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Harley MS 2809

Record Id:

040-002048640

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048640

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00004f

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2809

Title:

Bible without the Psalms

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 6r-362v: Bible without the Psalms, imperfect.

The manuscript contains various additions:

Numerous marginal annotations in medieval hands.

f. 1r: Prayers to the Virgin Mary ('Ave Maria gracia plena'); added in the (?) 13th century.

f. 1v: A list of 'Apocripha'; added in the (?) 16th century.

f. 1v: A list of months of the Hebrew calendar, beginning with 'Elul', and corresponding dates with the Gregorian caldendar, and references to biblical books; added in the (?) 16th century.

ff. 1v-2r: Theological notes, including on the four types of biblical interpretation; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 2r: A list of 'The bookes of the wholle byble'; added in the (?) 16th century.

ff. 2v-5r: A treatise on the body of Christ, beginning: 'Circa corpus christi duo sunt ad praesens consideranda. Primum est fides quod ibi sit corpus Christi'; added in the 15th century.

f. 288v: A 5-line poem with mnemonic for the Eusebian Canons, begining: 'Quatuor est primis tribus alter opimus'; added in the 13th century.

f. 288v: A short text on the Eusebian Canons, which are here attributed to Ammonius of Alexandria, beginning: 'Canones evangeliorum Ammonius Alexandriae primus excogitavit'; added in the 13th century.

f. 362v: Two circular diagrams with Golden Numbers and Golden Letters with instructions pertaining to the diagrams below: 'Accipe residuos domnice incarnationis annos et incipe numerare post crucem i.ij.iij. etcaetera usque ad annum currentem et sic invenies numerum aureum et literam domini calem cuiusque anni in perpetuum'; and 'Annus habet ebdomadas lij. et diem unum dies vero CCC. lxv. et horas sex.'; added in the 15th century.

f. 362v: A practice alphabet; added in the 15th century.

Decoration:

Numerous large puzzle initials in red and blue (or of one single colour) with pen-flourishing in the same colours. Display letters in red and blue (f. 8v). Smaller initials in alternating red and blue (these consistently have pen-flourishing in the other colour from f. 277r to 200v, 284r-289r, 336r-360v). Running titles and chapter numbers in alternating red and blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048640", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2809: Bible without the Psalms" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048640

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2809 : Bible without the Psalms

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2810]/040-002048640

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1250

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

2nd half of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 195 x 140 mm (text space: 120 x 85, in 2 columns).

Foliation: ff. 362 (ff. 1-5 are medieval flyleaves + 3 unfoliated paper leaves at the beginning and 4 at the end).

Collation: Mostly in quires of 12. Indicated by catchwords. Each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard

Script: Gothic, written below the top line.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound on 26 May 1965.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

? An unknown owner: their inscription on f. 362v, fully redacted, but the ascenders and descenders of the first word suggest that it started with 'liber' and concerned an ownership inscription.

Richard Raynsford, ? 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. 176v: 'Richard Raynsford his booke' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).

? ‘R. de R.’: Inscribed 'R. de R.' in recorded testamentary dispositions in an inscription on f. 362r that is dated to 10 April 1554.

Robert Burscough (b. 1650/51, d.1709), prebendary of Exeter in 1701, archdeacon of Barnstaple in 1703, rector of Cheriton Bishop in 1705; sold by his widow on 17 May 1715 to Robert Harley, along with other manuscripts (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), I, pp. 10, 11; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 87-88).

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 ‘7 May 1715' (f. 1v; mistake in the date which should be 17 May, see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 87-88).

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. 713.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, pp. 10-11.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 87-88.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England