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Harley MS 2887

Record Id:

040-002048718

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048718

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00009d

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2887

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Sarum ('The Hours of the Earls of Ormond')

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 21r-26v: Calendar.

ff. 29v-32v, 34r-54v: The Hours of the Virgin Mary.

ff. 54v, 59r-64r: The Fifteen Oes ['Quindecim Oos'].

ff. 64r-66r: Prayer to the Virgin Mary, beginning: 'O Intemerata et in eternum benedicta singularis atque incomparabilis virgo dei'.

ff. 66r-67v: Prayer to the Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist, beginning: 'O Intemerata et in eternum benedicta singularis atque incomparabilis virgo dei'.

ff. 68r-73v: The Seven Penitential Psalms.

ff. 73v-74r: The Fifteen Gradual Psalms.

ff. 74r-75r: Psalms 131-133, beginning: 'Memento domine David et omnis mansuetudinis eius'.

ff. 75r-80r: Litany of Saints; followed by prayers to God.

ff. 80r-97v: Office of the Dead.

ff. 97v-105v: Commendation of the Souls.

ff. 105v-112v: Psalms of the Passion.

ff. 112v-113r: 'Oracio dicenda post psalmos de passione'; beginning: 'Da michi queso domine ihesu Christe deus omnipotens per hec sancta psalterij celestis mella anima mea saginetur'

ff. 113r-123r: The Psalter of Jerome.

f. 123r: Prayer to God, beginning: 'Deus cui proprium est misereri semper et parcere'.

ff. 123r-123v: Prayer to God, beginning: 'Omnipotens sempiterne deus et misericors clemenciam tuam'.

f. 123v: Prayer to God, beginning: 'Suscipere dignare domine deus omnipotens hos psalmos tibi consecratos quos ego indigna et peccator decantare'.

ff. 123v-124r: Prayer to Christ, beginning: 'Concede domine ihesu Christe ut isti psalmi nobis omnibus proficiant ad salutem et remedium animarum nostrarum'.

f. 124r: The Eight Verses of St Bernard, without introductory narrative.

ff. 124r-128r: Prayer before the Eucharist, with the rubric: 'Valde devota oracio dicendi ante missam cotidie'; beginning: 'Summe sacerdos et vere pontifex qui te optulisti deo patri hostiam puram et immaculatam in ar crucis pro nobis miseris peccatoribus'.

ff. 128r-129r: Psalm 138.

f. 129r: Prayer to Christ, beginning: 'Tibi Domine commendamus animas famulorum tuorum'.

ff. 129r-129v: Psalm 141.

f. 129v: Prayer to Christ, beginning: 'Tibi Domine commendamus animam famuli tui vel famule tue'.

The manuscript contains several later additions:

f. 1v: Memoranda of the Gower family, containing entries for birth of Angneta Gower (1467), the twins George and John Gower (1470), and Annas Gower (1467), Crooked Lane off Thames Street in the parish of St Michael; perhaps written by Edward Gower, stockfishmonger, and his wife Anna, widow of John Curteys.

f. 3r: List of obits of royalty and nobility, mostly including members of the Butler family of the earldom of Ormond, particularly James the 4th Earl, his wife, their children and spouses; probably added by Thomas Butler (b. 1426, d. 1515), 7th Earl of Ormond, as the list includes the deaths of his two wives Anne (1485) and Lore (1501).

ff. 4r-6r: Confessional formulary in English, beginning: 'Oh maker of heven and earthe kinge of kings ande lorde of lordis wyche of nothing didest make me to thi :y: man ande likenes ande didest redeme me with thyne owne bloude who I asinnar ame not worthi to name'; added in the (?) 16th century.

ff. 7r-7v: Prayers to Christ, beginning: 'Domine sancte pater omnipotens eterne deus qui coequalem'; 'Domine ihesu Christe fili dei vivi qui es verus'; 'Domine sancte spiritus sancte deus qui coequalis consubstancialis et coeternis patri filioque existens'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 9r-9v: Prayer to the Trinity, begininng: 'Sancta trinitas unus deus miserere nobis'; added in the late 15th century.

f. 9v: Prayer to God, beginning: 'Deus qui superbis resistis et humilibus das graciam'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 9v-10r: Prayer to God, beginning: 'Deus qui liberasti Susannam de falso crimine'; added in the late 15th century.

f. 10r: Prayer of King Henry VI ('Oracio beati Henrici Rex anglie'), beginning: 'Domine ihesu Christe qui me creasti, redemisti, et predestinasti'; added in the late 15th century.

f. 10r: Prayer to Christ, beginning: 'Domine ihesu Christe qui solus habes sapienciam'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 10r-10v: Memoria for the Holy Spirit, beginning: 'Veni creator spiritus'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 10v-11r: Hymns for the Holy Trinity, beginning: 'Adesto sancta trinitas par splendor una deitas'; and 'O pater sancte mitis atque pie'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 11v-12r: Prayer for King Henry VI, beginning: 'Rex Henricus pauperum et ecclesie defensor ad misericordiam pronus'; followed by the prayer: 'Deus sub cuius ineffabili providencia universi reges regnant'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 12r-12v: Prayer to the Guardian Angel, beginning: 'Angele qui meus es'; followed by the prayer: 'Deus qui sanctorum angelorum et archangleum tuorum aliquos tibi benigne concedis assistere'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 12v-14r: Prayer to the Holy Name of Jesus, beginning: 'O bone Jhesu, O Pijssime Jhesu, O dulcissime Jhesu'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 14r-14v: Prayer to Christ, beginning: 'Precor te pijssime domine ihesu Christe'; added in the late 15th century.

f. 14v: Prayer to Christ, beginning: 'Domine ihesu Christe, qui voluisti pro redempcione mundi a iudeis reprobari'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 14v-15v: Prayer to God, beginning: 'Deus propicius esto michi peccatori'; added in the late 15th century.

f. 15v: Prayer to God, beginning: 'Benedicat me imperialis maiestas'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 15v-16r: The Eight Verses of St Bernard; added in the late 15th century.

f. 16r: Hymn to the Virgin Mary, beginning: 'Gloria sanctorum decus angelorum Ave Maria'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 16r-16v: Prayer to God, beginning: 'Letificet nos et adiuvet nos omnipotens et misericors deus dominice concepcionis gaudia recolentes'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 16v-17v: Prayers to the Seven Joys of the Virgin Mary, beginning: 'Gaude flore virginali'; followed by a prayer, beginning: 'Domine ihesu Christ ifili dei vivi qui beatissimam genitricem tuam gloriosissimam virginem mariam perpetuis et felicibus gaudijs in celo letificasti'; added in the late 15th century.

f. 17v: Prayer to St Thomas of Canterbury, beginning: 'Salve thoma virga iusticie mundi rubar'; followed by a prayer, beginning: 'Deus pro cuius ecclesia gloriosus pontifex et martir thomas gladiis impiorum occubuit'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 17v-18v: Prayer to St George, beginning: 'Salve martir gloriose. Ave miles preciose. Christi flos milicie'; followed by a prayer, beginning: 'Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui deprecacionem votis benigne exaudis maiestatem tuam suppliciter exoramus'; added in the late 15th century.

ff. 18v-19v: Prayer to the Virgin Mary, with the introductory rubric: 'Istam oracionem sequentem composuit sanctus Barnardus quam cotidie solebat dicere ante omnes oraciones suas'; beginning: 'Loquor ad cor tuum O maria'; added in the late 15th century.

f. 20r: Prayer to the Three Magi, beginning: 'Rex Jasper, Rex Melchior, Rex Balthasar. Rogo vos per singula nomina, rogo vos per sanctam trinitatem, rogo vos per regem regum ques vos vagientem in cunabilis videre'; followed by a prayer to God: 'Deus qui beatos tres magos orientales Jasper, Melchior, et Baltahasar ad tua cunabula misticis venerare'; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 20v: English prayer to Christ, beginning: 'O Gloyus iesu O meken iesu o most swetest Iesu I prayer the that I may have true conefession [sic], contricyone and satisfacion or I dye'; added in the (?) 16th century.

f. 130r: A list of the Twelve Abuses of the World, entitled: 'Duodecim abusiones huius saeculi secundum Augustinum'; added in the (?) 15th century.

f. 130v: Prayer to St Edward the Confessor, beginning: 'Rex benedicte deo nos commendare memento'; and prayers to Pope Clement I, beginning: 'Deus qui nos annua beati Clementis martyris tuis atque pontificis sollempnitate letificas'; and 'Munera, Domine, oblata sanctifica'; added in the early 16th century.

Decoration:

7 large historiated initials with full foliate borders including birds and hybrid figures, in colours and gold (ff. 29r, 59r, 68r, 80r, 97v, 105v, 113r). 10 large decorated foliate initials with three-sided foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 34r, 43r, 45v, 47v, 49r, 50r, 51v, 64r, 66r, 124v). Small initials (2 lines) in gold on red and blue grounds. Small initials (1 line) in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Decorated catchwords.

The manuscript contains various added forms of decoration:

The added obits on f. 2r have small initials in red with purple pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing.

1 miniature of Christ in colours and gold on f. 3v was added on an inserted leave, attributed to the Master of the Dark Eyes, and dating to c. 1500 to c. 1510 (see James Marrow, cited in Scot, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490 (1996), no. 109).

4 full-page miniatures of the Trinity in colours and gold on ff. 6v, 8v, 27v, 33v, and 6 full pages with 5 panel miniatures of the life of Christ and the Virgin Mary in colours and gold on ff. 55v-58v were added inserted leaves, made in South-eastern England (London), and dating to the last quarter of the 15th century. Half-page miniatures of the Annunciation and Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane with 5 smaller miniatures of the life of Christ and the virgin Mary in colours and gold on f. 28v were added as an inserted leave, produced in France (? Northwestern France, Rouen) around c. 1500-c. 1510; with a panel with the ancestral arms of Ormond (Or, a chief indented azure). Sketches for the underdrawings of these miniatures are on f. 28r.

The section with added prayers at the beginning (ff. 7r-20v) features 1 small miniature of Christ with an orb, in colours and gold (f. 12v); 7 large and small historiated or inhabited initials, in colours and gold (ff. 7r [x2], 7v, 9r, 10r, 12r, 12v); large plain initials (3 lines) in red ink (f. 20r); small initials (2 lines) in gold on blue grounds, decorated with white drawings of flowers, human heads, etc. (ff. 9v-12r); small initials (2 lines) in gold on red and blue grounds (ff. 14r-18v); small initials (1 line) in gold on red or blue grounds; small initials (1 line) in gold with blue pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing; small initials (1 line) in plain red or blue; and line-fillers decorated in gold and blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048718", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2887: Book of Hours, Use of Sarum ('The Hours of the Earls of Ormond')" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048718

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2887 : Book of Hours, Use of Sarum ('The Hours of the Earls of Ormond')

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2888]/040-002048718

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1455

End Date:

1465

Date Range:

c 1460

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 275 x 185 mm (text space: 190 x 120 mm).

Foliation: ff. 130 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); f. 1 consists of a paper and a parchment leaf that have been pasted together; 1 unfoliated blank but ruled parchment leaf between f. 20 and f. 21; traces of pilgrim badges on ff. 16r and 18r [offset], and 27v [sewing holes].

Collation: Indicated by catchwords in banderols.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Library in-house; brown half leather with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; rebound in 1983.

Custodial History:

Origin:

London.

Provenance:

A member of the Gower family, London, by 1467: inscribed memoranda concerning the births of members of their family on f. 2v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 168).

A member of the Butler family, the earls of Ormond, c. 1500, perhaps Thomas Butler, 7th earl (d. 1515): inscribed obits on f. 2r; and his heraldic arms on f. 28v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 91).

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, pp. 717-18 (no. 2887).

Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster, 1879), p. 15.

Christopher Wordsworth and Henry Littlehales, The Old Service-Books of the English Church, 2nd edn (London: Methuen, 1910), p. 59.

Anglo-Flemish Art under the Tudors (London: British Museum, 1954), no. 23 [unpublished exhibition catalogue].

Kathleen L. Scott, 'A Mid-Fifteenth Century English Illuminating Shop And Its Customers', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 31 (1968), 170-96 (pp. 171-82, pl. b).

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. 91, 168.

Eberhard König, ‘A Leaf from a Gutenberg Bible Illuminated in England’, British Library Journal, 9 (1983), 32-50 (fig. 5).

Bert Cardon, 'Het Speculum Humanae Salvationis manuscript Harley 2838 in de British Library te Londen, een handschrift omstreeks 1500 in Engeland verlucht door een miniaturist uit de Nederlanden?', in Miscellanea Neerlandica: opstellen voor Dr Jan Deschamps ter gelegenheid van zijn zeventigste verjaardag, ed. by Elly Cockx-Indestege and Frans Hendrickx, 3 vols (Louvain: Peeters, 1987), I, pp. 441-63 (p. 461 n. 44).

Kathleen L. Scott, ‘Design, Decoration and Illustration’, in Book Production and Publishing in Britain 1375-1475, ed. by Jeremy Griffiths and Derek Pearsall (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), pp. 31-64 (p. 57 n. 34).

Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), no. 109.

Janet Backhouse, Illumination from Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), no. 18.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

London, England