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Harley MS 3461
- Record Id:
- 040-002049292
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049292
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x0003b9
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3461
- Title:
- A universal chronicle; artist's sketches; Gregorio Dati, La Sfera
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-92v: A universal chronicle from the creation of Adam to 1440 (beginning 'Idio fecie Adamo nel festo di della creatione deluniverso'), unfinished and breaking off abruptly at the end; some added entries including one dated 1478.
f. 2*: Added inserted slip containing calculations based on the lifespans of figures from the Old Testament.
ff. 93r-100v: ruled pages with added artist's sketches, second half of the 15th century.
ff. 101r-124v: Gregorio Dati, La Sfera (a cosmographical poem in ottava rima, beginning 'Al Padre al figlihuolo allo Spirito Santo').
Decoration:
7 tinted drawings in large roundels: God the Father enthroned (f. 1r); Noah and the ark (f. 2r); Abraham sacrificing Isaac (f. 4v); Moses and the Tablets of the Law (f. 6v); David harping (f. 16v); the Nativity (f. 48r); the Crucifixion (f. 49r).
Hundreds of smaller roundels with tinted drawings of popes and rulers, often several per page (ff. 49r-90r), some of which are later additions. Roundels in red and brown ink, struck with a compass, framing dates, notable events, and genealogical information (ff. 1r-48r). Instructions to artists in Italian are inscribed in brown ink in the large roundels.
9 added sketches of figures in brown ink and metalpoint, perhaps preparatory sketches for paintings, second half of the 15th century (ff. 93r, 94v, 95v, 96r, 97r, 97v, 98r, 99r, 100r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049292", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3461: A universal chronicle; artist's sketches; Gregorio Dati, La Sfera" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049292 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3461 : A universal chronicle; artist's sketches; Gregorio Dati, La Sfera - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3462]/040-002049292
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Italian
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1440
- End Date:
- 1478
- Date Range:
- 1440-1478
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Paper.
Dimensions: 325 x 240 mm (text space: various).
Foliation: ff. 124 + 2* (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Script: Humanistic.
Binding: British Museum; rebound in 1967. Brown gold-tooled leather covers of a previous British Museum binding are glued inside the present ones.
f. 2* is an inserted slip containing calculations based on the lifespans of figures from the Old Testament.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Italy.
Provenance:
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: Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, http://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 (1808), no. 3461, p. 28.
Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and other Libraries, 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), p. 171.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)