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Harley MS 2903
- Record Id:
- 040-002048734
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048734
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000ad
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2903
- Title:
- Breviary, Use of Rome, with a Psalter and litanies
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-6v: Calendar, including: ‘Aniceti’ (Pope Saint Anicetus), ‘Petri de murrone’ (St Peter of Morrone, also known as Pope Celestine V; 19 May, Abruzzi, Central Italy), ‘Marie ad nives’ (in red, 5 August, Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome), the dedication of the basilica of St Saviour (in red; 9 November: dedication of St. John in Lateran in Rome), dedication of the basilica of St. Peter and St Paul (in red, 18 November, Rome), St Cecilia (in red, 22 November, Rome), St Lucia (in red, 13 December).
ff. 7r-237v: Temporale.
f. [237a]: An unfoliated ruled leaf after f. 237.
ff. 238r-307r: Psalter.
ff. 307v-309v: Litany.
ff. 309v-316v: Hymns.
ff. 317r-465r: Proper of the Saints, beginning with St Saturnin (also known as Sernin), and including the 'sancti romani martyris' (f. 404r); St Appollonia appears to have been of particular importance since she is provided with a historiated initial with elaborate flowers and foliate decoration extending into the margins, including a butterfly, and the opening is more stained than the other openings suggesting more marked use (ff. 342v-343).
ff. 466r-515v: Common of the Saints.
ff. 515v-519r: The Office of the Dead.
ff. 519v-526v: Ordinal, with litany (f. 521v).
ff. 526v-527v: Memoranda honouring the memory of Pope Eugenius IV (d. 1447), providing the earliest possible date of the manuscript. The text begins: ‘Cum enim pie memorie Eugenius papa quartus anima'.
f. 465v is blank.
Decoration:
3 full borders with acanthus leaves, besants, birds and occasionally butterflies, in colours and gold (ff. 7r, 238r, 466r); space left blank, originally intended for a coat of arms, in the lower margin (f. 7r).
30 large historiated initials in colours and gold, with acanthus leaves, at the beginning of each major division.
The subject of the historiated initials are:
f. 7r: St Paul holding a sword and a book.
f. 39r: Christ child blessing.
f. 147v: Risen Christ blessing, holding a flag, with his robe open showing the wound on his right side.
f. 168r: Risen Christ blessing, holding a flag.
f. 174r: Pentecost, the Holy Ghost descending on the Virgin Mary and the apostles.
f. 181r: A golden chalice bearing the Host.
f. 238r: God the Father holding an orb.
f. 238v: King David playing the psaltery.
f. 256r: Christ holding a book with two cherubs.
f. 259v: King David in prayer.
f. 266v: David in prayer, emerging from the earth. f. 267v: A youth pointing to his mouth.
f. 273r: Young David playing the psaltery.
f. 274r: A fool holding a club.
f. 279v: A man building a house. f. 280v: Bearded David in prayer, in water.
f. 288v: Old King David playing the psaltery.
f. 290r: Young David playing the psaltery.
f. 296r: Old King David in prayer.
f. 298r: Two clerics chanting.
f. 317r: St Saturnin (also known as Sernin) with a book and a martyr's palm.
f. 317v: St Andrew with a fishing net.
f. 337r: Presentation to the Temple, without Christ.
f. 342v: St Appollonia enthroned, with pincers.
f. 376r: St Elizabeth and the infant John the Baptist.
f. 381v: St Peter and St Paul holding their attributes, the key and the sword.
f. 411v: The Assumption of the Virgin, with cherubs.
f. . 424v: The Virgin and Child.
f. 445r: John the Evangelist blessing.
f. 466r: A group of saints, with St Peter and St Paul in the foreground.
Numerous large initials in colours and gold with acanthus leaves and besants extending into the margins.
Numerous 2-line initials in red or blue (occasionally with reserved lines) with pen-flourishing in the other colour and including floral motifs.
Smaller initials and paraph marks in red or blue with pen-work decoration in the other colour.
Display letters in brown with brown pen-work decoration. Capitals marked in yellow. Some catchwords decorated with a brown pen-flourished border (e.g., ff. 16v, 46v, 76v, 86v, 96v, 116v, 126v, 136v, 166v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048734", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2903: Breviary, Use of Rome, with a Psalter and litanies" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048734 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2903 : Breviary, Use of Rome, with a Psalter and litanies - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2904]/040-002048734
- 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:
- 1447
- End Date:
- 1480
- Date Range:
- 1447-c 1475
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 340 x 240 mm (written area 210 x 150 mm, in two columns).
Foliation: ff. 527 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated medieval parchment leaf at the beginning + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end).
1 unfoliated unwritten ruled leaf after f. 237.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Musem in-house; the remains of a Harley binding (gilt-tooled red leather) is pasted on the inside covers; gilt fore-edge and head and tail edges; gauffered fore-edge and tail edge; marbled endpapers.
Collation: Mainly in quires of 10. Catchwords written horizontally in the lower margin, some with a brown ink penwork border (e.g., ff. 16v, 46v, 76v, 86v, 96v, 116v, 126v, 136v, 166v).
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Italy, possibly Rome.
Provenance:
Conyers Middleton (b. 1683, d. 1750), fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1706, head librarian of the University Library at Cambridge (1721-50); sold on 25 February 1724/5 to Edward Harley (see Wright and Wright, Diary (1966), p. 341 n. 8; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 239).
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, HumfreyWanley, ‘25 die Januarij, A.D. 1724/5’ (f. 1r).
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 available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 719, no. 2903.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 341 n. 8.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 239.
Stephen J. P. van Dijk (completed by Joan Hazelden Walker), The Ordinal of the Papal Court from Innocent III to Boniface VIII and Related Documents, Spicilegium Friburgense, 22 (Fribourg: University Press, 1975), p. 342 n. 2.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Middleton, Conyers, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge and head librarian of the University Library, Cambridge, 1683-1750
- Places:
- Central Italy