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Harley MS 2861

Record Id:

040-002048692

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048692

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000083

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2861

Title:

Book of Hours

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-12v: Calendar.

ff. 13r-72r: Hours of the Virgin with suffrages following Lauds (incomplete; lacking beginning of Lauds and Compline).

ff. 72v-73v: Prayer to the Virgin Mary, beginning: ‘Te deprecor sanctissima maria’.

ff. 73v-77v: Short prayers to the Image of Christ on the Cross, the Cross, Christ’s wounded head, the Five Wounds.

ff. 77v-78r: Prayer to the Virgin Mary, beginning: ‘O maria plasma nati’.

ff. 78r-81r: Bede, Prayer on the Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross.

ff. 81r-82v: Prayer to Christ, beginning: ‘Precor te piissime domine ihesu Christe’.

ff. 82v-84r: Prayer for the Elevation, with an effaced rubric, beginning: ‘Domine ihesu Christ qui hanc sacratissimam carnem et preciosum sanguinem tuum de gloriose marie virginis marie utero assumpsisti’.

ff. 84r-87v: O intemerata.

ff. 87v-91v: Obsecro te.

ff. 92r-117v: Penitential Psalms (incomplete) followed by Litany containing numerous English saints, and prayers.

ff. 118v-142v: St Jerome’s Psalter introduced by a long rubric

Decoration:

1 full-page miniature of the Carrying of the Cross, damaged (f. 49r). The manuscript probably featured more miniatures that were excised at a later point in time. All miniatures must have been painted on a separate folio, like the remaining one (f. 49r) which was certainly produced in Flanders for export. 1 full border with acanthus and feathering in gold and colours combined with 4-line initial with foliate decoration at the beginning of Matins in the Hours of the Virgin (f. 13r). 6 three-sided borders with acanthus and penwork combined with 4-line initial with foliate decoration for other hours and St Jerome’s Psalter (ff. 42r, 48v, 54r, 57v, 61v, 120v). 1 3-line ‘champ’ initial in colours and gold with feathering (f. 72v). Initials in colours and gold. Initials in blue with red penwork decoration or in gold with blue penwork decoration.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048692", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2861: Book of Hours" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048692

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2861 : Book of Hours

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2862]/040-002048692

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:

1450

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 75 x 50 mm (text space: 50 x 40 mm in the calendar, 45 x 30 mm in the rest of the manuscript).

Foliation: ff. 142 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); a horizontal strip has been cut out from the middle of f. 123; 1 paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto (modern English notes on the manuscript).

Collation: Mostly gatherings of 8; Catchwords, one written on a scroll (f. 20v).

Binding: British Museum in-house; gold-tooled brown leather with the initials ‘M. B.’ (Museum Brittanicum) gold stamped on the upper cover.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Southern England; Southern Netherlands (f. 49 only)

Provenance:

‘Jennot Barkar’, 16th century: their (?) ownership inscription on f. [iii]recto: ‘[...] p[e]rtynent a moy Jennot Barkar’.

'Thomas', owned in the (?) 18th century: inscribed his name on f. [144] recto.

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. 716.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Bede the Venerable, Saint, c 673-735,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000120962352,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/61539765

Places:

Southern England
Southern Netherlands