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Harley MS 3224
- Record Id:
- 040-002049055
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049055
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00024c
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3224
- Title:
-
Alain de Lille, De planctu naturae; Forma dictandi; Richard de Bury, Philobiblon; Contra luxuriam; John of Limoges, Morale somnium Pharaonis
- Scope & Content:
-
This volume once belonged to William Welde, a Benedictine, doctor of canon law, and Abbot of St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury from 1387 until his death in 1405. Among the contents of the manuscript are copies of Alain de Lille's De planctu naturae (On the plaint of nature), a satire on the vices of humanity, and John of Limoges' Morale somnium Pharaonis, as well as the Philobiblon, a collection of essays concerning the acquisition, preservation, and organization of books, written by the medieval bibliophile and bishop of Durham Richard de Bury (b. 1287, d. 1345), also known as Richard Aungerville.
The volume also features one of the most complete surviving copies of a treatise on letter-writing, known as the Forma dictanti (see Cornelius, 'Rhetoric of Advancement' (2010), p. 317 n. 75). Another copy of the work is now Oxford, Balliol College, MS 263, ff. 1r-4v.
Contents:
f. 1r: an added table of contents;
ff. 2r-53v: Alain de Lille, De planctu naturae;
ff. 54r-66v: Forma dictandi;
ff. 67r-109v: Richard de Bury, Philobiblon;
ff. 110r-130v: Tractatus contra luxuriam;
ff. 131r-166r: John of Limoges, Morale somnium Pharaonis.
ff. 1v and 166v are blank.
Decoration:
Three-sided penwork border in red and blue with a large initial in blue (f. 2r). Large initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Paraphs in red. or blue. Cadels.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049055", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3224: Alain de Lille, De planctu naturae; Forma dictandi; Richard de Bury, Philobiblon; Contra luxuriam; John of Limoges, Morale somnium…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049055 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3224 : Alain de Lille, De planctu naturae; Forma dictandi; Richard de Bury, Philobiblon; Contra luxuriam; John of Limoges, Morale… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3225]/040-002049055
- 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:
- 1424
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 180 x 120 mm (written space: 125 x 80 mm).
Foliation: ff. 166 (+ 4 unfoliated paper and 3 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 4 unfoliated parchment and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound 16 August 1968. Red half-leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate, gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
William Welde, abbot of St. Augustine's, Canterbury from 1387 to 1405: his ownership inscription (f. 1r).
The Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine, Canterbury: its ownership inscription, 'De librario s[anc]ti Augustini Cant...' and pressmark, 'D. xi. G. I' (f. 1r).
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:
- Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts: https://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III, no. 3224.
The Philobiblon of Richard de Bury, ed. by E. C. Thomas (London: Kegan Paul, Trench and Co, 1888), p. LXVI.
Montague Rhodes James, The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1903), p. 299, no. 964.
C. H. Talbot, ‘A List of Cistercian Manuscripts in Great Britain’, Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought and Religion, 8 (1952), 402-18 (pp. 404, 412).
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 44.
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. 95, 350.
Ian Cornelius, 'The Rhetoric of Advancement: Ars dictaminis, Cursus, and Clerical Careerism in Late Medieval England', New Medieval Literature, 12 (2010), 289-332 (pp. 317-20).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Alain de Lille, c 1128-1203, (Author)
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000453041842,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/72187470
Aungerville, Richard, Bishop of Durham, 1287-1345 (Author)
John of Limoges, Cistercian monk, fl 1270 (Author)
Welde, William, Abbot of St Augustine's, Canterbury, fl 1387-1405 (Former owner) - Places:
- England