76).
William Bowyer the Younger (b. 1699, d. 1777), printer: sold to Robert Harley (see Wright, Fontes (1972), p.79).
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. The date of the acquisition inscribed by the Harleian librarian Humfrey Wanley (f. 1*r).
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:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
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), II (1808), p. 706 (no. 2666).
Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1881-1884), Part II: Latin, pp. 72-73.
Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingischen Miniaturen', in Zweiter Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 52-77 (p. 56).
Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 76, 99.
Birger Munk Olsen, L’Étude des auteurs classiques latins aux XIe et XIIe siècles, 3 vols (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1982-1989), I, p. 391 (no. B. 5).
Leigh D. Reynolds, 'Frontinus: Strategemata', in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by Leigh D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 171-72 (p. 171).
Bernhard Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts, 3 vols (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998-2014), II (2004): Laon-Paderborn, ed. by Birgit Ebersperger, p. 113 (no. 2444).
Bernard S. Bachrach, '"A Lying Legacy" Revisited: The Abels Morillo Defense of Discontinuity', The Journal of Medieval Military History, 5 (2007), 153-93 (p. 160).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.