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Harley MS 2955

Record Id:

040-002048786

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048786

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000eb

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2955

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Metz

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 2r-13v: Calendar, in French.

ff. 14r-60v: Hours of the Virgin.

ff. 61r-71v: Penitential Psalms.

ff. 72r-75v: Litany.

ff. 76r-122v: Office of the Dead.

ff. 123r-142v: Prayers to say during the Mass in French, including prayers to Our Lord, the angels, for after the elevation, and numerous others.

ff. 141r-142r : Prayer to St John the Evangelist in French, beginning 'Sains Jehans tres bien eurous familiaires amerous Vierge et a Jhesu'.

f. 142r-v: Prayer to St John the Baptist in French, beginning 'Tu Sains Jehans vierge tres honoreis flour des vierges' (ending imperfectly due to loss of leaves).

ff. 143r-150v: Commentary on the Mass in French, beginning 'Ci commance comment on doit penseir a la messe'.

ff. 150v-153v: Prayer in French, beginning 'Ave tres glorieuse dame d'umiliteit'.

ff. 153v-155v: Prayer in French, beginning 'Ave virge gratiouse Virge meire gloriouse'.

ff. 155v-156r: Prayer in French, beginning 'Ave vierge gloriouse clarte dou ciel per dignite'.

ff. 156r-160r: Prayer in French, beginning 'Douce et perdurable vierge meire de deu'.

f. 160r-161r: Prayer in French, beginning 'Ave dame de cui volt naitre'.

ff. 161r-162v: Prayer in French, beginning 'Deus en cui sont toute virginiteit' (ending imperfectly due to loss of leaves).

ff. 163-164: Parchment leaves with inscriptions (see Provenance).

Decoration:

24 calendar miniature of the labours of the months and signs of the zodiac (ff. 2r-13v).

11 large historiated initials with three-sided bar borders and bas-de-page scenes in colours and gold, many damaged: The Virgin Mary as the Apocalyptic Woman clothed in the sun, nursing the Christ Child, the dragon beneath fighting with a figure who holds a shield bearing the St George cross, with a hunting scene and an owner portrait of a kneeling women presented by an angel in the lower margin (f. 14r); the Visitation (f. 23v); the Nativity, with a boar hunt in the lower margin (f. 34v); the Circumcision (f. 40r); the Adoration of the Magi (f. 43v); Christ teaching the elders (f. 46v); Dormition of the Virgin (f. 49v); Coronation of the Virgin (f. 56r); King David playing the harp (f. 61r); a funeral service (f. 76r); Christ seated on a rainbow displaying his wounds (f. 123r); a prophet holding a scroll inscribed 'salve mundi' (f. 136v); a priest and a small kneeling figure before an altar with a crucifix, chalice and host set upon it (f. 143r).

2 small historiated initials: St John the Evangelist (f. 141r); St John the Baptist (f. 142r).

3 marginal figures in colours and gold: St Catherine (f. 100r); a saint holding a martyr's palm and a jawbone (f. 123r); St Agnes (f. 143r).

Large initials with partial bar borders in red, blue, and gold. Smaller 'champ' initials in gold on red and blue grounds. Line-fillers in red, blue, and gold. Rubrics in red. Capitals marked in red.

A tinted woodcut (c. 1500) of the Virgin and Child enthroned with sheep drinking the blood of Christ, and beside them St Francis with the stigmata, and St Clare of Assisi, with inscriptions beginning 'Je suis le bon pasteur, je cognois mes brebisettes' and 'O toute belle et innocente doucette' (pasted to f. 1v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048786", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2955: Book of Hours, Use of Metz" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048786

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2955 : Book of Hours, Use of Metz

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2956]/040-002048786

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:

1300

End Date:

1349

Date Range:

1st half of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 180 x 120 mm (text space: 120 x 85 mm).

Foliation: ff. 164 (+ an unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + a parchment flyleaf after ff. 1, 122).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather with gold tooling.

Custodial History:

Origin:

North-East France.

Provenance:

Made for a woman: depicted in prayer in an owner portrait (f. 14r).

Joannes La Reunes, tertiary of Metz, 1689: inscribed 'Ego Joannes La Reunes Tertianus Metis Anno millesimo Oct[a]vagesimo Nono' (f. 164v).

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.

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: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2955.

J. Priebsch, 'Drei altlothringische Mariengebete', Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur, 33 (1908), 206–213.

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. 216.

Pierre Rézeau, Répertoire d'incipit des prières françaises à la fin du Moyen Âge: addenda et corrigenda aux répertoires de Sonet et Sinclair; Nouveaux incipit, Publications romanes et françaises, 174 (Geneva: Droz, 1986), p. 465.

K.V. Sinclair, French devotional texts of the Middle Ages: a bibliographic manuscript guide.

M. A. Michael, 'The Virgin and Child before a Firescreen at the National Gallery: The Origins of the Madonna of Humility as the Amicta Sole', Apollo 143 (May, 1996), 8-14.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)