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Harley MS 2905
- Record Id:
- 040-002048736
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048736
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000af
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056045764.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 2905
- Title:
- Psalter
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
This manuscript includes a calendar with Augustinian elements, followed by the Psalms, Canticles and Hymns.
ff. 1r-6v: A calendar with the zodiac signs.
ff. 7r-190v: Psalms, imperfect at the beginning, Psalm 1 and the first verses of Psalm 2 are lacking; beginning: '[ip]sorum. Qui habitat in celis irridebit eos'. Psalm 109 is also lacking.
ff. 190v-215v: Canticles and hymns, beginning: 'Confitebor tibi domine quoniam iratus es mihi'.
Decoration:
The decoration is similar to Arundel MS 157 containing a Psalter and Hours of the Virgin, which includes evidence of an Oxford and Augustinian provenance. The minor initials were perhaps painted by the same artists who illuminated Arundel MS 157 and the Lesnes Missal now London, Victoria and Albert Museum, MS L. 404-1916, according to Morgan, Gothic Manuscripts (1982), p. 73.
Roundels of the zodiac signs and labours of the months, and 'KL' letters in colours and gold in the calendar. Small initials and text in red, blue, or green, in the calendar.
Historiated or decorated initials with 'Channel style' decoration including white lions in colours and gold at the most of the major Psalm divisions, including Psalms 51 and 101 (ff. 33r, 51r, 66v, 67r, 84v, 106v, 129r) (the text for Psalms 1 and 109 lacking; Psalm 80 has a small initial).
Initials in colours and gold, some with animals, figures, or hybrids at the beginning of the other Psalms and divisions. Initials in red with blue penwork decoration, or in blue with red penwork decoration, a few in green (e.g., ff. 195v, 200r, 201v).
Line-fillers in blue or red, some in the form of animals or heads.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048736", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2905: Psalter" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048736 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 2905 : Psalter - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[2906]/040-002048736
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056045764.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1200
- End Date:
- 1224
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 315 x 215 mm (text space: 210/20 x 140/50 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 215 ( + an unfoliated modern paper flyleaf at the beginning + at and the end + 2 unfoliated parchment leaves at the beginning and 1 at the end).
Script: Gothic, written above top line.
Binding: Post-1600. Red 'Harleian' binding with extensive gold tooling; marbled end-papers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ?Oxford, Southeastern England.
Provenance:
The Augustinian priory of St Frideswide, Oxford: the calendar includes Sts Dunstan (f. 3r), Cuthbert (f. 2r), Augustine, bishop of Canterbury (f. 3r), Albans (f. 3v), and the translation of Augustine (f. 5v). It also originally included Thomas Becket, now mostly erased (f. 6v); the minor decoration may be by the same artist as that from another Augustinian manuscript from Oxford (see Decoration).
Added, a contemporary lined addition with prayers (ff. 214-215).
Added, late 13th-century inscription of David, bishop of Wales on 1 March (f. 2r).
Added, 15th-century inscription 'Richard' (f. [ii verso]).
Added, 16th-century inscription 'Edwardus Rudde', (f. [ii verso], in the same hand, added inscription 'Edwardus' (f. 98r).
Added, late 17th-century inscription: 'Edmundus Riddall', 'Ambrose Cotterell' (f. [ii verso]).
John Batteley (b. 1647, d. 1708), Church of England clergyman and antiquary: sold to Edward Harley with the rest of his collection through his nephew John Batteley on 5 November 1723.
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 with the date of acquisition by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley '5 die Novembris AD 1723' (f. [ii]).
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:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2905.
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. 263 n. 1.
D. H. Turner, 'Two Rediscovered Miniatures of the Oscott Psalter', British Museum Quarterly, 34 (1969-70), 10-19 (p. 11, n. 11).
Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London Harvey Miller, 1982-1988), I: 1190-1250, p. 73.
Nigel Morgan, 'Patrons and their Devotions in the Historiated Initials and Full-Page Miniatures of 13th-Century English Psalters', in The Illuminated Psalter: Studies in the Content, Purpose and Placement of its Images, ed. by Frank O. Büttner (Turnhout: Brepols, 2004), pp. 310, 321.
M. A. Michael, 'Urban production of manuscript books and the role of the University towns', in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, ed. by Nigel Morgan and Rodney M. Thomson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), II: 1100-1400, p. 176 n. 52.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.