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Harley MS 2893

Record Id:

040-002048724

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048724

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000a3

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2893

Title:

Gospel lectionary with collects, collections of prayers, blessings, masses and a calendar

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 1r: A collect for Christmas: ‘Deus qui hanc sacratissimam noctem veri luminis fecisti illustratione clarescere . da quaesumus ut cuius lucis misteria in terra cognovimus . eius quoque gaudijs in celo perfruam[ur]. Qui tecum’.

ff. 1v-7r: A Calendar with astronomical tables on ff. 6v-7r, entitled: ‘Regula mensium’; ‘Regula ad lunam’; ‘Concurrentes’; ‘Epacta Nulla’; and ‘Claves terminorum’.

f. 7v: A collection of prayers for Ash Wednesday: ‘'Feria .iiii. in capite ieiuniorum. Benedictio cineris. oracio’, beginning: ‘Deus, qui non mortem . sed poenitenciam desideras peccatorum fragilitatem nostram benignissime respice’; followed by other prayers beginning: ‘Omnipotens sempiterne deus . qui primo homini transgredienti mandatum tuum . nec confitenti peccatum proprium denuntiasti quod cinis esset’; ‘Deus, qui humiliatione flecteris, et satisfactione placaris’, and ‘Concede nobis domine presidia presidia milicie christiane sanctis tuis inchoare ieiunijs’.

ff. 8v-64v: Gospel lectionary, including prayers for the Secret and Preface and collects; a quire, containing part of the liturgy for the feast of St Andrew, is missing after f. 31; f. 32 continues with ‘Dominica .i. de adventu domini’. The lower margin of f. 14v features an added scribal verse: ‘Gloria laus et honor sit qui me scribere fecit / Gloria sit Christo si mittat eum [in] paradiso’.

ff. 65r-85r: Collection of prayers for the feasts of the Temporale, with the title: ‘Incipiunt orationes de adventu’ and beginning: ‘Excita domine potenciam tuam et veni’.

ff. 85r-108r: Collection of prayers for the feasts of the Sanctorale, including many French saints such as St Albinus, Bishop of Angers; St Amand, Bishop of Tongeren-Maastricht; St Austregisilus [Outrille], Bishop of Bourges; St Brice, Bishop of Tours; St Gerald of Aurillac; St Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre; St Gildard, Bishop of Rouen; St Leodegar of Poitiers, Bishop of Autun; St Malo [‘Machutus’] of Brittany; St Martial, Bishop of Limoges; St Medard, Bishop of Noyon; St Menne of Lorraine; St Radegund, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers; St Remigius, Bishop of Reims; St Rufus, Bishop of Avignon; St Samson of Dol; St Ursus, Bishop of Auxerre; St Vedast, Bishop of Arras; St Vivianus, Bishop of Saintes.

ff. 108v-120r: Liturgical songs for feasts throughout the liturgical year, entitled: ‘Incipiunt capitula per anni circulum’.

ff. 121r-123v: Collection of formulas for rituals: exorcisms and blessings of salt and water, with neumes for singing Psalm 50:9 (f. 121v) at the rite of the sprinkling of a congregation with holy water (121r-123v); blessings for different locations in a monastery, including ‘In dormitorio’, ‘In domo infirmorum’, ‘In refectorio’, ‘In quoquina’, ‘In promptuario’, ‘Ante portam ecclesie’, ‘Ante altare’ (ff. 121v-125v); ‘Visitacio infirmorum’, with a Litany of Saints (ff. 123v-124v), featuring St Radegund, followed by prayers and blessings (ff. 123v-125v); ‘Unctio super infirmorum’ (f. 125v); ‘Ad sepulturam mortuorum’ (ff. 126r-127r); ‘Benedictio sepulcri’ (f. 127r); ‘Benedictio fontium in sabbato sancto’ (ff. 127v-129v); ‘Benedictio igni novi in vigilia Pasche’ (ff. 129v-130r); ‘Incipit ordo ad canonicum faciendum benedictionem superpellicij’ (ff. 130r-130v); ‘Benedictio agni’ (ff. 130v-131r).

ff. 132v-151v: Collection of Masses: ‘Missa de sancto Spiritu’ (ff. 131v-132r); ‘Missa de Trinitate’, with the canon of the mass (ff. 132v-137r); ‘Missa de Cruce’ (ff. 137r-137v); ‘Missa de Sancta Maria’ (ff. 137v-138v); ‘Missa de Sancto Petro’ (f. 138v); ‘Missa de sancto Augustino’ (f. 139v); ‘Missa de omnibus sanctis’ (ff. 139r-139v); ‘In die depositionis missa pro defunctis’ (ff. 139v-140r); ‘Missa In anniversario’ (ff. 140r-140v); ‘Missa Pro episcopis’ (ff. 140v-141v); ‘Missa Pro sacerdote’ (f. 141v); ‘Missa Pro congregatione’ on behalf of the ‘souls of the brothers of our congregation’ [‘animabus fratrum nostrarum congregationum’] (ff. 141v-142r); ‘Missa Pro amicis’ (ff. 142r-142v); ‘Missa Pro uno defuncto’ (f. 142v); ‘Missa communis’, featuring ‘O Redemptor sume carmen’ (ff. 142v-144v); ‘[Missa] Pro congregatione’ (ff. 145r-145v); ‘[Missa] Pro pace’ (ff. 145v-146r); ‘[Missa] Pro parentibus et amicis’ (ff. 146r-146v); ‘[Missa] Pro tempestate’ (ff. 146v-147r); ‘[Missa] [? In] tribulatione’ (ff. 147r-147v); ‘[Missa] Pro infirmis’ (ff. 147v-148r); ‘[Missa] Pro [? universo] fratrum’ (ff. 148r-148v); ‘[Missa] Pro aniversario [sic] fratrum’ (ff. 148v-149r); ‘[Missa] Pro feminis’ (ff. 149r-149v); ‘[Missa] pro desiderantibus penitentiam’ (ff. 149v-150r); ‘[Missa] pro hiis qui in cimiterio requiescunt’ (ff. 150r-151r); ‘Missa generalis’ (ff. 151r-151v).

ff. 153r-314v: Gospel lectionary, including prayers for the Secret and Preface and collects, with the title: ‘Inicium sancti evangelij secundum Marchum’ and beginning: 'Principium evangelij ihesu Christi filii dei ; sicut scriptum est in isaia propheta’; the collection ends with a prayer after Communion: ‘Tantis domine repleti muneribus . praesta quaesumus ut et salutaria dona capiamus et a tua numquam laude cessemus’.

The manuscript contains a few later additions:

ff. [iv]recto-1*verso [bound upside down], and ff. 316v-[317]verso: A 17th-century document ‘[...]ville a madame La[...]’ featuring the names of ‘Vefue [widow] Le Roux’ (f. 1*verso) and ‘Nicolas LeConte’ (f. [317]recto).

f. 315r: A faded inscription in French; added in the (?) 15th century.

Decoration:

1 full-page diagram of a cross outlined in red and inscribed in blue: Rex, Lex, Pax, and Lux (f. 268v). Large ‘KL’ initials in blue and red, blue and green, or green and red, in the Calendar. 5 large illuminated initials in colours, gold, and silver with foliate, geometric, or zoomorphic motifs (ff. 65r [‘Orationes de Adventu’], 66r [‘Vigilia Natalis Domini’], 66v [‘In Octava Natalis Domini’], 67r [‘In vigilia epiphanie’], 99v [‘Vigilia Sancte Marie’]). 6 large zoomorphic or historiated initials with colours, some featuring interlace motifs, in square frames (ff. 77v [‘Vigilia Pasche’], 80v [‘Vigilia Ascensionis’], 81r [‘In die Pentecostes’], 85r [St Stephen, featuring two men whose crossing arms form part of an interlace motif], 92v [St John the Baptist, featuring an angel], 93v [St Peter and St Paul, featuring the two Apostles holding a book with an inscription: ‘petrus apostolicus / paulus serv[us]’). 4 large initials in red and/or blue (ff. 100v [St Augustine of Hippo], 102r [‘Vigilia Nativitatis Sancte Marie’], 105r [‘Natalis Sancti Severini episcopi’], 108v [Opening of the ‘capitula per anni circulum’, featuring a zoomorphic figure]). 2 large (6-line) initial in red ink with penwork decoration on (ff. 105r [‘Vigilia Omnium Sanctorum’] and 153r [Opening of the Gospel lectionary]). Large (2- or 4-line) simple initials alternating between red and blue (occasionally purple as well), some with penwork decoration in the same or the opposite colour. Small (1-line) initials in red. Rubrics in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048724", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2893: Gospel lectionary with collects, collections of prayers, blessings, masses and a calendar" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048724

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2893 : Gospel lectionary with collects, collections of prayers, blessings, masses and a calendar

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2894]/040-002048724

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1150

End Date:

1174

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 12th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 180 x 260 mm (text space: 110 x 180 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 316 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment and 3 paper flyleaves at the end); f. 1* and f. 316 originally served as flyleaves and are part of ff. [iv] and [317], which are reused parchment leaves inscribed with French text in a modern cursive hand.

Collation: I6, II1, III-V8, VI10-1 (unfoliated parchment stub between f. 32 and f. 33), VII-XXXIV8, XXXV4, XXXXVI-XL8, XLI8-1 (unfoliated parchment stub between f. 314 and f. 315); collation indicated by horizontal catchwords; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Protogothic; written by at least three scribes.

Binding: British Museum in-house: brown half leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplates gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; re-bound on 13 April 1965.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Southern France (Moissac) or Western France (Saint-Séverin-sur-Boutonne).

Provenance:

‘Frater Peter’, wrote part of the manuscript: indicated by an inscription on f. 48v: ‘fratres, orate pro fratre Petro qui me scribere fecit. D.e.o.m.s.’ [Dignus est enim operarius mercede sua].

? The Benedictine and Cluniac monastery of Moissac Abbey in Moissac, Tarn-et-Garonne in South-Western France: the spine of a previous binding inscribed: 'Missale Moissiacense' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 241).

? The Austin canons of Saint-Séverin-sur-Boutonne near Dampierre, Poitou: suggested by the calendar in which the name of St Severin (‘Severini Episcopi’), Bishop of Cologne, is highlighted with display capitals written, alternately, in blue, green and red ink at his feast day on 23 October (f. 6r) (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 295); The calendar, which is written in a different hand from the rest of the manuscript, may have been written elsewhere. However, St Severin also features prominently in other sections of the manuscript: he is one of the three confessors, alongside St Augustine and St Hilary of Poitiers, listed in the Litany of Saints on f. 124r; and he is one of only six saints whose prayers are highlighted with a large decorated initial in the section with prayers for saints’ feast days (ff. 84r-108r). Three of these saints are Apostles: St John the Baptist (f. 92v), St Peter and St Paul (f. 93v). The other two decorated initials are for the proto-martyr St Stephen: 'In Natalis Stephani' (f. 85r) and St Augustine of Hippo: ‘Natalis Sancti Augustini Ypponiensis episcopi’ (f. 100v). The prayer for St Severin’s feast (‘Natalis Sancti Severini episocopi’) opens with a 6-line initial in blue and red (f. 105r). That the manuscript was made for a community of canons regular, at least, is indicated by the ‘ordo ad canonicum faciendum benedictionem superpellicij’ (ff. 130r-130v);

Nicolas Joseph Foucault (b. 1643, d. 1721), marquis de Magny, statesman and archaeologist: his armorial book-plate with the his arms [sable] a lion rampant, dexter, crowned [argent], as supporters two lions [argent]; a couronne de marquis surmounting the shield, and his ex libris: 'EX BIBLIOTHECA | NICOLAI JOSEPH FOUCAULT | COMITIS CONSISTORIANI' on a paper pasted on the inside of the upper cover (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 155-56).

Thomas Ballard, bookseller and book auctioneer in London; his sale, 20 February 1720/21, lot 10, bought for Edward Harley through Nathaniel Noel (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 62).

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, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley '23 die Februarij 1720/21.' (f. [1*]recto).

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. 718.

Theodor Klauser, ‘Das römische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner ältesten Geschichte’, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellenund Forschungen, 28 (Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1935), p. C, no. 159.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 89 n. 4.

Jean Dufour, La bibliothèque et le scriptorium de Moissac (Geneva: Librarie Droz, 1972), pp. 107-08.

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. 62, 155, 241, 295.

Jean Dufour, 'La composition de la bibliothèque de Moissac a la lumière d'un inventaire du XVIIe siècle nouvellement découvert', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 35 (1981), 175-226 (pp. 211-12) [with additional bibliography].

Jeffrey F. Hamburger, Diagramming Devotion: Berthold of Nuremberg’s Transformation of Hrabanus Maurus’s Poems in Praise of the Cross (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020), pp. 34, 36, fig. 16.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

Moissac, Tarn-et-Garonne, France
Saint-Séverin-sur-Boutonne, France