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Harley MS 2953

Record Id:

040-002048784

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048784

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000e9

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2953

Title:

Psalter

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 4r-9v: Calendar.

ff. 11r-15r: Alphabetical index of Psalms.

ff. 15v-18v: 'Mapheus Vegius Laudensis‏ [Maffeo Vegio (b. 1407, d. 1458)] de perseverancia religionis. libro V. Cap. IIJ. De Psalmodia'.

ff. 21r-159v: Book of Psalms, including Psalm 151, entitled: 'Hic Psalmus proprie scribitur david extra numerum psalmorum cum pugnavit cum goliath'.

ff. 159v-180r: Canticles.

ff. 180r-183v: The Pater Noster, Apostolic Creed, Te Deum, Athanasian Creed (here attributed to Bishop Anastasius)

ff. 183v-194v: 'Magni Athanasij in Psalmos opusculum Ange. Pol. [Angelo Ambrogini [Poliziano] (b. 1454, d. 1494)] Interprete' [also printed as 'Athanasius: In psalmorum effectus et proprietatis divina sequestratio']; beginning: 'Omnis quidem scriptura divina magistra est et virtutis'.

ff. 195r-195v: 'Ex epistola divi Hieronimi ad Paulam et Eustochium. Ad maiores operas psalmus. lxxvij'.

ff. 195v-198r: 'Oratio ad dominum nostrum Ihesum Christum matutina, meridiana et vespertina'; beginning: 'Here domine Iesu Christe deus vere rex excelse valde sancte valde bone misericors'; elsewhere attributed to Gennadius II [Scholarios] (b. c. 1400, d. c. 1473).

ff. 198r-199r: 'Johannis damasceni oracio ad deum'; beginning: 'Invisibilium inimicorum meorum in somne sanctis domine'.

ff. 199r-199v: 'Ad Sanctum Spiritum ora cunicula a nobis edita'; beginning: 'Deum optimum [...] in necessitatibus nostris. belli fremitu morborum pescifera. vi. et tempestate sceva invocavimus'.

ff. 199r-200v: 'Ad sanctam trinitatem'; beginning: 'O Sancta trinitas ypostasis proprietate atque relacione originis distincta'.

ff. 201r-208r: 'Ad quid pro pia devocione dicendi psalmi cum Epilogo eorum Jacobus faber Stapulensis [(Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples (b. c. 1455, d. c. 1536)]', beginning: 'Quem dicere possis beatum cogitans'.

The manuscript contains numerous additions in Latin and Greek by Conrad and Carolus Peutinger throughout. Among these are:

f. 19r: 'Ex Prohemio Heptapli Joan Pici Mirandulae Comitis [Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (b. 1463, d. 1494)] de VI Dierum Geneseos enarratione ad Laur. Medicem'.

ff. 208r-210v: Theological excerpts and prayers, including authors such as Hilarius, Iamblichus and Basil of Caesara.

Decoration:

5 full-page miniatures in colours: David and Bathseba (f. 1v); Three Living and Three Dead (f. 19v); Triumph of Death (f. 20r); King David (f. 20v); and St Christopher (f. 211r). The miniatures on f. 1v and f. 211r have been cut out from another manuscript and pasted onto parchment. The miniatures on ff. 1v, 19v, and 211r feature borders that suggest that they originate from Books of Hours; those on ff. 1v and f. 211r were taken from the same manuscript.

4 large initials in colour on a gold ground combined with a partial or full border with naturalistic flowers, butterflies, including a wild man with a bow and a lady holding coats of arms (f. 21r), a snail (f. 44v), a stag (f. 116r), or David and Goliath (f. 132r). 5 large initials in colours on a gold ground combined with a partial or full border with acanthus leaves, birds and flowers, some with nude men (ff. 58r, 70v), or with wild men (ff. 84v, 100v, 169v). Coloured initials in red or blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048784", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2953: Psalter" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048784

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2953 : Psalter

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2954]/040-002048784

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Greek, Ancient
Latin

Scripts:

Greek
Latin

Start Date:

1500

End Date:

1549

Date Range:

1st half of the 16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 180 x 125 mm (text space: 110 x 80 mm).

Foliation: ff. 211 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); ff. 1 and 211 are former pastedowns; ff. 1r-3v, 10r-10v, 19r, 208v-210v are originally blank leaves with later additions in the hand of Carolus Peutinger (see Provenance); the miniatures on f. 1v and f. 211r are parchment pastedowns.

Collation: Indicated by catchwords (written horizontally) and leaf signatures.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather (restored); marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Germany (? Southern Germany; ? Augsburg).

Provenance:

Conrad Peutinger (b. 1465, d. 1547), German humanist diplomat, politician and economist, of Augsburg: the arms of the Peutinger family (azur on a bend gules 3 escallops argent), and Welser (party argent and gules, fleur de lys countercharged) in the border on f. 21r (see Wright, Fontes Harleaini (1972), p. 275).

Carolus Peutinger, son of the former: probably inherited from his father, numerous additions in his hand throughout (see especially ff. 1r-3v, 10r-10v, 19r, 208v-210v), including entries in the calendar recording the deaths of emperor Maximilian I in 1519 (f. 4r), of his sisters Sabina in 1556 [or 1557?] (f. 4v), and Regina in 1548 (f. 9r), of his daughter Constantia in 1547 (f. 6v), of his father Conrad on 28 December 1547 (f. 9v), a record of the birth of his mother Margareta Welser in 1481 (f. 5r), and of his father on 16 October 1465 (f. 8v), some of these inscriptions are signed 'C. P. F. S.' (i.e. 'Carolus Peutinger Filius Scripsit'); added miniatures (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 275).

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 20 January 1721/2 (Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), I: 1715-1723, 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), pp. 721-22 (no. 2953).

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. 253-54, 275.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Places:

Augsburg, Germany
Germany
Southern Germany