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Harley MS 2790
- Record Id:
- 040-002048621
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048621
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00003c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056039572.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2790
- Title:
- The Four Gospels ('The Gospels of St Cyriacus of Nevers', or 'The Gedeon Gospels of Nevers')
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 2r-4v: St Jerome, Epistula ad Damasum (Letter to Pope Damasus I).
ff. 5r-5v: Pseudo-Jerome, Epistle to Pope Damasus I, beginning: 'Sciendum tamen nequis ignarum'.
ff. 5v-8v: Prologus ex commentario Hieronymi in Mattheum (St Jerome's prologue from his commentary to the Gospel of St Matthew), prologue to the Four Gospels.
ff. 8v-9v: Praefatio Matthei (Preface to the Gospel of St Matthew).
ff. 10r-11r: Eusebius of Caesarea, Epistola ad Carpianum (Eusebius's epistle to Carpian).
ff. 11v-16r: A list of Hebrew names prefacing the Gospel of St Matthew.
ff. 16v-19r: Capitula of the Gospel of St Mathew.
ff. 20r-27v: Canon tables.
ff. 28r-87r: Evangelium secundum Mattheum (the Gospel of St Matthew).
ff. 87r-129r: Evangelium secundum Marcum (the Gospel of St Mark), preceded by a list of Hebrew names (ff. 87r-v); the preface (ff. 88r-89r) and capitula (ff. 89r-90v).
ff. 129v-206r: Evangelium secundum Lucam (the Gospel of St Luke), preceded by a list of Hebrew names (ff. 129v-132v); the preface (ff. 133r-134r) and capitula (ff. 134r-136v).
ff. 207r-262r: Evangelium secundum Iohannem (the Gospel of St John), preceded by the preface (ff. 207r-v); a list of Hebrew names (ff. 208r-v) and capitula (ff. 209r-210r).
ff. 264r-271v: Capitulare evangeliorum de circulo anni, chapters of each Gospel arranged according to the liturgical year.
Decoration:
Canon tables with decorated architectural frames in brown ink with colour washes, with interlace and foliate patterns, some with animals or animal heads (ff. 20r-27v). Initials in red or brown, some now oxidised, some with penwork decoration.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048621", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2790: The Four Gospels ('The Gospels of St Cyriacus of Nevers', or 'The Gedeon Gospels of Nevers')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048621 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2790 : The Four Gospels ('The Gospels of St Cyriacus of Nevers', or 'The Gedeon Gospels of Nevers') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2791]/040-002048621
- 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_100056039572.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0800
- End Date:
- 0824
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 9th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 320 x 225 mm (text space: 215 x 120 mm).
Foliation: ff. 271 ( + 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end).
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600. Red 'Harleian' binding with gold tooling; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ? Tours, Central France.
Provenance:
? A scriptorium in Tours: evidence of the script, according to Rand, A Survey of the Manuscript of Tours (1929).
The Cathedral of Saint Cyricus and Saint Julitta of Nevers: given by Herimannus, bishop of Nevers (between 841-860), inscribed with six elegiac lines recording the donation of the volume: 'Me quicumque legis, Herimanni sis memor oro / Cuius me studio possidet iste locus/ Obtulit eclesiae sibi commissae memorandus / Praesul me fateor, pro bonitatis ope / Me sancto Cyrico tali sub conditione / En dedit ut pereat qui cupit abstrahere' (f. 19v); added an 11th-century inscription related to the library of the cathedral, 'Hec sunt nomina librorum qui sunt in armario Sancti Cyrici' (f. 263r); added and 11th-century list of bishops of Nevers from Leodebaud (c 658) to Hughes II (from 1013-1065) (f. 19v); added a 12th-century inscription, extracted from a charter produced by Hugues IV, bishop of Nevers (from 1110-c 1120), 'Notum fieri volumus omnibus sanctae dei ecclesiae filiis, quod ego Hugo Nivernensis episcopus Rotgerium priorem abbatiae Sanctae Marie et Sancti Stephani, cum duobus monachis, Arnulfo scilicet et Adalardo Theutonico propter in obedientiam quam Deo et michi fecerunt, feci venire nudis pedibus usque ad altare Sancti Cirici ante presentiam meam et totius ecclesiae, ad satisfaciendum Deo et michi in ipsa festivitate Sancti Stephani, post natale domini.' (f. 1v); added a 12th-century list of the books of the abbot Rostaing, and of vestments, and liturgical furnishings: 'Hi sunt libri domini abbatis Rostagni' (f. 262v).
Nathaniel Noel (d. c 1753), bookseller: sold to Edward Harley, see Humphrey Wanley's diary, Lansdowne MS 772, ff. 30v, 33v.
Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by his librarian, Humfrey Wanley '13 die Mensis Augusti, A. D. 1724' (f. 1r).
Edward Harley bequeathed his 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 Harleian 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), I, no. 55.
[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. 24-26.
Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingishen Miniaturen', in Zweiter Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 52-77 (p. 57).
E. K. Rand, A Survey of the Manuscript of Tours, Mediaeval Academy of America, 3, Studies in the Script of Tours, I (1929, MS facs. 299 (I), no. 27, pls. 40, 41.
E. K. Rand, 'A Supplement on Dodaldus', Speculum, 6:4 (1931), 587-99 (pp. 594-99).
Die Karolingischen Miniaturen, ed. by Wilhelm Koehler and Florentine Mütherich, 6 vols (Berlin: Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, 1930-99), I: Die Ornamentik, pp. 39, 41-42, 47-61, 71-72, 77, 179, 313, 320-23, 329, 336-38, 344-45, 366-67, pls 5d-5f, 6b-6f.
Edward Kennard Rand, 'Review of Wilhelm Köhler , Die Karolingischen Miniaturen', Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 193 (1931), 337-51 (p. 340).
Theodor Klauser, Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen, 28 (Munster: Aschendorff, 1935), p. L no. 166*.
G. L. Micheli, L'enluminure du haut moyen age et les influences irlandaises (Brussels: Editions de la connaissance, 1939), p. 111-13.
M. Huglo, ‘Un Nouveau Prosaire Nivernais’, Ephemerides Liturgicae, 71 (1957), pp. 27-28.
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), no. 703.
R. H. Rouse and M. D. Reeve, 'Cicero: Speeches' in Texts and Transmission: A Survey of the Latin Classics, ed. by L. D. Reynolds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983), pp. 54-98 (p. 64).
Bonifatius Fischer, Lateinische Bibelhandschriften im frühen Mittelalter, Vetus Latina, 11 (Freiburg: Herder, 1985), pp. 126, 225, 258, 293, 295, 302, 304-05, 326, 330.
Hartmut Hoffmann, Buchkunst und Königtum im ottonischen und frühsalischen Reich , 2 vols, Schriften der Monumenta Germaniae Historica, 30 (Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1986) I, 64.
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. 21*.
Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 6-7, fig. 6.
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; most originally pub. in Mittelalterliche Studien: Ausgewählte Aufsätze zur Schriftkunde und Literaturgeschichte I-III (Stuttgart: Hieresmann, 1966-1981), pp. 30-31, n. 49.
- 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.