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Harley MS 2786
- Record Id:
- 040-002048617
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048617
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000038
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2786
- Title:
-
Bible
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-439v: Bible, including the Psalms. The Prologue and the beginning of Genesis are missing. Various parts are in later 15th-century hands: ff. 208r-209v: prologues to the Psalter; ff. 232r-259r: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus; ff. 440r-441v: prologues to St Matthew, Luke and Acts; ff. 442r-459r: list of chapters for each book; ff. 460r-474r: Interpretation of Hebrew names (imperfect, lacuna between 'M' and 'Z'); ff. 474r-475v: readings for Advent.
Decoration:
4-10 line initials in gold and colours with large curling acanthus leaves (prominent combination of green and pink), enclosing chequered or diapered ground, stamped foliate motif in gold on red ground, or vine scrolls (ff. 222r, 322r). A human face decorates the body of some of these initials (ff. 65v, 106v, 188r). Unusual leaf form (f. 232r). 1 large initial in gold and colours with light foliate scrolls (f. 247v). 4 large puzzle initials in blue and red with red and purple flourishing and acanthus leaves (ff. 84r, 129v, 154v, 155r). Flourishing not painted in, no running title, and no foliation (ff. 232-259 only). Initial with light ivy and flowers tendrils (f. 330r). Initials cut out (ff. 15v, 183v, 327v, 328v, 406r, 417r, 420r). The contours of a shield were drawn in the lower margin in red ink, but the arms were not painted in (f. 155r only). Initials in blue with red penwork decoration or in red with brown penwork decoration (in gold with brown penwork on f. 261r). Guide letters still appear beside the completed initials. Initials have been damaged by rubbing and transferring onto other parts of the folios. Capitals marked with red ink. A crude drawing of a castle in pencil in the margin on f. 192r; added in the (?) 16th century.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048617", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2786: Bible" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048617 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2786 : Bible - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2787]/040-002048617
- 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:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 395 x 285 mm (text space [indicated by pricking holes]: 275 x 190 mm, in 2 columns; 255 x 190 in 2 columns for ff. 442-459v; 275 x 190 in 4 columns for ff. 460-475).
Foliation: ff. 475 (+ 2 paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end). Original foliation in red ink in the centre of the lower margin; f. 1 is numbered f. vi in the original foliation). Pieces of fabric have been sewn to the page to protect some initials (ff. 188, 276, 276v, 324v; in other places, only threads remain).
Collation: Mainly in quires of 8. A few missing leaves. Indicated by catchwords.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600 binding. Blind-stamped brown leather binding with gold tooling on the spine.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Southern Netherlands.
Provenance:
An unknown 17th-century owner: their signed inscriptions dated to 1668 (f. 199r) and 21 September 1668 (f. 310r).
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 1721/2 (Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), I, p. 128; 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. This manuscript was bought, according to Wright (Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 254), by Edward Harley on 20 January 1721/2 from Nathaniel Noel, but this is not recorded by Humfrey Wanley in the book itself.
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. 711 (no. 2786).
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. 128.
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.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- Southern Netherlands