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Harley MS 3023
- Record Id:
- 040-002048854
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048854
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x000149
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100062420949.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3023
- Title:
-
Prudentius, Cathemerinon, Peristephanon and part of Hamartigenia; anonymous explanation of poetic metres and letter on the death of Sigon, abbot of Saint-Florent de Saumur; letters by and from Berengar of Tours and Fulbert of Chartres
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript primarily contains works by the Latin Christian poet Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (b. 348, d. after 405): Cathemerinon (Hymns for the Day), Peristephanon (Crowns of the Martyrs), and the final part of Hamartigenia (The Origin of Sin), all glossed and annotated in the 12th century. Added to ff. 62v-65v at a later date are other texts, including letters, mostly by and to Berengar of Tours (?999-1088), and verses by Fulbert of Chartres (c. 970-1028).
Contents:
ff. 1v–16r: Prudentius, Cathemerinon, with glosses, beginning ‘Per quinquennia iam decem’, with musical notation in neumes on f. 9v.
ff. 16r–62r: Prudentius, Peristephanon, with glosses, beginning ‘Scripta sunt caelo duorum martirum vocabula’.
ff. 62r–62v: Prudentius, Hamartigenia, ll. 931–66, beginning ‘O dee cuncti potens’.
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
f. 1r: A 12th-century inscription, beginning: ‘Cerimonie dicebantur apud antiquos sacracereris’; a late medieval inscription: ‘Liber aurelii prudencii’.
f. 1v: A 12th-century inscription, beginning: ‘Iste liber ymnorum vocatur greco nomine catamerinos’.
f. 62v: Explanation of poetic metres, beginning ‘Adonium constat ex dactilo et spondeo’.
f. 63r: Letter announcing the death of Sigon (d. 1070), abbot of Saint-Florent de Saumur, beginning ‘Omnibus advivendum christo domino’; edited by Huygens, ‘Textes latins’ (1967), pp. 502–3, revised in Serta mediaevalia (2000), pp. 273–74.
f. 63r: Letter of Berengar of Tours, beginning ‘Domino suo andegavorum episcopo. B. Quam constans’; edited by Bishop, ‘Unedierte Briefe’ (1880), no. 5.
f. 63r: Fulbert of Chartres, Carmen 142, ‘Quomodo violetur. et quomodo habenda custodia vite’.
ff. 63v–64v: Letter of Ascelin of Chartres to Berengar of Tours, ‘Domino B. frater A. Litteras tuas’; edited by Huygens, Serta mediaevalia, pp. 150–54.
ff. 64v–65r: Four letters of Pope Alexander II (d. 1073) to Berengar of Tours (c. 1064–66), beginning ‘A episcopus servus servorum dei’; edited by Bishop, ‘Unedierte Briefe’ (1880), nos. 1–4.
f. 65r: Fulbert of Chartres, Carmina 137–141, beginning ‘De trimoda cautela viciorum. Trinus abillicitis hominum’.
f. 65v: Letter of a friend or pupil to Berengar of Tours, ‘Domino B. E. salutem. Cum venissem Salernum’.
Decoration:
1 large foliate initial in brown (f. 16v); 1 large oxidised red initial with penwork decoration (f. 2r); 1 medium initial in red with penwork decoration (f. 33r); initials in brown, occasionally with some penwork decoration in brown or red, or with a reserved design. Rubrics in red or brown. Display script in brown ink following the foliate initial (f. 16v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048854", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3023: Prudentius, Cathemerinon, Peristephanon and part of Hamartigenia; anonymous explanation of poetic metres and letter on the death of…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048854 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3023 : Prudentius, Cathemerinon, Peristephanon and part of Hamartigenia; anonymous explanation of poetic metres and letter on the death… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3024]/040-002048854
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100062420949.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1075
- End Date:
- 1099
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 11th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 215 x 125 mm (text space: 170/180 x 80/90 mm).
Foliation: ff. 65 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment stub between ff. 9 and 10; ff. 43 and 44; and between ff. 46 and 47.
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: Post-1600. Dark brown leather with blind-tooled fillets, green endbands, red leather title plates on the spine, inscribed in gold at the British Museum: 'Aur. Prude. Hymni P. Alexand Defensio Berengar Cod. S. XII Mus. Br. Bib. Har. 3023. Pl. XLI. G'.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ?Tours, Central France.
Provenance:
?The Benedictine abbey of Saint-Julien, Tours, produced the manuscript: suggested by Huygens, ‘Textes latins’ (2000), p. 452 n. 6; perhaps added notes and glosses on ff. 1r, 1v, and in the margins of the main text.
Matthew de Varenne, London bookseller and auctioneer (fl. 1723/4): his sale (through Nathaniel Noel), 21 December 1723, lot 34.
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’ (f. [i]r).
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:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808–12), II (1808), no. 3023.
Edmund Bishop, ‘Unedierte Briefe zur Geschichte Berengars von Tours’, Historisches Jahrbuch, 1 (1880), 272–80.
Carl Erdmann, ‘Gregor VII. und Berengar von Tours’, Quellen und Forschungen aus italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken, 28 (1937–38), 48–74 (p. 52 n. 4).
Richard William Southern, ‘Lanfranc of Bec and Berengar of Tours’, in Studies in Medieval History Presented to Frederick Maurice Powicke, ed. by Richard William Hunt, William Abel Pantin, and Richard William Southern (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1948), pp. 27–48 (p. 48).
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley, 1715–1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II, p. 266 n. 6.
Robert Burchard Constantyn Huygens, ‘Textes latins du XIe au XIIIe siècle’, Studi Medievali, 3rd series, 8.1 (1967), 451–503 (pp. 452–3 n. 6, 502–3).
Jean de Montclos, Lanfranc et Bérenger: La controverse eucharistique du XIe siècle, Spicilegium sacrum Lovaniense études et documents, 37 (Leuven: Spiclegium sacrum Lovaniense, 1971), pp. 10, 19.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts Preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 336.
Frederick Behrends, The Letters and Poems of Fulbert of Chartres (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976), pp. 248–253.
Robert Burchard Constantyn Huygens, Serta mediaevalia: Textus varii saeculorum x–xiii, Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis, 171 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2000), pp. 144, 150–154, 157–158 n. 7, 235 n. 16, 273–4.
Pierre-Yves Fux, Les sept passions de Prudence (Peristephanon 2. 5. 9. 11–14): introduction générale et commentaire (Fribourg: Éditions Universitaires, 2003).
Pierre-Yves Fux, Prudence et les martyrs: Hymnes et Tragédie (Peristephanon 1. 3-4. 6-8. 10): commentaire (Fribourg: Éditions Universitaires, 2013).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.