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Harley MS 2729
- Record Id:
- 040-002048560
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048560
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0001e5
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100063647996.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2729
- Title:
-
Frontinus, Strategemata, Paul the Deacon, Historia Romana
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains the Strategemata (Stratagems) by Sextus Julius Frontinus (b. c. 30, d. 104), a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history. It also contains Books 1-10 of the Historia Romana (History of Rome) by Paul the Deacon (b. c. 720, d. 799). This work incorporates the text of the Breviarium ab Urbe Condita (A Brief History of Rome since its Foundation) by the Roman historian Flavius Eutropius (fl. 370), and also the beginning of Book 11 of the Historia Romana.
This copy of the Frontinus's Strategemata belongs to the Anglo-Norman family, which also includes Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 252.iii (11th-12th century, Northern France) and Oxford, Lincoln College, MS lat. 100 (written by William of Malmesbury in c. 1125), according to unpublished notes of Michael Gullick. According to the same notes, this copy of Eutropius's Breviarium belongs to the same family as Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. lat. 7240 (2nd half of the 11th century, France) and ms. lat. 5802 (2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century, France), perhaps copied from the earlier manuscript. The present manuscript and Oxford, Lincoln College, MS lat.100, are close to Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. lat. 7240.
Contents:
ff. 1r-50v: Frontinus, Strategemata, Books 1-4, imperfect at the beginning and the end, beginning: ‘cum hoc opus sicut caetera usus potius aliorum’.
ff. 51r-54v: Eutropius, Breviarium ab Urbe Condita, Books 1-2, imperfect at the end, beginning: ‘Domino Valenti Maximo perpetuo Augustus’.
ff. 55v-109r: Paul the Deacon, Historia Romana, Books 1-11, imperfect at the end, beginning: ‘Primus in Italia, ut quibusdam placet, regnavit Ianus’, preceded by a rubric ‘Incipit liber Eutropii historiographi de romana historia’.
Decoration:
Numerous small initials in red or black ink, some with occasional foliate decoration. Rubrics in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048560", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2729: Frontinus, Strategemata, Paul the Deacon, Historia Romana" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048560 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2729 : Frontinus, Strategemata, Paul the Deacon, Historia Romana - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2730]/040-002048560
- 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_100063647996.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1075
- End Date:
- 1099
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 11th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 240 x 170 mm (text space: 160 x 90 mm).
Foliation: ff. 110 (3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); f. 1 is an early modern paper flyleaf pasted to an original parchment flyleaf.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. British Museum/British Library in-house; marbled endleaves.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ? Durham, Northeastern England.
Provenance:
? Symeon of Durham (d. c. 1128), Benedictine monk of the cathedral priory of St Cuthbert, Durham and historian: may have entered the quire numbers for the two parts of the manuscript (see Gullick, 'The Hand of Symeon of Durham’ (2000), p. 31).
The Benedictine cathedral priory of St Cuthbert, Durham, founded in 1193: the manuscript is identifiable in the priory's library catalogue of 1391, from the beginning of f. 2r 'cum hoc opus' (see Catalogi Veteres, ed. by Botfield (1838), p. 31: 'Libri Diversi Portarum. C. Pompeius Trogus et Justinus de Re Militari; et Tropius de Romana Historia.').
? John Hancocke, unidentified 16th-century owner: inscribed with his name in a late 16th-century hand (f. 2r).
? Richard Roberts, unidentified 17th-century owner: inscribed with his name 'Ric. Robertz' in a 17th-century hand (ff. 109v, 110r); his note entered in a 17th-century hand on f. 1v
? Philip Westley or Wesley, probably given to him by Roberts: inscribed 'Phill Westll[e]y / Ric R'; and 'for Phill W W Wesl[e]y' in an early 17th-century hand (f. 109v).
Samuel Knott (d. 1687), rector of Combe Raleigh, Devon (1661-1668), antiquary and collector of manuscripts: entered the note in the margin of f. 49v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 211).
Robert Burscough (b. 1650/51, d. 1709), prebendary of Exeter in 1701, archdeacon of Barnstaple in 1703, rector of Cheriton Bishop in 1705: sold by his widow on 17 May 1715 to Robert Harley, along with other manuscripts (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 87-88).
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, ‘17 Maij 1715’ (f. 2r).
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 Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 709 (no. 2729).
Catalogi Veteres Librorum Ecclesiæ Cathedralis Dunelm: Catalogues of the Library of Durham Cathedral, at Various Periods, from the Conquest to the Dissolution, Including Catalogues of the Library of the Abbey of Hulne, and of the Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of Bishop Cosin, at Durham, ed. by Beriah Botfield, The Publications of the Surtee Society, 7 (London: Nichols and Son, 1838), p. 31.
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. 11 n. 6.
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. 88, 178, 211, 287, 415.
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. 392 (no. C. 6).
Leigh D. Reynolds, 'Eutropius', and 'Frontinus', in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by Leigh. D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 160, 172.
Michael Gullick, 'The Hand of Symeon of Durham: Further Observation on the Durham Martyrology Scribe', in Symeon of Durham: Historian of Durham and the North, ed. by David Rollason (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 1998), pp. 14-31 (p. 31).
Richard Gameson, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066-1130), (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 108 (no. 450), 118.
Michael Gullick, 'A Scribe at Work: Fragments as Witnesses to Changes in Style', in Interpreting and Collecting Fragments of Medieval Books, ed. by Linda L. Brownrigg and Margaret M. Smith, (London: The Red Gull Press, 2000), pp. 205-09 (p. 208 n. 8).
Lars B. Mortensen, 'The Diffusion of Roman Histories in the Middle Ages: A List Of Orosius, Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus and Landolfus Sagax Manuscripts', Filologia Mediolatina, 6-7 (2000), 101-200 (p. 179).
Helmut Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 241 (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), p. 76 (no. 428.5).
Rodney M. Thomson, William of Malmesbury, 2nd edn. (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2003), p. 58.
Helmut Gneuss and Michael Lapidge, A Bibliographical Handlist of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100 (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2014), p. 351 (no. 428.5).
- 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.