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 2783
- Record Id:
- 040-002048614
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048614
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000035
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2783
- Title:
-
Lucan, Pharsalia or De Bello civili
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a copy of De Bello civili (On the Civil War), commonly referred to as the Pharsalia, an epic poem by the Roman poet Lucan (b. 39, d. 69), detailing the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great.
Contents:
ff. 1r-127r: Lucan, Pharsalia or De Bello civili.
[f. 127v is blank].
Decoration:
1 large initial in blue with red and purple penwork decoration (f. 1r). 1 large initial in red with purple penwork decoration (f. 118v). 4 initials in blue with purple penwork decoration or pen-flourishing (ff. 12r, 23v, 35r, 87v). 6 initials in red with purple penwork decoration or pen-flourishing (ff. 1r (x 2), 48r, 61r, 74r, 101r). Rubrics and paraphs in red. Capitals marked in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048614", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2783: Lucan, Pharsalia or De Bello civili" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048614 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2783 : Lucan, Pharsalia or De Bello civili - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2784]/040-002048614
- 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:
- 1466
- End Date:
- 1466
- Date Range:
- 1466
- 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:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 275 x 195 mm (text space: 180 x 95/115 mm).
Foliation: ff. 127 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning and at the end); f. [v] is half a parchment leaf.
Script: Semi-humanistic.
Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Italy.
Provenance:
Written in 1466: colophon, 'Laus Deo. explicit decimus et ultimus liber lucani. Amen. 1466' [two lines have been erased after 'Amen] (f. 127r).
Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie; sold to Harley on 20 January 1721/22 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 254).
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 ‘20 die Januarij 1721/22’ (f. [iv]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:
- 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), no. 2783.
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. 138 n. 8.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 254.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), I, no. 702.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Annaeus Lucanus, Marcus, Roman poet, 39-65
Noel, Nathaniel, bookseller, fl 1681, d c 1753 - Places:
- Italy