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Harley MS 2976

Record Id:

040-002048807

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048807

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000108

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2976

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Sarum

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-6v: Calendar, containing numerous English saints; including, in red: 'Ambrosii', 'Augustini primi angelorum', 'Barnabe', 'Translatio sancti Thome', 'Anne', 'Remigii et Bavonis' (Flanders), 'Translatio sancti Edwardi', 'Martini'; and in brown: 'Vulfranni', 'Batildis', 'Cedde', 'Edwardi', 'Cuthberti', 'Benedicti', 'Guthlaci', 'Johannis de Beverlaico' (John of Beverley), 'Dunstani', 'Translacio Edmundi', 'Translatio sancti Ricardi', 'Translatio sancti Edwardi regis', 'Sunichini', 'Kenelmi', 'Oswaldi', 'Cuthburge', 'Translatio sancti Cuthberti', 'Wenefride', 'Edmundi Cantuariensi', 'Edmundi regis'.

ff. 7r-12r: The Fifteen Oes (Quindecim Orationes).

ff. 13r-23v: Suffrages to the Trinity, St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, St George, St Christopher, St Thomas Becket, St Anne, St Margy Magdalene, St Katherine, St Barbara, St Margaret.

ff. 24v-54v: The mixed Hours of the Virgin and of the Cross with Suffrages after Lauds.

ff. 54v-73r: Various prayers, mainly to the Virgin and Christ, including the Salve Regina (ff. 54v-55v); Prayers to the Seven Joys of the Virgin Mary (ff. 55v-56r) and the Five Joys of the Virgin Mary (ff. 56r-56v); A hymn to the Virgin Mary with poems on the words of the Salve Regina, preceded by a rubric that begins: 'Has videas laudes qui sacra virgine gaudes \ Et venerando piam studeas laudare Mariam' (ff. 57r-60v); O Intemerata (ff. 61r-62r); Obsecro te (ff. 62r-64r); The Seven Joys of the virgin Mary, beginning: 'Virgo templum trinitatis / deus summe bonitatis / et misercordie / Qui tue humilitatis / dulcerem suavitatis / vidit et flagrancie' (ff. 64v-66v); prayers to Christ, including prayers 'Ad ymaginem domini nostri ihesu Christi', to the Cross, Crown, and each of the separate Five Wounds (ff. 66v-68v); 'Ad ymaginem beate marie virginis' (f. 68v); and St John the Evangelist (ff. 69r-69v); Bede, Oratio de septem verbis Christi in cruce, preceded by a long rubric (ff. 69v-72v); and a prayer for the Elevation with an indulgence of Boniface VI, beginning: 'Cuilibet dicenti hanc orationem inter elevationem corporis Christi et tercium agnus dei, dominus papa bonifacius sextus concessit duo milia annorum indulgenciarum ad supplicationem philippi regis francie'; the prayer begins: 'Domine ihesu christe qui hanc sacratissimam carnem tuam et preciosum carnem tuam et preciosum sanguinem tuum de gloriose virginis marie utero assumpsisti' (f. 73r).

ff. 74r-82r: The Penitential Psalms.

ff. 82r-87r: The litany (including 'Albine', 'Eusebi', 'Swuchine' (possibly Swithune), 'Urine'), followed by prayers related to the litany.

ff. 88r-106v: The Office of the Dead.

ff. 107r-117v: The Commendation of Souls.

ff. 118r-123r: The Psalms of the Passion.

ff. 124r-133v: The Psalter of Saint Jerome.

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 68r (lower margin): An erased inscription, ending with the words: 'crux [...] passio Christi'; added in the (?) 16th century.

Decoration:

23 large historiated initials in colours and gold with three-sided foliate borders: of the Dove of the Holy Spirit (f. 35v), Michael (f. 36r), Peter and Paul (f. 36v), Andrew (f. 37r), Stephen and Laurence (f. 37v), Nicholas (f. 38r), All Saints, a lay person in prayer (f. 39v), the Virgin and Child (f. 57r), the Pieta (f. 61r), the Presentation of the Virgin (f. 64v), the Temptation (f. 66v), Three Crosses, with a head of Christ (f. 67r), Christ's Wounds and the Virgin and Child (ff. 67v-68v), John the Evangelist (f. 69r), and the Crucifixion (f. 70r). 23 large initials in colours and gold with acanthus leaves with a full foliate borders, usually with a bird (ff. 7r, 13r, 14r, 15r, 16r-24r (all rectos), 41r, 44r, 46r, 48r, 50r, 52r, 74r, 88r, 107r, 124r). Large decorated initials and full borders seem to have been added in England or, if executed in Flanders, they were painted adopting an English style (they are contemporary with the rest of the book). The manuscript probably originally contained miniatures painted on separate leaves and tipped in at the beginning of each main section. Double-line ruling in red, possibly added. One-sided bar-border ending in a foliate flourishing at top and bottom on all text pages containing a large initial in colours and gold. Line-fillers in gold, blue and red. Ruling and rubrics in pink.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048807", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2976: Book of Hours, Use of Sarum" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048807

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2976 : Book of Hours, Use of Sarum

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2977]/040-002048807

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:

1450

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 205 x 140 (text space outlined in double-line ruling in red: 135 x 90 mm).

Foliation: ff. 133 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end). Marbled endleaves.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers; gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Southern Netherlands and England.

Provenance:

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 12 September 1722 (see Dairy, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 304 n. 7; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 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 ‘12 die Septembris, 1722’ (f. [ii]recto).

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. 723 (no. 2976).

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. 304 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), p. 254.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England
Southern Netherlands