Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 2971

Record Id:

040-002048802

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048802

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000103

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2971

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Paris

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-12v: Calendar, with erased inscriptions in the margins.

ff. 13r-18v: Gospel lessons.

ff. 18v-21v: 'Obsecro te'.

ff. 22r-25r: 'O intemerata'.

ff. 26r-83r: Hours of the Virgin.

ff. 85r-95v: Penitential Psalms.

ff. 96r-101r: Litany.

ff. 101v-105v: Hours of the Cross.

ff. 106r-109r: Hours of the Holy Spirit.

ff. 109v-157v: Office of the Dead.

ff. 158r-162v: Prayer in French, beginning 'Dulce dame de misericorde'.

ff. 163r-165v: Prayer in French, beginning 'Doulx dieu doulx pere'.

Decoration:

In the style of the Salisbury Breviary St Stephen Master; attributed to a late follower of the Bedford Master.

18 full-page miniatures with large decorated initials and full foliate borders, in colours and gold: St John the Evangelist writing his Gospel on Patmos (f. 13r); St Luke the Evangelist writing his Gospel (f. 14v); St Matthew the Evangelist writing his Gospel (f. 16r); St Mark the Evangelist writing his Gospel (f. 17v); the Annunciation (f. 26r); the Visitation (f. 46v); the Nativity (f. 56r); the Annunciation to the Shepherds (f. 61r); the Adoration to the Magi (f. 65r); the Presentation at the Temple (f. 68v); the Flight into Egypt (f. 72v); the Coronation of the Virgin (f. 78v); King David penitent (f. 85r); the Crucifixion (f. 101v); Pentecost (f. 106r); a funeral service (f. 109v); the Virgin and Child enthroned with angels playing music (f. 158r); Christ in Judgement with the dead rising from their graves (f. 163r).

1 large decorated initial with three-sided foliate borders, in colours and gold, at the beginning of the prayer Obsecro te (f. 18v).

All text pages with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold. Large and small initials and line-fillers in gold on red and blue grounds. Capital letters highlighted in yellow.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048802", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2971: Book of Hours, Use of Paris" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048802

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2971 : Book of Hours, Use of Paris

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2972]/040-002048802

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:

1450

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 210 x 150 mm (text space: 105 x 65 mm).

Foliation: ff. 165 (+ 2 paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end). Foliated in ink in an early modern hand.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Harleian binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers; gilt edges; a green ribbon bookmark.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Paris, France.

Provenance:

Perhaps written for a woman: the prayer 'Obsecro te' uses the feminine form 'famule tue' (f. 20v), although the prayer 'O intemerata' uses the common masculine form 'miserrimo paccatori' (f. 23r).

Erased inscriptions on rectos in the calendar, 15th? century (ff. 1r-12r).

Matthew de Varenne, London bookseller and auctioneer (fl. 1723/4): his sale, 21 December 1723, no. 121 or 122, at which the manuscript was acquired for Harley through Nathaniel Noel (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 336; Wright and Wright, Diary of HW (1966), II: p. 266 n. 2).

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 die Decembris A.D. 1723.' (2nd flyleaf).

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: [n. pub.], 1808-12), II, no. 2971.

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. 17.

Janet Backhouse, Illumination from Book of Hours (London: British Library, 2004), no. 33.

Catherine Reynolds, ‘The Workshop of the Master of the Duke of Bedford: Definitions and Identities’, ed. by G. Croenen and P. Ainsworth, Patrons, Authors and Workshops: Books and Book Production in Paris around 1400 (Leuven: Peeters, 2006), pp. 437-72 (pp. 454, 457, fig. 71).

Gregory T. Clark, Art in a Time of War (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2016), pp. 173, 308, ill. 175.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 266, n. 2.

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. 336.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)