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Harley MS 3432
- Record Id:
- 040-002049263
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049263
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00039c
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100165168150.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3432
- Title:
-
The Orcherd of Syon (Middle English translation of Catherine of Siena's Il Dialogo)
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains The Orcherd of Syon, a Middle English translation of Catherine of Siena (b. 1347, d. 1380)'s Il Dialogo (1378), a treatise with moral instructions that she attributed to divine revelation. This is one of the three surviving full-text copies of the English translation. The other two copies are Cambridge, St John's College, MS 75, and New York, Morgan Library, MS 162. It is also one of the two earliest copies of the translation. Both Harley MS 3432 and MS 75 date to the early 15th century. The translation opens with a preface which addresses the abbess and nuns of the Bridgettine monastery of Syon Abbey at Isleworth. Although this associates Harley MS 3432 with the early history of the abbey (founded in 1415), the manuscript does not contain evidence that the monastery owned this particular copy of the text.
Contents:
ff. 2r-192r: The Orcherd of Syon (Middle English translation of Catherine of Siena's Il Dialogo), beginning: 'Religyous modir & devoute sustren clepid & chosen bisily to laboure at the hous of Syon, in the blessid vyneȝerd of oure holy Saveour, his parfite rewle which hymsilf enditide to kepe contynuly to ȝoure lyves eende undir þe governaunce of oure blessid Lady, hir servise oonli to rede and to synge as hir special servauntis and douȝtren, and she ȝoure moost sovereyne lady and cheef abbess of hir holy covent'.
The manuscript contains several additions:
f. 191v: A draft for an indenture: 'This bill indented and made the xth daye of Maye in the third yere of the reigne of our sovereigne Ladye' [1561]; added in or after 1561.
f. 106v: The inscription: 'Salop Ludlon Bruges / Wendlock'; inscribed in the 16th or 17th century.
f. 106v: The inscription: 'unto your honor humbly sheweth'; inscribed in the 16th or 17th century.
f. 106: The inscription: 'Edswarde [sic] Status Rei': inscribed in the 16th or 17th century
f. 191v: Psalm 117:8-9: 'Melius est considere in Domino, quam considere in homine / melius eft sperare in Domino, quam sperare in principibus'; inscribed in the 16th or 17th century.
f. 191v: The inscription: 'Robertus et Bartholomeus Lincolnia veniunt'; inscribed in the (?) 16th century (possibly by George Horde).
f. 191v: 'Ebor[um] Norwycencis Ep[iscop]us'; inscribed in the 16th or 17th century by the same hand that wrote the names of George Horde, Roland Gosenell and Walterus de Everox in a list.
f. 192v: Romans 15:4: 'Quaecumque [enim] scripta sunt ad nostram scripta sunt doctrinam'; inscribed in the 16th or 17th century.
f. 192v: The inscription: 'Deus adiutor et redemptor meus est'; inscribed in the 16th or 17th century.
f. 193r: The inscription: 'Habemus ad dominum / gracias agamus [sic] domino deo nostro'; inscribed in the 16th or 17th century.
Decoration:
7 full borders with decorated large initials in pink, blue, and gold, with interlace and floral spray (ff. 1r, 26v, 44v, 65r, 101r, 148v, 173v). ff. 44v and 148v are partially removed and f. 173v has water damage. 'Champ' initials in colours and gold at the beginning of every section. Alternating red and blue paraphs.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049263", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3432: The Orcherd of Syon (Middle English translation of Catherine of Siena's Il Dialogo)" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049263 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3432 : The Orcherd of Syon (Middle English translation of Catherine of Siena's Il Dialogo) - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3433]/040-002049263
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165168150.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1424
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 310 x 215 mm (text space: 220 x 130 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 1-193 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); ff. 1, 193 are medieval parchment leaves that originally served as flyleaves; 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [ii]recto (bibliographical notes); 1 unfoliated parchment stub after f. 6; 2 parchment stubs before f. 184. The outer lower corner of f. 44 and the outer upper corner of f. 148 have been torn off (causing loss of text) and replaced with blank parchment.
Collation: Indicated by catchwords and quire numbers; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.
Script: Gothic cursive (Anglicana with Secretary horned 'g').
Binding: British Museum in-house: red half leather binding with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the outer covers; rebound on 21 February 1966.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
England.
Provenance:
William Tarboke [Tarboxe] of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, 16th or 17th century: his ownership inscription twice on f. 1v: 'William Tarboke of Kidderminster his booke for ever and ever amen'; his name 'William Tarboke' inscribed on ff. 7r, 36r, 129v, 137v, 189v; 'William' on f. 106v; f. 192v: 'To my loving ffrend William Tarboxe of Kidderminster' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 324).
James Tarboke, 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 27r (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 324).
William Baldwyn, 16th or 17th century: inscribed his name on f. 163r: 'per me Guilielmus Baldwyn' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 61).
'George Horde', perhaps of the Horde family at Ewell, Surrey, owned in the 16th century: his name inscribed on ff. 190v, 191r, 191v, 192r, 192v [7x, including: 'Georgius Horde est istius libri verus possessor' and 'per me Georgium horde [...] libri poss.' and the name 'horde' another 4x]; 193r: 'Georgius Horde me possidet / LIber generationis Jesu Christi' and 'Per me George Horde' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 196; Connolly, Sixteenth-Century Readers, Fifteenth-Century Books (2019), p. 154).
Thomas Middlemore, 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 192r: 'Thomas Middlemore' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 240).
Walter Standen, 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 192r: 'William Standen' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 312).
John Throckmorton [possibly John Throckmorton (b. 1524? , d. 1580)], 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 192v: 'To my loving friend John Throkmorton' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 328).
Thomas Thornell [? Thornhill], 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 192v: 'Thomas Thornell' (not in Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972)).
Thomas Poynes, 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 192v: 'Thomas Poynes' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 278).
'Holmes', 16th or 17th century: this family name inscribed on f. 192v.
Walter Haddon [perhaps Walter Haddon (b. 1514/15, d. 1571), civil lawyer], 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 192v: 'Walterus Haddon' (2x); and f. 193r: 'Walterus Haddon sheweth' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 176).
Roland Gosenell [possibly Roland Gosenell, prior of Wenlock (d. 1560?)], 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed by the same hand that wrote 'George Horde' and 'Walterus de Everox miles' on f. 192v (see Graham, English Ecclesiastical Studies (1929), pp. 125-145; Hodgson, The Orcherd of Syon (1964), p. 233, n. 2; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 168).
Walter de Evereuse, 16th or 17th century: his name ('Walter de Everox miles') inscribed by the same hand that wrote 'George Horde' and 'Roland Gosenell' on f. 19v (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 147).
William Bowlans, 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 193r: 'William Bowlans sheweth' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 78).
Thomas Thornton, 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 193r: 'Thomas Thornton' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 327).
Robert Wakeley, 16th or 17th century: his name inscribed on f. 193r: 'Robert Wakeley' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 340).
'Shelley' ['Shalley'], 16th or 17th century: this family name inscribed on f. 193r, possibly in connection with the firs name inscription 'William'.
John Batteley (bap. 1646, d. 1708), Church of England clergyman and antiquary: his collection sold to Harley on 5 November 1723 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 66-67).
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 ‘5 Novembris, A.D. 1723’ (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.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 25 (no. 3432).
Rose Graham, English Ecclesiastical Studies, Being Some Essays in Research in Medieval History (London: SPCK, 1929), pp. 125-45.
Mary Denise, 'The Orchard of Syon: An Introduction', Traditio, 14 (1958), 269-93 (pp. 270-71).
Phyllis Hodgson, The Orcherd of Syon and the English Mystical Tradition, Sir Israel Gollancz Memorial Lecture British Academy, Proceedings of the British Academy, 50 (London: Oxford University Press, 1964), pp. 229-49.
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. 263.
The Orcherd of Syon, ed. by Phyllis Hodgson and Gabriel M. Liegey, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 258 (London: Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1966), passim [edited from this manuscript].
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. 61, 66-67, 78, 147, 168, 176, 196, 240, 278, 312, 324, 327, 328, 340.
Catherine Annette Grisé, 'Catherine of Siena in Middle English Manuscripts: Transmission, Translation, and Transformation', in The Theory and Practice of Translation in the Middle Ages, The Medieval Translator - Traduire au Moyen Âge, 8 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2003), pp. 149-159 (p. 152 n. 6).
Alexandra Barratt, Women's Writing in Middle English: An Annotated Anthology, 2nd edn (London: Routledge, 2010), pp. 101-110 [Excerpts from this manuscript].
Jennifer, N. Brown, Fruit of the Orchard: Reading Catherine of Siena in Late Medieval and Early Modern England (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019), pp. 128, 248.
Margaret Connolly, Sixteenth-Century Readers, Fifteenth-Century Books: Continuities of Reading in the English Reformation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019), p. 154.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)