Harley MS 2926

Origin:

Subiaco, Italy.

Provenance:

‘Nicolaus de Germania’, monk from a monastery in Subiaco, in 1470: added a colophon on f. 108r: ‘Explicit Rosarius Ihesu et matris eius Anno M^occcc lxx^o per fratrem Nicolaum de germania In monasterio sublecensis’; also wrote ff. 109-123, but this part is undated.

The Benedictine abbey of Saint Scholastica, Subiaco: its 15th-century ownership inscription (f. 2r: ‘Liber Monasterii Sublacensis’); identified by Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 309 as the Benedictine abbey of Souillac in France, but this is unlikely.

‘Dominus de Lalaing’ and ‘Jaqueline de Luxembourg’, owned in the 16th century: their names inscribed on f. 124v (‘pertynet domino de lalaing’) and f. 125r (‘C. La Laing Jaqueline de Luxembourg’); possibly identifiable with Charles I de Lalaing, Count of Lalaing (1522) and his spouse Jacqueline de Luxembourg-Fiennes.

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 18 January 1723/24 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 254).

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 ’18 die Januarij, AD 1723/4’ (f. 2r).

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.