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Harley MS 2800
- Record Id:
- 040-002048631
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048631
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000046
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165166786.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2800
- Title:
-
A Passional (the 'Arnstein Passional'), volume 1 (January-May)
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript is the first volume of a three-volume Passional, and contains the lives of saints for readings on feasts in January-May. The second volume is Harley MS 2801 (June-September), and the third volume is Harley MS 2802 (October-December).
Contents:
ff. 1r-262r: Passional, January-May portion. This volume contains the following saints' Lives, each numbered in the top right corner of the rectos with a contemporary roman numeral (for folio ranges for a selection of the Lives, see Levison, 'Conspectus' (1920), pp. 603-605): Basil, bishop of Caesarea; Fulgentius; Martina; Maurus, abbot; Concordius; Secundus; Euphrosine; Genevieve; Peter Balsam; Theagenes; Simeon, monk; Lucian; Julian and Celsus; Paul the Hermit; Hilary; Felix; Furseus; Pontianus; Diodorus et Marinianus; Sebastian; Agnes; Fructuosus, Augurius and Eulogius; Vincent; Anastasius; the Three Brothers; Babylas; Polycarp; Tirsius and Galienus; Brigid; Blasius; Antoninus; Agatha; Vedast; Amantius; Valentine; Faustinus and Jovita; Juliana; Serenus; Albinus; Perpetua and Felicity; Forty Martyrs; Pope Gregory; Alexander; Heribert; John; Theodoritus; Pigmenius; Achaicus; Ludger; Waleric; Theodosia; Mary of Egypt; Ambrose; Iraneus; Frontasius; Ipipodius; George; Alexander; Mark; Victorinus and Severinus; Richarius; Anania and Peter; James; Philip; Walburga; Invention of the Cross; Eventius, Alexander and Theodulus; Quiriacus; Florian; Victor; Translation of Nicholas; Gordian and Epimachus; Beatus; Simplicius, Faustinus and Antimus; Pancras; Nereus and Achilleus; Petronilla and Felicula; Eutices Victorinus and Maro; Domitilla; Servatius; Gengulf; Victor and Corona; Orientius; Peter, Andrew, Paul and Denise; Peregrinus; Urban; Germanus; Maximinus; Simeon the monk; Marcellinus and Peter; 48 Martyrs; Erasmus; Pergentinus and Laurentinus; Boniface, martyr and bishop; Speusippus, Eleusippus, and Melapsippus; Dorothy; Celsus; Adelheid; Suiberi; Matthias the Apostle; Gertrude; Verena; Burgundofora; Catherine; Euphaxia; Mary Magdalene; Rubert; Potitus; Fausta; Polievetus, Candidianus and Filoramus; Macharinus and Eugenius; 35 Martyrs; Philia; Eulalia; Montanus & Gemellus; Nestor; Focas; Philemon; Athalus; Pionius; Cuthbert; Mary sister of Tecla; Lupus; Eleutherius; Torpetius; Marianus and James; Victor; Victor and Corona; Sisinnius and Alexandrus; Potentiana; Cantius, Cantianus, and Cantianilla; Donatianus and Rogalianus; Speratus and companions.
f. 262v: Added copy of Frederick I's Rhenish-Frankish land peace of 1179 (Quellensammlung zur Geschichte der Deutschen Reichsverfassung, ed. Zeumer (1913), nr. 16, pp. 20-22).
Decoration:
By the same artist as the Arnstein Bible (Harley MSS 2798-2799), according to Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination (1982), p. 253.
Very large zoomorphic and/or inhabited initials in colours on a coloured ground (ff. 1r, 228r).
Large historiated or anthropomorphic initials in colours: St Fulgentius (f. 6r); a mermaid (27r); a naked man (f. 39v); a naked man (f. 43r); man and dragon (f. 46r); a naked man (f. 61v); a finely dressed man (f. 143r); a warrior on horseback holding a spear (f. 149v); St Walburga (f. 150r); a man with a bird (f. 162v); a hybrid of a chicken, man and fish holding a curved knife (f. 165r); a faun with three birds (f. 193v); St Adelheid (f. 207v).
Large initials in red, some with animals or hybrids, all with foliate decoration, and some with clasps; usually on grounds of green and blue at the beginning of each saint's passion. Large initials in red, green or in both colours. Display script in red or black. Decorated quire signatures.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048631", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2800: A Passional (the 'Arnstein Passional'), volume 1 (January-May)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048631 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2800 : A Passional (the 'Arnstein Passional'), volume 1 (January-May) - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2801]/040-002048631
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165166786.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1165
- End Date:
- 1185
- Date Range:
- c. 1170-c. 1180
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 545 x 370 mm (text space: 405 x 265 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 262 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown 'Harleian' binding with gold tooling; marbled endpapers.
Decorated quire signatures.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Arnstein, Germany.
Provenance:
The Premonstratensian abbey of St Mary and St Nicholas, Arnstein: inscribed ‘Liber Sancte marie virginis sanctique nicolai in arinsteyn 1464’ (Harley MS 2802, f. 231v, the third volume in this set).
Added text with the date 1179 (f. 262v).
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 ‘‘16 die January, A.D. 1720/21’ (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:
-
Select digital coverage: Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/
- Publications:
-
This bibliography is for each of Harley MSS 2800-2802:
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2800-2.
W. R. Tymms and M. D. Wyatt, The Art of Illuminating as Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times (London: Day and Sons, 1860; repr. Studio Editions, 1987), pls XII.1, 3.
A. Kohl, 'Arnsteiner Handschriften im Britischen Museum zu London', Nassovia. Zeitschrift für nassauische Geschichte und Heimatkunde, 4 (1903), 106-108,120-121,133-134 (p. 107).
Quellensammlung zur Geschichte der Deutschen Reichsverfassung in Mittelalter und Neuzeit, Vol. 1: Otto II-Friedrich III, ed. by Karl Zeumer (Tübingen: Mohr, 1913), nr. 16, pp. 20-22 [edition of the text on f. 262v, although not made from this manuscript].
Wilhelm Levison, 'Conspectus codicum hagiographicorum', Monumenta Germanica historiae, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum 7 (1920), pp. 537-538, 603-605.
R. Schilling, 'Studien zur deutschen Goldschmiedekunst des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts', Form und Inhalt: Festschrift für Otto Schmitt zum 60. Geburtstag (1950), 76-78.
W. Weismann, 'Die 'Passio Genesii mimi' (BHL 3320), Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 12 (1977), pp. 22-43 (pp. 26, 34-43).
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), pp. 128-29.
Walter Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1982), p. 253.
F. Dolbeau, 'La Passion des saints Lucius et Montanus. Histoire et édition du texte', Revue des Études Augustiniennes, 29 (Paris, 1983), pp.39-82 (p. 43).
G. Philippart, 'Les Légendes Latines de Sainte Verena. Pour une Histoire de Leur Diffusion', Analecta Bollandiana: Revue Critique d’Hagiographie, 103 (1985), pp. 253-302 (pp. 268-9, 295).
Sigrid Krämer, Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters, Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz: Ergänzungsband 1, 3 vols (Munich, 1989-90), II (1989), p. 25.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), pp. 55, 57.
Krone und Schleier: Kunst aus Mittelalterlichen Frauenklöstern, Bonn and Essen exhibition catalogue (Munich: Kirmer, 2005), no. 11.
Jeffrey F. Hamburger, 'The Hand of God and the Hand of the Scribe: Craft and Collaboration at Arnstein', in Die Bibliothek des Mittelalters als dynamischer Prozess, ed. by Michael Embach, Claudine Moulin and Andrea Rapp, Trierer Beiträge zu den Historischen Kulturwissenschaften, 3 (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2012), pp. 53-78 (p. 71, colour plate 36).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)