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Harley MS 2795
- Record Id:
- 040-002048626
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048626
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000041
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056040783.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2795
- Title:
- The Four Gospels
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-3v: Prologus Quattuor Evangeliorum ex Commentario Hieronymi in Mattheum (Prologue to the Four Gospels from St Jerome's commentary on the Gospel of St Matthew), beginning: 'Plures fuisse qui evangelia scripserunt'.
ff. 4r-6v: St Jerome, Epistula ad Damasum Papam (St Jerome's epistle to Pope Damasus I), beginning: 'Beatissimo papae Damaso Hieronimus. Novum opus facere me cogis'
ff. 6v-7r: Pseudo-St Jerome, Epistula ad Damasum Papam (Pseudo-St Jerome's epistle to Pope Damasus I), beginning: 'Sciendum nequis ignarum'.
ff. 7v-8v: Eusebius, Epistula ad Carpianum (Eusebius's epistle to Carpian), beginning: Eusebius Carpiano fratri in domino salutem'.
ff. 9r-12v: Eusebian Canon Tables.
ff. 13r-17r: Prefatio Evangelii Secundum Mattheum (Preface to the Gospel of St Matthew) (ff. 13r-v), followed by capitula (ff. 14r-17r).
ff. 18r-74v: Evangelium Secundum Sanctum Mattheum (The Gospel of St Matthew), including lections in the margins.
ff. 75r-78r: Prefatio Evangelii Secundum Marcum (Preface to the Gospel of St Mark) (ff. 75r-76r), followed by capitula (ff. 76r-78r).
ff. 78v-112r: Evangelium Secundum Sanctum Marcum (The Gospel of St Mark), including lections in the margins.
ff. 113r-119v: Prefatio Evangelii Secundum Lucam (Preface to the Gospel of St Luke) (ff. 113r-114r), followed by capitula (ff. 114v-119v).
ff. 120r-182r: Evangelium Secundum Sanctum Lucam (The Gospel of St Luke), including lections in the margins.
ff. 183r-185r: Prefatio Evangelii Secundum Iohannem (Preface to the Gospel of St John) (ff. 183r-v), followed by capitula (ff. 184r-185r).
ff. 186r-226r: Evangelium Secundum Sanctum Iohannem (The Gospel of St John), including lections in the margins.
ff. 227r-241r: Capitulare Evangeliorum (Capitulary of the Gospels), a series of readings arranged according to the liturgical year.
Decoration:
Decorated canon tables in colours and gold, each with two birds of the same species, including cockerels and peacocks, perched on foliage on either side of the arches (ff. 9r-12v). Large initials in gold with a red outline (ff. 1r, 4r, 6v, 7v, 13r, 18v, 75r, 78v, 113r, 120v, 183r, 186r). Rubrics in gold capitals, some with foliate decoration in red or blue, some with gold (ff. 13r, 76r, 78r, 113r, 184r). Small initials and numbers in gold. Small initials in red. Text entirely in gold or red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048626", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2795: The Four Gospels" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048626 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2795 : The Four Gospels - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2796]/040-002048626
- 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_100056040783.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0875
- End Date:
- 0899
- Date Range:
- 4th 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: 280 x 205 mm (text space 190 x 120 mm).
Foliation: ff. 241 (+ 5 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end).
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. The previous covers of brown leather with gold tooling affixed to the inside covers; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Central France or Western France.
Provenance:
The manuscript may have been produced somewhere in the Loire Valley, according to Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften (2004).
Added, a small fragment with an erased early-modern inscription 'pergamenum [...]' (f. [v] recto).
Johann Georg Graevius (b. 1632, d. 1703), German classical scholar and critic: possibly sold to Wilhelm in 1703 with the rest of Graevius's library (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (b. 1658, d. 1716), owner of a library in Düsseldorf: bought the entire Graevius library in 1703 (see Clark, 'The Library of J. G. Graevius' (1891); Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
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 '8 die Mensis Augusti A. D. 1724' (f. 1r).
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/.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), I, no. 2795.
[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, p. 31.
A. C. Clark, 'The Library of J. G. Graevius', The Classical Review, 5 (1891), 365-72 (pp. 367, 369).
Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingishen Miniaturen', in Zweiter Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 52-77 (p. 57).
Eric Millar, Souvenir de l’Exposition de Manuscrits Français à Peintures organise à la Grenville Library (British Museum) in Janvier-Mars 1932 (Paris: Société Française de Reproductions de Manuscrits à Peintures, 1933), no. 4.
Theodor Klauser, Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen. 28 (Munster: Aschendorffschen, 1935), p. L no. 167*.
Bernhard Bischoff, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, trans. by Dáibhí Ó Cróinín and David Ganz (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), p. 17.
Bonifatius Fischer, Die Lateinischen Evangelien bis zum 10. Jahrhundert, 4 vols (Freiburg: Herder, 1988-91), I: Varianten zu Matthäus, Vetus Latina die Reste der Altlateinischen Bibel: Aus der Geschichte der Lateinischen Bibel, 13, p. 27*.
Margaret T. Gibson, The Bible in the Latin West, The Medieval Book, 1 (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1993), no. 5.
Berhard Bischoff, Katalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts (mit Ausnahme der wisigotischen) (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1998- ), II (2004): Laon-Paderborn, ed. by Birgit Ebersperger, p. 117.
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), p. 42, fig. 29.
- 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.