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Harley MS 2888

Record Id:

040-002048719

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048719

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00009e

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2888

Title:

Psalter with a noted Hymnal

Scope & Content:

A Psalter with noted antiphons after individual Psalms and a noted Hymnal at the end, making it appropriate for the performance of daily offices (sometimes referred to as a liturgical or choir Psalter). The inclusion of the feast of the translation of St Hugh of Lincoln in red in the calendar may indicate that it was intended for use in the diocese of Lincoln (see Dennison, 'The Fitzwarin Psalter' (1986), p. 49; Smith, Art, Identity and Devotion (2003), p. 29). Dennison has suggested, based on the attribution of several of the historiated initials to the Fitzwarin Artist (named after the Fitzwarin Psalter, Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, ms lat. 765), that the manuscript was produced around 1340-1343 (Dennison, 'The Fitzwarin Psalter' (1986), pp. 44-45, 65).

Contents:

f. 1r-v: Fragment of Pope Boniface VIII, Liber Sextus Decretalium, re-used as a flyleaf.

f. 2r: Fragment with a note referring to John Acton's commentary on the constitutions of Ottobuono.

ff. 3r-8v: Calendar, including the feasts of the octave of St Thomas Becket, effaced (6 January); St Albinus (1 March); St Guthlac (11 April); St Erkenwald (30 April); St Botulph (17 June); St Leufrid (21 June); St Swithun (2 July); St Grimbald (8 July); St Mildred (13 July); St Eufemia (16 September); the translation of St Hugh of Lincoln, in red (6 October); St Paulinus (10 October); St Wilfrid of York (12 October); St Germanus (30 October). The calendar also includes added entries for the feasts of St Erasmus (14 May), St Anne (26 July), and St John of Bridlington (10 October).

ff. 9r-147r: Psalter, with noted antiphons (imperfect due to loss of several leaves after f. 114, with Psalms 109-115 missing).

ff. 147r-157r: Canticles.

ff. 158r-163v: Litany (Becket's name effaced, f. 159r).

ff. 164r-172v: Office of the Dead, with noted hymns and antiphons.

ff. 173r-208r: Hymnal, noted.

f. 208: A former pastedown.

f. 209: A partial leaf with various inscriptions and a drawing of a headless animal lying on its back.

Decoration:

The decoration was begun but not completed by the De Bois Master, one of the most prolific English illuminators of the 3rd and 4th decades of the 14th century (according to Smith, Art, Identity and Devotion (2003), pp. 28-29). The remaining initials (ff. 68, 84, and 98v) were painted by the Fitzwarin Artist (according to Dennison, 'The Fitzwarin Psalter' (1986), pp. 44-45).

7 historiated initials with full or partial bar borders and in colours, gold, and silver: Psalm 1, King David playing the harp (f. 9r); Psalm 26, Samuel anointing David (f. 31v); Psalm 38, David pointing at his eyes (f. 44r); Psalm 52, a king stabbing himself (f. 56r); Psalm 68, Jonah and the whale (f. 68r); Psalm 80, a man playing the bells (f. 84r); Psalm 97, two monks singing at a lectern (f. 98v). Psalm 109 is missing due to loss of leaves.

2 smaller historiated initials in colours and gold, depicting the bust of a young man with yellow hair (ff. 9r, 24r).

Bas-de-page animal scenes (ff. 9r, 31v, 44r, 56r, 68r, 84r, 98v).

Large initials in colours and gold with floral and foliate motifs. Smaller 'champ' initials in colours and gold. 'KL' initials in gold (ff. 3r-8v).

Cadels in brown, highlighted in yellow, many with human or animal faces. Decorated catchwords and marginal drawings in brown ink of birds, animals, and hybrid creatures.

An added miniature of the Virgin and Child in colours and gold, 13th century (pasted onto f. 2v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048719", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2888: Psalter with a noted Hymnal" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048719

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2888 : Psalter with a noted Hymnal

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2889]/040-002048719

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:

1335

End Date:

1348

Date Range:

c. 1340-c. 1343

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 270 x 170 mm (text space: 205 x 130 mm).

Foliation: ff. 209 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end). ff. 1-2 are partial parchment flyleaves; f. 209 is a partial former pastedown.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum. red outer fore-edge.

Horizontal catchwords with decoration.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

An added miniature of the Virgin and Child in colours and gold, probably dating to the 13th century (pasted onto f. 2v).

A hardpoint drawing of a figure supporting a coat of arms charged with a pale fusilly (f. 1r).

An added inscription, perhaps a verse or proverb, 15th century, effaced (f. 2r).

Added saints days and notes about calculating dates in the calendar, 15th century (ff. 1v, 2r, 5r, 7v, 8r).

Added lines of poetry, including 'I am not unkynd to love as I ffynd', and drawings of animals, 15th century (f. 209r).

Brother John de Craven, vicar of the parish church of Hampsthwaite, North Yorkshire, 14th or 15th century: his inscription 'Frater Johannes Cravensis vicarius perpetuus ecclesiae parochialis de Hamstwayt', with a verse on the sins of the British, beginning 'Peccata Britonum et causa deposicionis eorum' (f. 208r).

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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage: Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2888.

Christopher Wordsworth and Henry Littlehales, The Old Service-Books of the English Church, 2nd edn (London: Methuen & Co., 1910), pp. 60, 110, 112, 113.

Lynda Dennison, '"The Fitzwarin Psalter and its Allies": A Reappraisal', in England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1985 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by W. M. Ormrod (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1986), pp. 42-66 (pp. 44-45, 47, 49, 64, 65).

Nicolas Bell, Music in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2001), p. 47.

Kathryn A. Smith, Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England: Three Women and their Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2003), pp. 28-29.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)