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Harley MS 2837
- Record Id:
- 040-002048668
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048668
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00006b
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2837
- Title:
- The second volume of a Bible in two parts (Proverbs-Revelation, without the Gospels)
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 2r-299r: The second volume (containing Proverbs-Revelation, without the Gospels) of a Latin Bible in two parts; for the first volume, see Harley MS 2836.
The manuscript contains a few later additions:
f. 1v: A list of biblical books; added in the 14th century.
f. 125v: A note on liturgical readings for the feast of All Saints in brown ink, partly erased, with a decorated initial that is in the same style as one in an added note in Harley MS 2836 (f. 291v): see 'Provenance' for a transcription; added in the 14th century.
f. 299v: A smaller (290 x 215 mm) parchment leaf from a 15th-century manuscript containing a religious text that begins: 'Iocundare plebs devota et exulta mente tota divinis in preconijs'; and ends: 'Omnis ergo plebs fidelis laudet dominum de celis qui in suis est laudandus sanctis et magnificandus sempiterna gloria. Amen.'.
Decoration:
38 large puzzle initials in red and blue with dragons, foliate decoration, small flowers, reserved designs and pen-flourishing in the same colours (ff. 2r [x2], 16r, 20v, 30r, 55r, 70r, 76v, 92r, 111r, 124v, 125r, 156r, 157r, 169v, 174r, 175v, 179r, 179v, 180v, 183r, 184r, 185v, 187v, 193r, 194r, 195r, 224v [x2], 259v, 281r, 283r, 285r, 286v, 288v (x2), 289, 289v). Green used in some of these large initials (ff. 259v, 281r, 283r, 285r). Birds drawn in blue and red ink in the border (ff. 1r, 58r). Numerous initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour (flourishing in red with red initial on f. 5, flourishing not painted on f. 157v); altered initials in a medieval hand on ff. 182v and 237v.. Capitals marked in red. Guide letters. Chapter numbers and running titles in red and blue. Marginal letters marking subdivisions in most sections of the manuscript. Added marginal texts in red frames. The parchment leaf pasted onto f. 299v features small (1-line) initials alternating between blue and red ink.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048668", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2837: The second volume of a Bible in two parts (Proverbs-Revelation, without the Gospels)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048668 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2837 : The second volume of a Bible in two parts (Proverbs-Revelation, without the Gospels) - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2838]/040-002048668
- 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:
- 1300
- End Date:
- 1349
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 14th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 485 x 340 mm (text space [indicated by pricking holes]: 345 x 230 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 299 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); red parchment tabs on ff. 16 and 244.
Collation: Mainly in quires of 10. Indicated by quire marks (in the centre of the lower margin of the verso of the last leaf of the quire), leaf signatures, and catchwords. Each quire has been separately mounted onto a paper guard.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Red half leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate gold-stamped on the insides of the upper and lower covers. Rebound on 22 February 1965.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
South-western Germany or Switzerland (Upper Rhineland).
Provenance:
A Carthusian monastery in South-western Germany or Switzerland: possibly the Charterhouse of St Margaretenthal in Kleinbasel, Basel, one of eight medieval charterhouses in Switzerland, and closely situated to Beinwil Abbey: a Benedictine abbey of which a 15th-century legal document is included in Harley MS 2836 (f. [iv]recto). The monastery was founded in 1401 and dissolved in 1536. Like Harley MS 2836, this manuscript contains several liturgical instructions that explicitly refer to a Charterhouse: these concern rubricated marginal notes written in the same hand as the manuscript on f. 13r: 'Sciendum quod sicieris et sicierit etcaetera in carthusia ubique leguntur per . ci. non per .ti'; and f. 15v: 'Sciendum quod alphabetum iudeorum [? s.h.] aleph beth etcaetera in carthusia nusquam legitur id est nec in ecclesia nec in refectorio'; and a note in brown ink that has been added in a different 14th-century hand on f. 125v: 'Nota: Quando festum omnium sanctorum accidit feria quarta tunc tantum et non alias sunt lectiones per litteras a. b. c. de lasuro terminande diebus solummodo privatis quia sic sit in Carthusia et est racio quia tunc libri prophetarum cum suis [?...] verborum ebdomadis leguntur alias ?terminum .iiij.or'. Other notes on ff. 56r, 225v, 291r explicitly refer to liturgical readings for the refectory: 'In refectorio'.
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. 715 [no. 2837].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- Southwestern Germany
Switzerland