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Harley MS 2989

Record Id:

040-002048820

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048820

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000117

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2989

Title:

Book of Hours, Use of Lisieux

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-12v: Calendar, in French, with some added saints' days.

ff. 13r-16r: 'Obsecro te'.

ff. 16v-20r: 'O intemerata'.

ff. 20v-25v: Gospel readings.

ff. 25v-26r: Prayer to St Sebastian.

ff. 27r-72r: Mixed Hours of the Virgin, the Cross and the Holy Spirit (ends imperfectly due to loss of leaves).

ff. 73r-84r: Penitential Psalms.

ff. 84r-88v: Litany.

ff. 89r-113r: Office of the Dead (begins imperfectly due to loss of leaves).

ff. 114r-127v: Suffrages to the Holy Spirit, the Trinity, the Cross, St Michael, St John the Baptist, St James, St Peter, Sts Peter and Paul, St Andrew, St John the Evangelist, St Stephen, St Thomas Aquinas, St Laurence, St Martin, St Nicolas, St Barbara, St Apollonia, St Margaret, St Catherine, St Mary Magdalene, Peace.

Decoration:

In the style of the Master of the Echevinage de Rouen.

20 large miniatures with large decorated initials and full foliate borders, including hybrid figures, animals, birds, etc., in colours and gold: the Virgin and Child enthroned with music-playing and crowning angels (f. 13r); the Deposition (f. 16v); the Four Evangelists with their symbols (f. 20v); the Annunciation, with roundels in the borders showing the Fall of Man, the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, the Virgin weaving, the Marriage of the Virgin and Joseph (f. 27r); the Visitation (f. 36v); the Crucifixion, with a roundel in the border showing the Flagellation of Christ (f. 46v); Pentecost (f. 48r); the Nativity, with a roundel in the border showing the shepherds in the fields (f. 49r); the Annunciation to the Shepherds, with a roundel in the border showing the Three Magi travelling (f. 55r); the Adoration of the Magi (f. 59r); the Presentation in the Temple (f. 62v); the Flight into Egypt, with a roundel in the border showing the Massacre of the Innocents, effaced (f. 66r); King David penitent, with roundels in the border showing Christ in Judgement and Bathsheba in the bath (f. 73r); St John the Baptist holding the Agnus Dei (f. 115v); St Peter (f. 117r); St Martin dividing his cloak with the beggar (f. 121r); St Barbara with the tower (f. 122v); St Apollonia having her teeth pulled (f. 124r); St Margaret emerging from the dragon (f. 125r); St Catherine with the sword and wheel (f. 126r).

2 leaves excised, probably containing miniatures, after f. 71 (Compline) and f. 88 (Office of the Dead).

All text pages with partial foliate borders, many including hybrid figures, animals, peacocks, etc., in colours and gold.

Small decorated initials (2 lines) with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold.

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" : "040-002048820", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2989: Book of Hours, Use of Lisieux" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048820

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2989 : Book of Hours, Use of Lisieux

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2990]/040-002048820

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:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 210 x 145 mm (text space: 105 x 65 mm).

Foliation: ff. 127 (+ 2 unfoliated paper and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 3 unfoliated parchment and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Gold-tooled brown leather stamped in gilt with the arms of Nicholas Joseph Foucault; marbled endpapers; red edges; a green ribbon bookmark.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Rouen, France.

Provenance:

The parchment flyleaves at the front and back have been reused from another manuscript, and have large capital letters on them 'A' (f. [ii] recto), and 'EGS & &' (f. [iv] verso).

Offset of an inscription on the verso of the first flyleaf, possibly 'F. Kantrell', or 'F. Kartrell'.

A faded inscription in red ink (f. [ii] recto).

Nicholas Joseph Foucault (b. 1643, d. 1721), marquis de Magny, statesman and archaeologist: his arms on the binding.

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 Humfrey Wanley (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 Dec. 1723' (1st flyleaf verso).

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. 2989.

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.

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)