Harley MS 3076

Origin: Arnstein, Germany.

Provenance:

Written by Cunradus at the Premonstratensian abbey of St Mary and St Nicholas, Arnstein, founded in 1139: inscribed with 'Liber dialogorum sancte Marie sanctique Nicolai in arnestein / quem scripsit Cůnradus quidam canonicus ibidem' (f. 1r, partly re-written in darker ink; for the scribe see Krings, Prämonstratenserstift (1990), p. 248 n 75); recorded in 13th-century library catalogue as 'Dialogus' (see Krings, Prämonstratenserstift (1990)). 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 (see Wright , Fontes (1972)). 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 ‘16 die Ianuarij, A.D. 1720/21’ (f. 1r); on 9 January 1720/21 Harley went to Noel and selected this and other manuscripts which Noel had 'lately brought from Germany'. The manuscripts arrived on 16 January 1720/21 (see Diary (1966)). 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.