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Harley MS 2967

Record Id:

040-002048798

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048798

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0000ff

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2967

Title:

Noted Breviary of Anthony of Burgundy

Scope & Content:

An illuminated Breviary made for Anthony the ‘Bastard of Burgundy’ (b. 1421, d. 1504), a known collector and patron of illuminated books, following the Use of the Franciscans at Mons (now in Belgium). Anthony was a benefactor of the church and convent of the Franciscans at Mons, and he seems to have given this book to them (see Campbell, 'Antoine, the 'Grand Bâtard' (2016), p. 53). The manuscript was made in Mons, possibly by Jacques (or Jaquemart) Pilavaine (fl. 1460s), or at least by his workshop, which was established there in the second half of the 15th century. It is possible that it once contained further illuminated miniatures since several leaves appear to have been excised.

Contents:

f. 1r: Inscription by Humfrey Wanley, the Harley librarian, on what was originally a medieval parchment pastedown.

ff. 2r-7v: Calendar.

ff. 8r-9v: Blessing of water, with the heading ‘Sequitur exorcismus aque'.

ff. 10r-137r: Temporale, imperfect at the beginning, with musical notation in square neumes on ff. 81-82r, 110v-114r, 127r-132r, 134v-136r.

ff. 138r-224r: Sanctorale.

ff. 225r-281r: Common of the Saints.

f. 282: A medieval parchment flyleaf, originally a pastedown, with added inscription, late 15th century.

ff. 137v, 281v, 224v are blank.

Decoration:

2 half-page miniatures in colours and gold, with full foliate borders, in colours and gold and including motifs of a peacock, and the heraldic arms and emblem of Anthony of Burgundy (ff. 214v, 218r).

7 miniatures of column-width in colours and gold, with full foliate borders in colours and gold, including motifs such as birds, the motto, heraldic arms, and emblem (a barbacane) of Anthony of Burgundy (ff. 18v, 84v, 200v, 208r, 210r, 222v, 249r).

1 historiated initial of St Bernardino of Siena (d. 1444) with three mitres at his feet and holding an open book, in colours and gold on a gold ground, with full foliate borders in colours and gold including a pelican feeding its young and the emblem (a barbacane) of Anthony of Burgundy (f. 198v).

The marginal decoration (and possibly also the miniatures) have been tentatively attributed to the workshop or a follower of Jacques Pilavaine (see van Buren, 'Jean Wauquelin de Mons' (1983), p. 59 n. 28; Esch, ‘La production de livres de Jacquemart Pilavaine’ (2002), p. 660; Vanwijnesberghe, 'L'identification du portrait "Froiment", p. 31).

Large decorated initials (between 2 and 4 lines) in pink and blue or blue and red on a gold ground, with partial foliated borders in colours and gold. Small initials in gold on pink or blue grounds. Capital letters highlighted in yellow. Headings in red. Instructions to the rubricator in the lower margins of the calendar (ff. 2r-7v). Some miniatures are interleaved with paper.

The subjects of the miniatures are:

f. 18v: Adoration.

f. 84v: Entry into Jerusalem.

f. 200v: St Anthony in a monk's habit, holding a book and a martyr's palm.

f. 208r: St Clare of Assisi dressed as an abbess, nimbed and holding a crozier and monstrance.

f. 210r: A nimbed bishop dressed in a blue robe with fleur-de-lis and lined with ermine and holding a crown and a crozier, probably representing St Louis of Toulouse (d. 1297), Neapolitan prince of Anjou who became Bishop of Toulouse.

f. 214v: St Francis receiving the stigmata.

f. 218r: The death of St Francis, with friars mourning and angels carrying his soul to heaven where Christ receives it.

f. 222v: St Elizabeth, nimbed and holding a triple crown.

f. 249r: Jacob's ladder, with Jacob dressed in blue next to the ladder, and an angel in white ascending the ladder while an angel in blue descends the ladder.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048798", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2967: Noted Breviary of Anthony of Burgundy" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048798

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2967 : Noted Breviary of Anthony of Burgundy

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2968]/040-002048798

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:

1480

Date Range:

1475-1480

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 210 x 140 mm (written area 125 x 85 mm, in two columns).

Foliation: ff. 282 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated early modern paper flyleaf at the beginning + 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end).

There is 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaf after f. 1; 2 unfoliated folios after f. 9, and 3 unfoliated folios after f. 281; leaves seemingly excised and later replaced by a modern paper leaf after ff. 9, 132, 147, 151, 158, 184, 191, 220 (off-set from a heraldic device on the excised leaf can be seen on ff. [9a verso], 191v); modern paper leaves inserted (some to protect miniatures) after ff. 137, 194, 207, 214.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house, in gilt-tooled red leather, rebound in 1968; gilt and coloured fore-edge, and head and tail edges.

Collation: Quire signatures are consistently provided in the lower right corners on the first four folios of a quire, the quire being referred to by a letter and the number of the bifolium by a lowercase roman numeral, e.g. ‘ai’, ‘aii’, ‘aiii’, etc.

Catchwords in red or brown ink.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Mons, Southern Netherlands (modern day Belgium).

Provenance:

A Franciscan monastery at Mons (now Belgium): the dedication of the church of the Franciscans of Mons included in the calendar on 12 September, ‘Dedicatio ecclesie fratrum minorum Montensis' (f. 6r).

Anthony (b. 1421, d. 1504), ‘Bastard of Burgundy’, son of Philip III, Duke of Burgundy: his heraldic arms, emblem of a barbacane, and motto ('Nul ne ni frotte') included in the foliated borders throughout.

George Suttie, foreign agent of Nathaniel Noel (fl. c. 1681-c. 1753), bookseller; bought by Robert Harley (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 322).

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, '21 June 1715' (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 Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 722, no. 2967.

Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 18.

Hugolin Lippens, 'Un missel franciscain belge du XV siècle au British Museum', Neerlandia Franciscana, 4 (1921), 249-55.

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. 242, 322.

Anne Hagiopan van Buren, 'Jean Wauquelin de Mons et la production du livre aux Pays-Bas', Publications du Centre européen d'etudes burgondo-médianes, 23 (1983), 53-74 (p. 59 n. 28).

Christiane van den Bergen-Pantens, 'Héraldique et bibliophilie: Le cas d'Antoine, Grand Bâtard de Bourgogne (1421-1504)', in Miscellanea Martin Wittek: album de codicologie et de paléographie offert à Martin Wittek, ed. by Anny Raman and Eugène Manning (Leuven: Peeters, 1993), 323-53 (pp. 347-8) [with additional bibliography].

Christiane Van den Bergen-Pantens, ‘Antoine, Grand Bâtard de Bourgogne, bibliophile', in L’ordre de la Toison d’or de Philippe le Bon à Philippe le Beau (1430-1505): Idéal ou reflet d’une société?, ed. by Pierre Cockshaw and Christiane Van den Bergen-Pantens (Turnhout: Brepols, 1996), 198-200 (p. 198).

Dominique Deneffe, ‘Analysing Border Decorations: The Case of the Histoires Martiniennes, Brussels, Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België, MS. 9069’, in ’Als Ich Can’: Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), 475-504 (p. 476).

Anke Esch, ‘La production de livres de Jacquemart Pilavaine à Mons: nouvelles perspectives’ in ’Als Ich Can’: Liber Amicorum in Memory of Professor Dr. Maurits Smeyers, ed. by Bert Cardon and others, 2 vols (Paris: Uitgeverij Peeters, 2002), 641-68 (p. 652, 660 n. 68, 663).

Scot McKendrick, Flemish Illuminated Manuscripts 1400-1550 (London: British Library, 2003), p. 44, pl. 29.

Dominique Vanwijnesberghe, 'L'identification du portrait "Froiment" de Rogier van der Weyden', Revue de l'Art, 139 (2003), 21-36 (p. 31, fig. 23).

Hanno Wijsman, Luxury Bound: Illustrated Manuscript Production and Noble and Princely Book Ownership in the Burgundian Netherlands (1400-1550), Burgundica, 16 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010), p. 276.

Lorne Campbell, 'Antoine, the 'Grand Bâtard De Bourgogne', and his Portrait by Rogier Van Der Weyden', in Cambridge and the Study of Netherlandisch Art: The Low Countries and the Fens, ed. by Meredith McNeill Hale (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), 47-68 (pp. 53, 54).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Anthony, 'Bastard of Burgundy,' son of Philip III, Duke of Burgundy, 1421-1504
Suttie, George, agent of Nathaniel Noel, bookseller

Places:

Mons, Belgium

Related Material:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, II (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808), p. 722:

‘Missale ad usum Romanae ecclesiae, cum calendario. XV.

Codex membranaceus in 4to. et perelegans, nitidis illuminationibus ornatus, marginibusque pulchre depictis. In quibusdam foliis habentur insignia gentilitia, prioris, ut videtur, possessoris.'