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Harley MS 2941

Record Id:

040-002048772

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048772

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000d8

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2941

Title:

Missal

Scope & Content:

Contents:

f. 1r: Table of contents.

ff. 2r-7v: Calendar, including: 'Erhardi episcopi' [Erhard of Regensburg] (8 January), 'Fridolini' [Fridolin of Säckingen] (6 March), 'Lonigini' (15 March), 'Gedrudis' [Gertrude of Nivelles] (17 March), 'Arbogasti' [Arbogast] (29 March), Kiliane [Kilian] (8 July), 'Sigberti' [Saint Sigisbert of Dissentis] (11 July), 'Oschwaldi regis' [Oswald of Northumbria] (5 August), 'Cordule' [Cordula] (22 October), 'Volfgangi' [Wolfgang of Regensburg] (31 October); and in red: 'Karoli magni confessoris' [Charlemagne] (28 January), 'Agatha' (5 February), 'Pangracij martir' [Pancras] (12 May), 'Viti' [Vitus] (15 June), 'Vodalrici episcopi' [Ulrich of Augsburg, St Gall] (4 July), 'Margrethe' [Margaret] (15 July), 'Peleigij' [Pelagius of Constance] (28 August), 'Verena' [Verena of Zurzach] (1 September), 'Regule' [Regula of Zurich] (11 September), 'Dionisij' [Dionisius] (9 October), 'Galli confessor et abbatis' [Gall] (16 October), 'Othmari abbatis' [Otmar of St Gall] (16 November), 'Conradi' [Conrad of Constance] (26 November).

f. 8r: Astrological table, entitled: 'Tabula signorum lune'.

ff. 8v-117r: Missal, with the Canon of the Mass written in a larger script (ff. 66r-76v), and ending with a Mass against the plague ('missa contra pestilenciam') beginning: 'Recordare domine testamenti tui et dic angelo per percutienti cesset iam manus tua ut non desoletur terra et ne perdas omnem animam vivam' (ff. 112v-115r), and prayers to the sixteen auxiliary saints (Holy Helpers) George, Blaise, Erasmus, Pantaleon, Vitus, Christopher, Dionysius, Cyriacus, Acacius, Eustace, Giles, Magnus, Katherine, Margaret, Barbara, and Dorothy ('De xvj sanctis contra tribulaciones'), beginning: 'Multe tribulaciones iustorum et de his omnibus liberabit eos dominus dominus custodit omnia ossa eorum unum ex his non conteretur' (ff. 115r-117r).

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 65r: Prayer, beginning: 'Deus qui humanae substantiae dignitatem. Et mirabiliter condidisti et mirabilius reformasti'; added in the 15th or 16th century.

Decoration:

1 full-page miniature in colours and gold of the Crucifixion for the Canon of the Mass (f. 65v). 1 historiated initial and full border in colours and gold, of the Nativity, (f. 10). 2 decorated initial and partial border in colours and gold (f. 22v, 77r). 3 historiated initials in colours and gold, of the dove of the Holy Spirit, birds, and a unicorn (ff. 27v, 46v, 54v). Initials in gold on a multi-coloured ground with rose tendrils including a phoenix (f. 38). Gold or blue initials with red, blue or brown pen-flourishing (e.g., ff. 12r, 16v, 17v, 34v, 50v, 51v, 59r, 59v). Initials in colours and gold or silver (ff. 19r, 21r, 26r, 32v, 49v, 66r), or set before a hanging curtain (f. 29v). Coloured initials in red or blue. Tall display letters with cadels in green ink. Numerous initials with cadels in brown and red. Capitals marked in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048772", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2941: Missal" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048772

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2941 : Missal

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2942]/040-002048772

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:

1475

End Date:

1524

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 15th century-1st quarter of the 16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 190 x 150 mm (text space: 125 x 100 mm).

Foliation: ff. 117 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 7 unfoliated parchment flyleaves and 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); 1 unfoliated partly ruled parchment leaf after f. 58.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600: 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather with the Harleian arms gold stamped on white paper pastedowns on the inside covers; marbled endpapers and gilt and gauffered edges (with a flower pattern).

Custodial History:

Origin:

North-Eastern Switzerland (St Gall region).

Provenance:

? Augsburg Cathedral: suggested by the Calendar according to Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 56.

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 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)); purchased from him on 20 January 1721/22 for the Harley Collection (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), I, p. 138 n. 7; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 253-254).

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 ‘20 die mensis Januarij, A.D. 1721/22’ (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.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2941.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 138 n. 7.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 56, 253-54.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

Switzerland