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Harley MS 3141

Record Id:

040-002048972

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002048972

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0001e9

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3141

Title:

John Marchesinus, Mammotrectus super Bibliam, with an alphabetical index and calendar

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a copy of Mammotrectus super Bibliam (Nourisher on the Bible), written by the Italian Franciscan friar John Marchesinus (fl. late 13th century-early 14th century). The work is a guide to understanding the text of the Bible, and served as an important Franciscan school text during the later Middle Ages.

Contents:

f. 1r: John Marchesinus, Mammotrectus super Bibliam, comprising the text of the first chapter written in a smaller script, with spaces for initials left blank. The text starts again on f. 2r.

f. 1v: an ownership inscription, relating to the gifting of manuscript by Nicolò Sandonino to the Carmelites of S. Pietro Cigoli in Lucca.

ff. 2r-152v: John Marchesinus, Mammotrectus super Bibliam.

ff. 153r-194v: an index to the work.

ff. 195r-197v: a calendar.

Decoration:

Large initial in colours and gold with acanthus leaves and besants (f. 2r). Numerous initials in red with purple pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Paraphs in red or blue. Capitals marked in yellow or red. Catchwords decorated with brown penwork and yellow wash.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002048972", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3141: John Marchesinus, Mammotrectus super Bibliam, with an alphabetical index and calendar" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002048972

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3141 : John Marchesinus, Mammotrectus super Bibliam, with an alphabetical index and calendar

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3142]/040-002048972

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:

1400

End Date:

1449

Date Range:

1st half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 325 x 230 mm (written space: 210 x 145 mm); in 2 columns (ff. 153r-197v only).

Foliation: ff. 197 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 3 unfoliated parchment leaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated ruled parchment leaf, 1 unfoliated blank parchment leaf and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).

f. [v] and f. [198] are former pastedowns.

Collation: Mainly in quires of 8.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound 4 March 1964. Brown half-leather binding, with the Harleian armorial bookplate, gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, possibly Central.

Provenance:

Nicolò Sandonino, bishop of Modena (1465-1477), and of Lucca (1477-1499): his gift to the Carmelites of S. Pietro Cigoli in Lucca, 1491: inscribed 'R[everen]dus in christo p[ate]r d[omi]n[u]s Nic[olau]s ex comitib[u]s s[an]cti Domini civis et Ep[iscop]us Luce[n]sis hun[n]c codice[m] Biblioth[ec]ae s[an]cti Petri Coelicolae ordi[ni]s et observa[n]tiae fr[atr]um Car[melitarum] dono dicavit M^o cccc^o lxxxxi^o' (f. 1v).

The Carmelite convent of S. Pietro Cigoli in Lucca: see above for the cited inscription (f. 1v).

A monastic library founded or endowed by the Guicciardini (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 163).

John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer; sold to Edward Harley on 13th February 1723/4 (see Diary (1966), II, p. 216 n. 9; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 163-63).

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 ‘13 die februarij, A.D. 1723/4’ (f. [v]). 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: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3141.

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. 216 n. 9.

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. 162-63, 173-74, 228-29, 296.

Cyril Ernest Wright, 'Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition', in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 467).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Gibson, John, book-dealer, fl 1720-1726
Marchesinus, John, Italian Franciscan friar, fl late 13th century-early 14th century
Sandonino, Nicolò, Bishop of Modena and Lucca, fl 1465-1499

Places:

Central Italy