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Harley MS 2983

Record Id:

040-002048814

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048814

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000111

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2983

Title:

Ordinal for Hereford Cathedral

Scope & Content:

This liturgical manuscript is an Ordinal for the Use of Hereford Cathedral. It is a composite volume of which ff. 47-82 is the original portion, dating from the late 13th century. In the first quarter of the 14th century, supplementary material for developing offices and the latter part of the Common of the Saints (lacking in the original part) was added on ff. 1-21, as well as readings for processions and masses, added on ff. 21-46.

Contents:

ff. 1r-13v: Temporale for breviary offices.

ff. 13v-19r: Sanctorale for breviary offices, from St Nicholas to St Saturninus.

ff. 19v-21r: Common of the Saints for breviary offices, with reference to the offices in the breviary in the original part (ff. 47r-82v).

f. 21r: Office of the Dead, with the heading ‘In exequiis mortuorum’.

ff. 21r-35v: Temporale.

ff. 35v-44r: Sanctorale for mass.

ff. 44r-45v: Common of the Saints for mass.

ff. 45v-46r: Masses of the Virgin, and part of the Office of the Dead, with the heading: ‘Pro corpore presenti’.

ff. 47r-81r: Temporale for breviary offices.

ff. 81r-82v: Common of the Saints for breviary offices, imperfect at the end, ending: ‘Vitam petiit. P[salmus]. Domine in [virtute]’).

The manuscript contains several additions:

f. 1*recto-1*verso, 83r-83v: Medieval flyleaves, originally from a Dominican breviary of the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 13th century.

f. 46v: Draft letter in English: 'Dere and welbelovyd frende y grete yow well with all myne hert wyllyng'; and 'Right honerabull and worschipfull mayster y lowely recommend me unto your maystirhode Desiryng to'; written in the 16th century.

f. 46v: A Latin saying: 'Omnibus omnia non mea sompnia dicer possum'; written in the 16th century.

Decoration:

3 puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing or pen-work decoration in blue (ff. 1r, 13v, 47r). Small initials in blue or red with pen-work decoration in the other colour. Paragraph marks in blue or red with occasional pen-work decoration. Line-filler in blue (f. 13r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048814", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2983: Ordinal for Hereford Cathedral" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048814

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2983 : Ordinal for Hereford Cathedral

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2984]/040-002048814

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:

1275

End Date:

1324

Date Range:

4th quarter of the 13th century-1st quarter 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: 240 x 175 mm [ff. 1*recto-verso, 83r-83v]; 245 x 175 mm [ff. 1r-82v] (text space: 130 x 85 mm, in two columns, now rotated 90 degrees [ff. 1*recto-verso, 83r-83v]190 x 120-125 mm [ff. 1r-82v]).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 83 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end); ff. 1*, 83 are the medieval flyleaves comprising a bifolium from a different manuscript but into two singletons; f. 46 has been partially excised.

Collation: Gatherings mainly of 12 leaves, with horizontal catchwords at the centre of the lower margin of the last verso of each gathering; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic, written below top line, by two scribes.

Binding: British Museum in-house; brown half leather with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; rebound in 1964.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Hereford.

Provenance:

Most likely Hereford Cathedral: suggested by Humphrey Wanley's note on f. 1*v, transcribed below, since it was supplemented with directions specific to the Use of Hereford on ff. 1r-46v in the early 14th century (see Frere and Brown, Hereford Breviary, III (1915), p. lxiii; Ker, Medieval Libraries (1964), p. 99; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 188).

John Batteley (b. 1647, d. 1708), Church of England clergyman and antiquary: sold to Edward Harley, with the rest of his collection through his nephew, Oliver Batteley, on 5 November 1723 (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), II, p. 263 n. 1; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 67).

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, HumfreyWanley, 'Ordinale Ecclesiae [Cathedralis] Herefordensis' (f. 1*v), and ‘5 die Novembris, A.D. 1723’ (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. 723 (no. 2983).

The Hereford Breviary. Edited from the Rouen Edition of 1505 with Collation of Manuscripts, by Walter Howard Frere and Langton E. G. Brown, 3 vols, Henry Bradshaw Society, 26, 40 and 46 (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1904-1915), I, pp. vi, iv; III, pp. xliii-xliv, liii, lxii-lxvii.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 99.

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. 263 n. 1.

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. 67, 188, 420.

Richard W. Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 466, 472-73.

Eyal Poleg, Approaching the Bible in Medieval England (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2013), p. 50 n. 4.

William Smith, The Use of Hereford: The Sources of a Medieval English Diocesan Rite (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), pp. xxxi, 5, 11-12, 78 n. 292, 79 n. 298, 82, 94, 288-90, 329 n. 89, 335 n. 21, 340 n. 47, 573, 621, 625, 659, 671 n. 68, 700, 702.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Batteley, John, Archdeacon of Canterbury; antiquary, 1646-1708

Places:

Hereford, England