Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Harley MS 3145
- Record Id:
- 040-002048976
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002048976
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0001ed
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100062421632.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3145
- Title:
-
Petrus Comestor, Pseudo-Petrus Comestor, Maurice of Sully, Geoffrey Babio, Sermones; Alain de Lille, De Sex Alis Cherubim; Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae (excerpt)
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century manuscript was written at and owned by the Cluniac Priory of Wenlock in Shropshire. It contains a large collection of sermons that is attributed to the French theologian Peter Comestor (d. 1178). The collection, however, also contains anonymous sermons, and sermons that have been attributed to other authors, including Isidore of Seville (b. c. 560, d. 636), the French theologian Alain de Lille (b. c. 1128, d. 1202/1203), Maurice of Sully (1120-1196), Bishop of Paris, and Geoffrey Babio (b. 1136, d. 1158), Archbishop of Bordeaux. The fact that the manuscript almost entirely consists of sermons by 12th-century French authors, is indicative of Wenlock Priory’s close connection with the Cluniac priory of La Charité-sur-Loire and its mother house, the Abbey of Cluny. Wenlock Priory was founded between 1079 and 1082 at a former house for Benedictine nuns (the Abbey of St Milburga), as the first English dependency of La Charité-sur-Loire. Wenlock Priory’s first monks are thought to have come from La Charité-sur-Loire, which usually also nominated Frenchmen as abbots for the priory.
Contents:
ff. 1r-110r: Petrus Comestor and Pseudo-Petrus Comestor, Sermones (Sermons), beginning: ‘Ordo Sermonum Magistri Petri Manducatoris in Synodis’.
ff. 110r-112r: Alain de Lille, De Sex Alis Cherubim (On the Six Wings of the Cherubim), beginning: ‘Prima ala: confessio non laudis’.
ff. 112r-113v: Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae (Etymologies), Book 16, Chapters 25-26, beginning: ‘Ponderum ac mensurarum iuvat cognoscere modum’.
ff. 113v-176v: Petrus Comestor and Pseudo-Petrus Comestor, Sermones (attributed to him in the explicit on f. 176v: ‘Expliciunt Sermones Magistri Petri Manducat[ori]’); the section, however, also includes at least 14 sermons by Maurice of Sully (ff. 126v-127v; 127v-128v; 128v-129v; ff. 130r-131r; 131r-132r; 139v-140v: 144r-145; 145r-146r; 146r-147r; 149v-150v; 152v-153v; 154v-156r; 160r-160v; 163v-164r) and one by Geoffrey Babio (ff. 161v-162v).
f. 176v: A prayer to St Milburga: 'Hunc t[ibi] Myldb[ur]ga sc[ri]psi • mea c[ri]mina purga ; / Virgo deo digna • veniam m[ihi] posce benigna. / Et p[ro] mercede ; corpus req[ui]escat in ede. / Qui t[ibi] tollet eu[m] p[er]eat [v[el] sic sit] maledict[us] in evum ; / Corp[us] da[m]pnet[ur] ; s[ed] [vel ut] sp[iritu]s igne pietur.'
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
ff. 176v-177r: A table of contents, added in a 12th- or 13th-century script.
f. 177r: An epitaph (‘Epitaphium huius auctoris’), added in a (?) 15th-century script.
f. 177v: Latin verses, imperfect, include a reference St Milburga, added in a (?) 15th-century script.
[f. 178v is empty].
Decoration:
1 large initial in gold with penwork decoration in red and green (f. 1r). Medium and small initials in green, red or ochre, often with penwork decoration in the same or in one alternate colour, occasionally with a reserved design; some with pen-flourishing (f. 3v). Simple initials in red and green (f. 176v). Small initials highlighted in red. Rubrics and paraph markers in red. Manicules in brown ink added to margins throughout the manuscript.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002048976", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3145: Petrus Comestor, Pseudo-Petrus Comestor, Maurice of Sully, Geoffrey Babio, Sermones; Alain de Lille, De Sex Alis Cherubim; Isidore of…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002048976 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3145 : Petrus Comestor, Pseudo-Petrus Comestor, Maurice of Sully, Geoffrey Babio, Sermones; Alain de Lille, De Sex Alis Cherubim; Isidore… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3146]/040-002048976
- 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_100062421632.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1175
- End Date:
- 1199
- Date Range:
- 4th quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 315 x 220 mm (text space: 255 x 160 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 178 ( + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 at the end); 1 loose paper (25 x 20 mm) between f. 1 and f. 2 with the inscription: ‘SERMONES M. PETRI COMESTORIS CXXXV. Calf.’.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Blind-stamped and gold-tooled brown leather, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘SERMONES M. PETRI COMESTORIS CXXXV’; red fore-edge; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Much Wenlock, Midlands, England.
Provenance:
The Cluniac priory of St Milburga at Much Wenlock (Shropshire), also known as Wenlock Priory, owned from the late 12th century to the 15th century, perhaps until the priory’s dissolution in 1540: the scribe has added a prayer to St Milburga, patroness of Wenlock (f. 176v); the manuscript was owned by Rolandus, monk at Wenlock Priory, in the late 12th or 13th century: his name added in a 12th- or 13th-century marginal inscription (f. 86r): ‘Rolandus quodam monachus et prior huius monasterij [sancte] virginis milburge de wenlok scripsit hec’; his name also inscribed on f. 178r (‘Rolandus’), in the same script. The priory probably also added foliation and an alphabetical index in a 13th- or 14th- century script (ff. 176v-177); in the lower margin of f. 1r survives the end of the index with letters v and x; the manuscript was probably still at Wenlock in the 15th century: an epitaph for Peter Comestor (f. 177r) and verses (f. 177v), including a reference to St Milburga, were added in a 15th-century script.
An unknown 16th-century English owner: a memorandum including the date 1520 added to f. 178r.
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.
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, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
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, p. 6.
John Hennig, 'The Manuscript Sources of Early Scholastic Theology', Scriptorium: Revue Internationale des Études Relatives aux Manuscrits, 4 (1950), 309-13 (p. 311).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by Neil Ripley Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 195.
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. 351.
The Benedictine monks of Saint Benoit de Port-Valais (Bouveret), Colophons de manuscrits occidentaux des origines au XVIe siècle, 6 vols, Spicilegii Friburgensis subsidia, 2-7 (Fribourg: Editions Universitaires, 1965-1982), VI (1982): lieux anonymes (18952-23774), p. 348 (no. 22024).
Peter Tibber, The Origins of the Scholastic Sermon, c. 1130-c. 1210 (Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oxford, 1983), pp. 38 n. 1, 301.
- 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.