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Harley MS 2813
- Record Id:
- 040-002048644
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048644
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000053
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2813
- Title:
- Bible, including the Psalms and Interpretation of the Hebrew Names, with a missal between Psalms and Proverbs
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 4r-504r: Bible, imperfect at the beginning and lacking the opening of Genesis; including the Psalms and Interpretation of the Hebrew Names (ff. 485r-504r); and a booklet (ff. 227r-236v) containing texts for the liturgy between that has been inserted between the Psalms and Proverbs: excerpt from a missal with 'Te igitur'; one of the twenty-six 13th-century Bible-Missals, according to Light, ‘The Thirteenth-Century Pandect’ (2003), pp. 203-04, 211); written in a different hand than the main body of the manuscript
The manuscript contains several additions:
f. 1r: A reference to a biblical book with 'Buts' written above it; added in the 17th century.
f. 2r: A list of biblical books; added in the (?) 14th century.
f. 226v: A list of biblical books; added in the 13th century.
ff. 505v-506r: A tree diagrams on the themes of 'anima' and 'corpus', and short texts; added in the (?) 13th century.
Decoration:
2 historiated initials (f. 3r: Ambrose writing for the prologue; f. 423r: John preaching, for the beginning of John's Gospel); in the style of William de Brailes. Numerous large initials in colours with foliate decoration, hybrid creatures, masks swallowing letters, and dragons. In several instances, the descender of the letter rests on the back of an animal (cockerel on f. 442v; lioness? on f. 447v; see also ff. 449r, 451v, 453r, 460r). Numerous smaller initials in colours with foliate decoration. Smaller initials in red or blue with pen flourishing in the same colours. Capitals marked in red ink. Running titles and chapter numbers in alternating red and blue, or in blue with red penwork decoration (ff. 237v-484v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048644", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2813: Bible, including the Psalms and Interpretation of the Hebrew Names, with a missal between Psalms and Proverbs" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048644 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2813 : Bible, including the Psalms and Interpretation of the Hebrew Names, with a missal between Psalms and Proverbs - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2814]/040-002048644
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1225
- End Date:
- 1249
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 185 x 135 mm (text space: 110 x 70 mm, in 2 columns; (150 x 105) in 3 columns [ff. 485v-504]).
Foliation: ff. 506 + 504a-b (+ 3 paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment stub between f. 6 and f. 7; 2 blank folios numbered ff. 504a-b after f. 504; ff. 505-506 are parchment leaves that originally served as flyleaves.
Collation: Each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.
Script: Gothic, written below the top line
Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound on 22 December 1965.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Oxford.
Provenance:
Possibly made for a Franciscan friar at Oxford: emphasis given to Francis among the Masses (see discussion Kidd, ‘A Franciscan Bible’ (2007), 2-20).
? Thomas Clarke, 15th century: his name inscribed on f. 505v: 'M[agister] Thome Clarke Bac[ce]larij (?) theolog.'.
An unknown 16th-century owner: inscribed his name on f. 506r: 'Canc[ellar]io Magistri gWyn [or GWyr]'.
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.
- Publications:
- A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 713 (no. 2813).
Peter Kidd, 'A Franciscan Bible in the Style of William de Brailles', Electronic British Library Journal (2007), article 8 (2-20, pls 1-4, 6-8, 11-15) [accessed 6 August 2008].
Laura Light, ‘The Thirteenth-Century Pandect and the Liturgy: Bibles with Missals’, in Form and Function in the Late Medieval Bible, ed. by Eyal Poleg and Laura Light (Leiden: Brill, 2013), pp. 185-216 (pp. 203-04, 211).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- Oxford, England
Southeastern England