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 2788
- Record Id:
- 040-002048619
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048619
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00003a
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2788
- Title:
-
Gospels (the 'Harley Golden Gospels')
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript includes four Gospels, known as the 'Golden Gospels', 'Harley Golden Gospels', or 'Codex Aureus', with canon tables (ff. 6v-12r), and capitulary (ff. 199r-208v).
Decoration:
Canon tables in colours and gold, with the symbols of the Evangelists, animals, and columns (ff. 6v-12r). Full-page title page in colours and gold, with birds (f. 12v). 4 full-page miniatures of the Evangelists in colours and gold: St Matthew (f. 13v), St Mark (f. 71v), St Luke (f. 108v), St John (f. 161v), each facing a full-page incipit page in colours and gold, some with zoomorphic initials (ff. 14r, 72r, 109r, 162r). Text written entirely in gold with headings in red. Large initials in red and/or gold. Every column of the biblical text is enclosed in a frame of gold, silver, and colours, often with decorated panels, including interlace and animals.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048619", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2788: Gospels (the 'Harley Golden Gospels')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048619 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2788 : Gospels (the 'Harley Golden Gospels') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2789]/040-002048619
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- Parchment codex; 208 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_2788 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0800
- End Date:
- 0824
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 9th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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 codex.
Dimensions: 365 x 250 mm (text space: 280 x 175 mm).
Foliation: ff. 208 (+ 7 unfoliated parchment leaves: 4 at the beginning and 3 at the end; paper interleaves throughout).
Layout: Written in two columns.
Script: Uncial; Caroline minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of red leather with extensive gold tooling over wooden boards.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Germany (Aachen?).
Provenance:
Jean-Jacques Charron (b. 1643, d. 1718), vicomte, then marquis de Ménars (Ménars sur Loire, near Blois), baron de Conflans Sainte Honorine, Seigneur de Neufville, president of the Parliament of Paris: his sale: Abraham de Hondt, The Hague, 10 June 1720, lot 9, purchased by Robert Harley for 1100 guilders (see The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1976).
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.
- Administrative Context:
- Germany (Aachen?).
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Digitised Manuscripts 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, 1808-1812), II (1808) no. 2788.
M. Digby Wyatt, The Art of Illuminating (London: Dan and Son Lithographers, 1860; repr. Studio Editions, 1987), p. 22.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 3.
[E. Maunde Thompson and G. F. Warner], Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1881-1884), Part II: Latin, pp. 22-24 [with additional bibliography].
Frederick Henry Ambrose Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 4th edn, ed. by Edward Miller, 2 vols (London: George Bell & Sons, 1894), II, p. 77.
Facsimiles of Biblical Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Frederic G. Kenyon (London: British Museum, 1900), no. XIII.
George F. Warner, Illuminated Manuscripts in The British Museum, Series I-IV (London: British Museum, 1903), pls 4, 5.
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), pp. 100-03, pl. 9.
Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingishen Miniaturen', in Zweiter Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 52-77 (p. 57).
Amédée Boinet, La miniature carolingienne: ses origines, son développement (Paris: Picard, 1913), pls 12-14.
Georg Swarzenski, Die Salzburger Malerei, 2 vols (Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1913), I, p. 32 n. 1.
[J. A. Herbert], British Museum: Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 3, 3rd edn (London: British Museum, 1925), pl. 4.
Schools of Illumination: Reproductions from Manuscripts in the British Museum, 6 vols (London: British Museum, 1914-1930), V: Carolingian and French to early 14th century (1926), pl. 1.
Adolph Goldschmidt, German Illumination, 2 vols (Florence: Pantheon, 1928), I: Carolingian Period, p. 11, pls 35-37.
H. H. Glunz, History of the Vulgate in England from Alcuin to Roger Bacon (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1933), p. xiii.
Codices Latini Antiquiores, ed. by E. A. Lowe, 11 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1934-1966), II: Great Britain and Ireland (1935), no. 198.
Theodor Klauser, Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen, 28 (Munster: Aschendorffschen, 1935), p. L no. 165*.
G. L. Micheli, L’enluminure du haut moyen age et les influences irlandaises (Brussels: Editions de la connaissance, 1939), pp. 111, 113.
Ernst Kitzinger, Early Medieval Art with Illustrations from the British Museum Collection (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1940), pls 18-19.
Die Karolingischen Miniaturen, ed. by Wilhelm Koehler and Florentine Mütherich, 7 vols (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1930-2009), II: Die Hofschule Karls des Grossen (1958), ed. by Wilhelm Koehler, pp. 56-69, pls 42-66.
Die Karolingischen Miniaturen, ed. by Wilhelm Koehler and Florentine Mütherich, 7 vols (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1930-2009), III, 2 parts, part 1: Die Gruppe des Wiener Krönungs-Evangeliars, ed. by Wilhelm Koehler (1960), pp. 22-27, 30-31, 35-45.
Patrick McGurk, Latin Gospel Books from A. D. 400 to A. D. 800 (Paris: Érasme, 1961), no. 27.
Illuminated Manuscripts Exhibited in the Grenville Library (London, British Museum, 1967), no. 35.
Die Ottonische Kolner Malerschule, ed. by Peter Bloch and Hermann Schnitzler, 2 vols (Dusseldorf: L. Schwann, 1967-1970), II: Textband, pp. 40-41, 43, 112, 118.
John Beckwith, Early Medieval Art: Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, 2nd edn (London: Thames and Hudson, 1969), pl. 31.
J. J. G. Alexander, Norman Illumination at Mont St Michel 966-1100 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970), pp. 129 n. 4, 153 n. 5, 166 n. 6, 171 n. 2.
C. R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe: 800 to 1200 (London: Penguin Books, 1971), pp. 18, 25-28, 72, pls 18-19.
Elżbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), pp. 43, 67.
C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1976), I, p. 38 n. 5.
J. J. G. Alexander, The Decorated Letter (New York: Braziller, 1978), pl. 5.
J. J. G. Alexander, Insular Manuscripts: 6th to the 9th Century, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 1 (London: Harvey Miller, 1978), pp. 58, 74, fig. 16.
Wayne Dynes, The Illuminations of the Stavelot Bible (New York: Garland Publishing, 1978), fig. 1.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), p. 12 pl. 3.
Helmut Engelhart, Die Würzburger Buchmalerei im Hohen Mittelalter: Untersuchungen zu einer Gruppe Illuminierter Handschriften aus der Werkstatt der Würzburger Dominikanerbibel von 1246, 2 vols, Quellen und Forschungen zur Geschichte des Bistums und Hochstifts Würzburg, ed. by Klaus Wittstadt, 34 (Würzburg, 1987), I, p. 78.
Bonifatius Fischer, Die Lateinischen Evangelien bis zum 10. Jahrhundert, 4 vols (Freiburg: Herder, 1988-1991), I: Varianten zu Matthäus, Vetus Latina die Reste der Altlateinischen Bible: Aus der Geschichte der Lateinischen Bibel, 13, p. 20* [as 'Ah'].
John Lowden, Illuminated Prophet Books: A Study of Byzantine Manuscripts of the Major and Minor Prophets (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1988), p. 100 n. 189.
Madeline Harrison Caviness, Sumptuous Arts at the Royal Abbeys in Reims and Braine: Ornatus elegantiae, Varietate stupendes (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), pl. 16.
Michael Gullick, Calligraphy (London: Studio Editions, 1990), pl. 9.
John Higgitt, 'A Strictly Limited Edition: the New Facsimile of the Book of Kells', Art History, 14 (1991), 446-51 (p. 450).
Julian Brown, A Palaeographer’s View: The Selected Writings of Julian Brown, ed. by Janet Bately, Michelle P. Brown, and Jane Roberts (London: Harvey Miller, 1993), p. 132.
Bernhard Bischoff, Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne, trans. and ed. by Michael Gorman, Cambridge Studies in Palaeography and Codicology, 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994; originally pub. in Mittelalterliche Studien: Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Schriftkunde und Literaturgeschichte I-III (Stuttgart: Hieresmann, 1966-1981)), pp. 65 n. 45, 67, 82, 84.
Michelle P. Brown, Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts: A Guide to Technical Terms (London: British Library, 1994), pl. on p. 33.
Peter Lasko, Ars Sacra 800-1200, 2nd edn (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 23, 49, pl. 63.
Carl Nordenfalk, Book Illumination: Early Middle Ages (Geneva: Editions d'art Albert Skira, 1995; originally pub. as Early Medieval Painting (New York: Skira, 1957)), p. 55.
Christopher de Hamel, A History of Illuminated Manuscripts, 2nd edn (London: Phaidon, 1994), p. 48.
The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art: Picturing the Psalms of David, ed. by Koert van der Horst, William Noel, and Wilhelmina C. M. Wüstefeld (Utrecht: HES Publishers, 1996), p. 81.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 5.
Bernard Meehan, 'The Book of Kells and the Corbie Psalter (with a note on Harley 2785)' in Studies in the Illustration of the Psalter, ed. by Brendan Cassidy and Rosemary Muir Wright (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 2000), pp. 12-33 (p. 23) [with additional bibliography].
Richard Jewell, 'Classicism of Southumbrian Sculpture', in Mercia: An Anglo-Saxon Kingdom in Europe, ed. by Michelle P. Brown and Carol A. Farr (London: Leicester University Press, 2001), pp. 247-62 (p. 249).
Medieval Mastery: Book Illumination from Charlemagne to Charles the Bold 800-1475 (Leuven: Brepols, 2002), p. 121.
Treasures of the British Library, ed. by Nicolas Barker and others (London: British Library, 2005), p. 49.
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), pp. 32-33, figs 19-20.
Raymond Clemens and Timothy Graham, Introduction to Manuscript Studies (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), pls 11-14.
Karl der Grosse: Karls Kunst [variant title: Charlemagne: Karls Kunst], ed. by Peter van den Brink and Sarvenaz Ayooghi (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2014), no. 16 [exhibition catalogue].
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, The Art of the Bible: Illuminated Manuscripts from the Medieval World (London: British Library, 2016), no. 4, pp. 18, 21, 22, 25-26, figs. 6, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4.
David Ganz, 'Early Medieval Display Scripts and the Problems of How We See Them', in Graphic Signs of Identity, Faith, and Power in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, Cursor Mundi, Vol. 27, ed. by Ildar Garipzanov, Caroline Goodson and Henry Maguire (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), pp. 125-43 (pp. 137-38, fig. 4.3).
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story (London: The British Library, 2018), no. 50 [exhibition catalogue].
Charlotte Denoël, 'L’Épiphanie du Verbe: Essai d’une typologie formelle des représentations du livre au premier Moyen Âge dans les portraits des évangélistes', in Imago libri: représentations carolingiennes du livre, ed. by Charlotte Denoël, Anne-Orange Poilpré and Sumi Shimahara, Bibliologia, 47 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), pp. 15-26 (pp. 21, 24).
Fabrizio Crivello, 'Tabulae et livres dans les tables des Canons de l’école de la cour de Charlemagne: Questions ouvertes', in Imago libri: représentations carolingiennes du livre, ed. by Charlotte Denoël, Anne-Orange Poilpré, and Sumi Shimahara, Bibliologia, 47 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2018), pp. 237-42 (p. 238, pls. 90-91).
Joanna Story, ‘Insular manuscripts in Carolingian Francia’, in Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story with Eleanor Jackson (Dublin: Four Courts, 2021), pp. 66-85 (p. 82, n. 56).
- Exhibitions:
- Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, British Library, London, 19 October 2018 - 19 February 2019
British Library Treasures, (online), 27 February 2016-
Gold, British Library, London, 20 May 2022 - 2 October 2022
The Art of Charlemagne, Centre Charlemagne, Aachen, 19 June 2014 - 21 September 2014 - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)