Harley MS 3171

Origin:

Southern Netherlands.

Provenance:

Written in 1477 at an unidentified monastery: date inscribed in a colophon on f. 266r: 'Explicit Liber Tractatuum Beati Augustini Episcopi in Evangelium Sancti Iohannis Evangeliste, 1477'; the monastic context is suggested by the instruction for reading Augustine's commentary in the refectory or to read anything else chosen by the prior on f. 227r. This leaf, although written in a different hand, seems contemporary with the rest of the manuscript.

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: sold to Edward Harley on 18 January 1724 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 254).

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, '8 die Septembris 1720)' (f. 1r).

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.