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Harley MS 3438

Record Id:

040-002049269

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049269

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0003a2

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3438

Title:

Bible, including the Psalms

Scope & Content:

This manuscript consists of two parts. The larger part appears to have been written around 1225 (written above the top line), but the first quire (ff. 1-5) was probably added in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 13th century (written below the top line and the flourishings include 'J-borders').

Contents:

ff. 2r-341r: Bible, containing a capitula list immediately preceding the book of Exodus (ff. 19r-19v) and Leviticus (ff. 30r-30v), and the Psalms with the unusual running title 'DAVID PSALMISTA' (ff. 171r-188v); preceded by two lettrs of St Jerome: 'Incipit epistola sancti ieronimi ad paulinum presbiterum de omnibus divine historie libris' (ff. 1r-4r); and 'Incipit prefacio Jeronimi presbiteri in pentateucum' (ff. 4r-4v).

The manuscript contains a few additions:

Various corrections throughout the manucript (ff. 125v, 180v, etc.), added in the 14th or 15th century.

f. 1r: Jerome, Preface to the Books of Samuel and Malachy, beginning: 'Sicut .xxij. elementa sunt per que scribimus ebraice omne quod loquimur et eorum iniciis vox humana compehenditur . ita xxij. volumina supputantur quibus quasi litteris et exordiis in dei doctrina tenera adhuc et lactans viri iusti eruditur infantia'; added in the early 15th century.

Decoration:

2 large (9-line and 12-line) initials in gold and colours with foliate decoration (ff. 163r, 164r) and 2 smaller (4-line and 8-line) gold initials on a blue and pink ground (f. 163v) at the beginning of Malachi, Job and their prologues. 2 large (6-line and full-page length) puzzle initials in blue and red with penwork decoratio nand pen-flourishing (including 'J-borders') in the same colours (ff. 2r, 4r). Numerous large puzzle initials in red and blue with penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in the same colours including foliate motifs at the beginning of the various books and their prologues. Display script in blue and red (f. 5r). Numerous smaller initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour (especially in the Psalms). Numerous small initials in alternating red or blue. Towards the end of the manuscript (after the Psalms), these small initials disappear, and red or blue paragraph marks are systematically used to signal the beginning of chapters; in these quires, capitals are stressed by a double vertical line. Running titles and chapter numbers in alternating red and blue. Extending looping ascenders in some quires (see ff. 189v-190r, etc.). Added manicula in brown ink (ff. 91r, 197v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049269", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3438: Bible, including the Psalms" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049269

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3438 : Bible, including the Psalms

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3439]/040-002049269

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:

1225

End Date:

1274

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 13th century-3rd quarter of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 235 x 170 mm (text space: 165 x 105, in 2 columns [text space outlined in leadpoint and indicated by pricking holes]).

Foliation: ff. 341 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end).

Collation: Mostly in quires of 12; indicated by catchwords; in some quires, the running title seems to have been written vertically in the top left corner of the verso of the last leaf: It has been trimmed but partially remains visible; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic, written above the top line (except in the first quire, containing Jerome's Prologue, ff. 2r-4v).

Binding: British Museum in-house; brown half leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate gold-stamped on the outsides of the upper and lower covers; rebound on 4 March 1964; an inscription on the bottom, fore, and top edge of the manuscript, partially legible ('[...] GRATIA PLENA DOMINVS TECHUM BENEDI[C]T[A]').

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer: sent to Edward Harley on 23 February 1724/5, sale settled on 22 June 1726 (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), II, p. 339 n. 4; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 162).

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 ‘22 die mensis Junij, A.D. 1726’ (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. 26 [no. 3438].

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. 339 n. 4.

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. 162.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Jerome, Saint, c 345-420,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000123213293,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/95147024

Places:

England