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Harley MS 2818

Record Id:

040-002048649

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048649

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000058

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2818

Title:

Bible, with the Psalms and the Interpretation of Hebrew Names

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-397r: Bible, with the Psalms (ff. 166r-185v) and the Interpretation of Hebrew Names (ff. 378r-397r).

The manuscript contains a few additions:

ff. 1*r-1*v, 397v-[398]verso: Practice sentences and pen trials in English and proverbs in Latin.

f. 2*recto: A note: 'de excellencia autoritat. sacr. scripture'; added in the 15th century.

Decoration:

8 large historiated initials with foliate decoration in colours (f. 1r: friar writing; f. 3r: Creation scenes, dragon and serpent; f. 135v: king Cyrus; f. 138v: Nehemiah, f. 181r: blessing Christ, f. 326v: eagle, symbol of John, on a column, f. 335r: Paul holding a sword, f. 343v: Paul). Numerous large initials with foliate decoration, interlaced tendrils usually on coloured panel, a dragon, bird, hybrid creatures, and smaller ones in the same style, to introduce prologues. Numerous small initials in blue or red with pen flourishing in the other colour. Running titles and chapter numbers in alternating red and blue. Capitals marked in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048649", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2818: Bible, with the Psalms and the Interpretation of Hebrew Names" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048649

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2818 : Bible, with the Psalms and the Interpretation of Hebrew Names

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2819]/040-002048649

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:

1250

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

2nd half of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

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

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

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:

Northern Italy (? Bologna).

Provenance:

An unknown 15th-century owner or reader: added the inscription 'Libro primi ego bibani posterior' on f. 3*verso.

'John', 16th century: his name inscribed on f. 1*verso ('John ?l[o]ylly scrip[…]') and 2*verso ('John').

'Nicholaus Hayschyll', owned in the (?) 15th or 16th century: inscribed his name on f. 2*recto (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 184).

The Augustinian Priory of Walsingham, Norfolk, early 16th century: added the 16th-century inscription 'Walsyngham' on f. 3*verso, and an ownership inscription in a different hand on ff. 1r and 300v: 'Pertinet prioratui de Walsyngham (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 341, but without identifying the Priory of Walsingham).

John Covel (b. 1638, d. 1722), Chaplain of the Levant Company at Constantinople 1670-1676. The inscription 'No. XXXV' on f. 1*recto corresponds to John Covel's numbering system in his catalogue (Add MS 22911, ff. 180r-183r) where this manuscript in no. 35 in the Latin section; sold, together with Covel's other manuscripts, to Edward Harley for £300 on 27 February 1715/6 (Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), I, pp. xxxiv-xxxvi; II, p. 211 n. 1; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 113-17).

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.

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. xxxiv-xxxvi; II, p. 211 n. 1

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. 113-17, 184, 341.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

Bologna, Italy
Northern Italy