Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Harley MS 2881
- Record Id:
- 040-002048712
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048712
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000097
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2881
- Title:
-
Breviary
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 4r-279r: Breviary, begins with a calendar (ff. 4r-18v), followed by the texts of the Breviary (ff. 18v-297r), with the first rubric 'De adventu domini' written below the calendar on the last ruled line on f. 18v.
The manuscript contains several additions:
f. 1v: A prayer phrased for a woman, beginning: 'Libera me domine de morte eterna in die illa tremenda'; written in the late 15th century.
f. 2r: A note: 'Sec. XV praese fert hic Cod, sed annon recentioris inquirend.'; added in the (?) 17th century.
ff. 3r-3v: A litany of saints written in the 15th century.
f. 98v: A hymn for St Monica, beginning: 'Alma mater Augustini preces nostras suscipe et per eas conditori nos placare satage et ut regat gregem suum tuum ora filium'; written in the (?) 15th century.
ff. 98v-99r: A hymn for St Anne (imperfect at the end), beginning: '[A]nne sacre solempnia festis colamus laudibus ymnos'; written in the (?) 15th century.
f. 99v: A hymn for St Anne (complete version), beginning: 'Anne sacre solempnia festis colamus laudibus ymnos'; ending with the line: 'Ora pro nobis beata mater Anna'; written in the (?) 15th century.
f. 279r: A single line: 'ab omni creatura per infinita secul seculorum Amen', now erased; written in the (?) 15th century.
ff. 279v-280r: 'Magnificat' with musical notation; added in the (?) 15th century.
Decoration:
Large puzzle initials in blue and red or initials in blue or red with reserved designs, and red and occasionally purple pen-flourishing extending into the margins (ff. 79v, 100r, 112v, 159v, 180r, 204r, 216v, 218v, 243v, 247v). Puzzle initial in red and blue with no pen-flourishing (ff. 175r, 225r). Smaller initials in blue or red with reserved designs and red or purple pen-flourishing (ff. 24r, 39v, 56v, 61v, 63v, 65r, 68v, 72r, 76r, 79v, etc.). Smaller coloured initials in red or blue, some with reserved designs. Line-fillers in red ink.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048712", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2881: Breviary" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048712 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2881 : Breviary - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2882]/040-002048712
- 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:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 135 x 100 mm (text space: 90 x 70 mm).
Foliation ff. 280 (+ 1 unfoliated flyleaf made of a paper and a parchment leaves pasted together at the beginning + 1 at the end); Bookmarks made of plaited leather forming small balls of varying sizes (some coloured red) rising from the foredge allow for quick reference to certain sections of the text (sewn onto ff. 24, 163, 219, 229, 264, 271). Traces of these balls on ff. 69, 82, 95 and 97. A red string tied to f. 242. 1 unfoliated paper pastedown (modern note on provenance) on f. [i]recto.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Binding of brown mottled calf with gold fillets.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Northern Netherlands.
Provenance:
An unidentified community of Augustinian canons regular in The Netherlands, possibly members of the Congregation of the Windesheim or another Congregation that was modelled after Windesheim (e.g. the Congregation of Venlo or the Congregation of Sion), made for them in the 15th century: the geographic location is suggested by the style of decoration, and the calendar and breviary that contain entries for saints Boniface, Lebuinus and Odulf, Frisian missionaries; St Lambert, bishop of Maastricht-Liège; and Frederick, Radboud and Willibrord, all bishops of Utrecht; the order is suggested by a reference to St Augustine as 'our father' in a rubric in the calendar on f. 13v: 'Augustini episcopi et doctoris patris nostri solempne festum ordinis'; the prominence of Augustine in the texts (see ff. 243v-246v); and a modern note pasted onto f. [i]recto: 'Harl. 2881 seems to be of use of the Canons Regular of the Windesheim Congregation'.
An unidentified female religious commmunity (probably Augustinian canonesses regular) in The Netherlands, 15th century: the geographic location is suggested by previously unnoticed names of a 'Margarete de ghe[n]d[er]e' (ff. 4r, 5v, 6v, 7r, 8r, 9v, 11r, 12r, 13r, 14v, 15v, 16v, 17v) and a 'domini gherardi de eemskerck' (f. 6v), possibly referring to a confessor, that have been added to the margins of the calendar in a 15th-century hand; 'Genderen' is a village in North Brabant, The Netherlands, and 'Heemskerk' is a town in North Holland, The Netherlands. The same hand has also added the name of a religious woman 'domine magarete' on ff. 4r, 5v, 6v, 7v, 9r, 10r, 11v, 12v, 13v, 15r, 15v, 17r, 18r. The order is suggested by additions to the calendar for the feasts of St Monica (mother of St Augustine) on f. 9r: 'Monice vidue' (May); and St Anne on f. 12r: 'Anne vidue' (July); and added hymns to St Monica and St Anne on ff. 98v-99v. These may be the community's patron saints. The same community may have added the prayer on f. 1v which is phrased for a female reader ('famule tue').
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. 717 [no. 2881].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Places:
- Northern Netherlands