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Harley MS 2957

Record Id:

040-002048788

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048788

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000ed

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2957

Title:

Usuard, Martyrology

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-3v: Prologue to Usuard's Martyrology, entitled: 'De prologis diversis super opus martirologij: per quos patet . quantam diligentiam sancti et antiqui ad compilacionem huius opusculi habebant'; featuring a letter by Cromantius et Heliodorus to Jerome on ff. 1r-1v ('Epistola Chromacij et Elyodori episcoporum ad Jheronimum'); Jerome's reply on ff. 1v-2r ('Responsio Jheronimo ad eosdem super eodem'); a preface attributed to Bede or Augustine on ff. 2r-3r ('Prefacio que in pluribus libris asscribitur Bede super opere Martirologij: plures autem ipsam excerptam dicunt ex libris beati Augustini'); and a letter by Usuard to Charlemagne on ff. 3r-3v ('Epistola seu prefacio Usuardi monachi ad Karolum regem super opere martirologij').

ff. 1r-83v: Usuard, Martyrology from 1 January to 31 December, beginning: 'Octava nativitatis domini nostri ihesu Christi et circumcisio eiusdem [festum maius duplex] In Cesarea Capodocie [sic] depositio sancti Basilij episcopi'; but with additions for January at the end (ff. 80r-83v).

ff. 83v-84v: 'Sermo de offerendis oblacionibus', beginning: 'Populus Christianus memorias martirum religiosa celebrat solempnitate et ad excitandam imitacionem et ut meritis eorum consocietur atque oracionibus adiuvetur ita tum ut nulli martirum'.

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 7r: A marginal note concerning martyrs from the Franciscan order: 'Apud morrochium passio beatorum martirum Berardi de Carpio, Petri de Geminiano, accursii, adiutoris et ottonis de ordine fratrum minorum'; added in the 15th century.

Decoration:

1 large puzzle initial in red and blue with foliate motifs and pen-flourishing in red, green and purple (f. 1r). Large (3-line) initials red with purple penwork decoration and pen-flourishing and in blue with red penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in the prologue (ff. 1r, 1v, 2r, 3r) and sermon (f. 83v); one with foliate motifs in green inside the letter (f. 3r). Plain (1- or 2-line) initials in red or blue throughout the martyrology. Capitals (1 line) marked in red throughout. Rubrics in red. Paraphs in blue or red. A line-filler on f. 2r in blue and red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048788", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2957: Usuard, Martyrology" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048788

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2957 : Usuard, Martyrology

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2958]/040-002048788

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:

1425

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 15th century-3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 180 x 120 mm (text space: 120 x 80 mm).

Foliation: ff. 84 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 2 unfoliated parchment stubs after f. 84.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather with blindstamped and gold-stamped and -tooled decoration; marbled endpapers with the gold-stamped Harleian armorial bookplate on the insides of the upper and lower covers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Northern Netherlands or Western Germany.

Provenance:

Johannes Eifeler (unidentified), Order of the Friars Minor, perhaps wrote the manuscript: his name inscribed in rubricated colophons with requests for prayers (written in the same hand as the rest of the manuscript) on f. 1r: 'Orate Ave Maria p[ro] fr[at]re[m] Joh[ann]e d[i]c[t]o Eyfeler ord[inis] mi[n]orum'; and f. 84v: 'Orate Ave Maria p[ro] fr[atr]e[m] Joh[ann]e Eyfeler' (previously unnoticed and not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)); his name may suggest a connnection with the Eifel region.

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 in 1716 according to a note on f. 1r: 'a Nath. Noel [...] A.D. 1716' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 253).

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 by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley, 'A.D. 1716', with a note explaining that the manuscript was purchased from Noel (f. 1).

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), p. 722 [no. 2957].

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. 253.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Usuard, Monk of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, d c 877,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000382421548,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/264282437

Places:

Northern Netherlands
Western Germany