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Harley MS 2919

Record Id:

040-002048750

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048750

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000be

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2919

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Bourges

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1-2: Parchment flyleaves.

ff. 3r-14v: Calendar in French, with numerous added saints' days, late 16th-early 17th century.

ff. 15r-16v: Reading from the Gospel of St John, followed by the prayer 'Protector in te sperantium'.

ff. 17r-18r: Prayer to St Mary Magdalene, beginning 'In diebus illis mulier'.

f. 18v: Added prayer, in French, beginning 'O Dieu d'amour qui estes mort pour moy', late 16th-early 17th century.

ff. 19r-22r: Added prayer to God the Father, in French, beginning 'Mon benoist dieu', late 15th-early 16th century.

ff. 23r-34r: The Passion of the Lord according to the Gospel of St John.

ff. 34v-36r: The Seven Prayers of St Gregory.

ff. 36v-40v: Prayer, beginning 'Obsecro te'.

ff. 41r-43r: Prayer, beginning 'Stabat mater dolorosa'.

f. 43r-v: Prayer, beginning 'Interveniat pro nobis quaesumus'.

ff. 43v-44r: Prayers for Sunday, Tuesday and Friday, beginning 'Ave regina celorum ave domina angelorum'.

f. 44r: Prayers for Monday and Thursday, beginning 'Salve regina misericordiae vita dulcedo'.

f. 44v: Prayers for Wednesday and Saturday, beginning 'Alma redemptoris mater'.

ff. 44v-45r: Prayers for Easter time, beginning 'Regina celi letare alleluia'.

ff. 45v-46v: Added prayers, in French, beginning 'O Marie vraye consolatrice', late 16th-early 17th century.

ff. 47r-89v: Hours of the Virgin.

ff. 90r-93r: Hours of the Cross.

ff. 93v-96v: Hours of the Holy Spirit.

ff. 97r-107v: Penitential Psalms.

ff. 107v-112r: Litany.

ff. 112v-140r: Office of the Dead.

ff. 140v-149r: Suffrages to: St Michael, St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, St Sebastian, St Denis, St Jerome, St Francis, St Anne, St Catherine, St Margaret, St Barbara.

ff. 149v-152r: Series of prayers, beginning 'Domine non sum dignus', 'Vera perceptio corporis et sanguinis', 'Ave cuius conceptio', 'Deus qui nos conceptionis nativitatis', 'Te precor te domina sancta maria mater dei'.

ff. 152r-153r: Prayer to the Virgin Mary, beginning 'Sancta Maria mater dominum nostri Jesu Christi in manus tuas et in manus fìlii tui commendo'.

ff. 153v-154r: Other prayers, beginning 'Ave ancilla trinitatis', 'Ave domina sancta Maria mater dei regina celi porta paradisi'.

ff. 154r-155v: Eight Psalms of St Bernard.

ff. 155v-156r: Prayer, beginning 'Omnipotens sempiterne deus'.

ff. 156v-157v: Added prayers, in Latin and French, beginning 'O clemens o pia virgo semper Maria', 'Doulx dieu Jhesu Crist mon vray createur', late 16th-early 17th century.

f. 158r: Added prayer, in French, beginning 'O bon Jesue je regret a me deplaisi', 17th century.

Decoration:

13 full-page miniatures mostly with large decorated initials and full foliate borders, in colours and gold: St John on Patmos (f. 15r); Noli me tangere (f. 17r); the Agony in the Garden (f. 23r); the Mass of St Gregory (f. 34v); the Virgin standing on the crescent moon, holding the Christ Child (f. 36v); the Deposition (f. 41r); the Annunciation (f. 47r); the nailing to the Cross (f. 90r); Pentecost (f. 93v); King David penitent (f. 97r); the figure of Death stabbing a lady with an arrow (f. 112v); St Jerome praying before a crucifix, with his lion (f. 144r); St Francis receiving the stigmata (f. 145v).

9 small miniatures and partial foliate borders, in colours and gold: St Michael fighting the devil (f. 140v); St John the Baptist with a lamb (f. 141r); St John the Evangelist with the poisoned cup (f. 141v); St Sebastian wounded with arrows (f. 142r); St Denis holding his severed head (f. 143r); St Anne teaching the Virgin to read (f. 146v); St Catherine with a book and sword (f. 147r); St Margaret bursting out of the dragon (f. 147v); St Barbara with a book and tower (f. 148v).

All text pages with partial foliate borders including hybrid creatures, animals, etc., in colours and gold. Large and small initials in gold on red or blue grounds. Line fillers in gold on red and blue grounds. Capital letters highlighted in yellow.

Added decoration, in the style of the Master of Spencer 6, late 15th-early 16th century:

1 small miniature of God the Father, with a large initial in gold on a red ground and a partial foliate border, in colours and gold (f. 19r). All text pages with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048750", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2919: Book of Hours, Use of Bourges" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048750

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2919 : Book of Hours, Use of Bourges

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2920]/040-002048750

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1475

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 170 x 105 mm (text space: 100 x 60 mm).

Foliation: ff. 158 (+ 1 paper flyleaf at the beginning and 2 parchment and 1 paper flyleaves at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. Harleian binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers; gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Bourges, Central France.

Provenance:

Added prayer to God the Father, decorated in the style of the Master of Spencer 6, late 15th-early 16th century (ff. 19r-22r).

Added prayers in a late 16th-early 17th-century hand (ff. 18v, 45v-46v, 156v-157v).

Added calendar entries in a late 16th-early 17th-century hand (ff. 3r-14v).

Added prayers in a 17th-century hand (f. 158r).

Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie: sold to Edward Harley on 13 August 1724 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 255).

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 '13 die Augusti, A.D. 1724.' (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: Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), II, no. 2919.

Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 17.

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. 255.

Janet Backhouse, Illumination from Books of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), fig. 22.

Katja Monier, 'Vision and Devotion in Bourges around 1500: an Illuminator and his World' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2014), p. 71, n. 341, App. 1, pp. 47-48.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)