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Harley MS 2935

Record Id:

040-002048766

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048766

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000d2

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2935

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Chartres

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-12v: Calendar, in French.

ff. 13r-15r: Reading from the Gospel of St John.

f. 15r-v: Prayer, beginning 'Protector in te sperantium'.

ff. 15v-19v: Prayer, beginning 'Obsecro te'.

ff. 19v-20v: Prayer, beginning 'Salve regina'.

ff. 21r-87r: Hours of the Virgin, mixed with the Hours of the Holy Spirit after Lauds (ff. 48v-49v).

ff. 88r-104r: Penitential Psalms.

ff. 104r-108v: Litany.

ff. 109r-116v: Suffrages to St Eustace, St Sebastian, St Julian, St Christopher, St Mark the Evangelist, St Mary Magdalene, St Catherine, St Barbara, St Margaret.

ff. 117r-v: Prayer, beginning 'Avete omnes anime fideles'.

ff. 117v-118v: Prayer, beginning 'Domine Ihesu Christe salus et liberatio fidelium animarum'.

ff. 120r-151v: Office of the Dead.

f. 152r-v: Added prayer, in French, beginning 'Ce sont les tours des stacions esquelz on peult gaigner les pardons', 16th century.

f. 153r-v: Added prayer to St Joseph, beginning 'Felix locus felix et patria', 16th century.

ff. 155v-156r: Added Prayer to the Host of Dijon, beginning 'O salutaris hostia que celi pandis', c. 1480-c. 1500.

f. 157v: Added prayer to St Stephen, beginning 'Stephanus plenus gratia et fortitudine faciebat', 16th century.

f. 158v: Added prayers, 16th-17th century.

Decoration:

Attributed to the Circle of the Master of Jacques de Besançon (see Backhouse, Illumination (2004), fig. 25).

24 small calendar miniatures included in lateral foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 1r-12v).

12 large miniatures with large decorated initials and full foliate borders including birds and hybrid figures, in colours and gold: St John the Evangelist writing his Gospel on Patmos (f. 13r); the Annunciation (f. 21r); the Visitation (f. 35r); Pentecost (f. 48v); the Nativity (f. 50r); the Annunciation to the Shepherds (f. 57r); the Adoration of the Magi (f. 62r); the Presentation in the Temple (f. 67r); the Flight into Egypt (f. 72r); the Coronation of the Virgin (f. 80v); King David penitent (f. 88r); Death confronting a Pope, Emperor and King (f. 120r).

9 small miniatures with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold, for suffrages: St Eustace (f. 109r); St Sebastian (f. 109v); St Julian (f. 111r); St Christopher (f. 112r); St Mark the Evangelist (f. 112v); St Mary Magdalene (f. 113v); St Catherine (f. 114r); St Barbara (f. 115r); St Margaret (f. 116r).

1 large historiated initial with three-sided foliate borders, in colours and gold: the Virgin and Child (f. 15v).

Small initials and line-fillers in gold on red and blue grounds.

All text pages with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold.

Added decoration, c. 1480-c. 1500:

1 full-page miniature, in colours and gold: the Host of Dijon (f. 155v).

Small initials in gold on red or blue grounds, with full foliate borders including a space for heraldic arms (f. 156r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048766", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2935: Book of Hours, Use of Chartres" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048766

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2935 : Book of Hours, Use of Chartres

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2936]/040-002048766

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:

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: 160 x 105 mm (text space: 75 x 50 mm); ff. 155v-156r, 160 x 100 mm (text space: 85 x 75 mm).

Foliation: ff. 158 (+ 1 paper flyleaf at the beginning and 1 medieval parchment and 1 paper flyleaves at the end). ff. 152-154 and 157-158 are medieval parchment flyleaves.

Script: Gothic; ff. 155v-156r, Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum. Marbled brown leather.

An old British Museum paper label is pasted to f. 1r.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Paris, France.

Provenance:

Inscribed in French, late 15th century (f. 158v).

Added prayers in French and Latin, 16th century (ff. 152r-v, 153r-v, 157v).

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 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 available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), II, no. 2935.

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. 25.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)