Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Harley MS 3571
- Record Id:
- 040-002049403
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049403
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000050
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100057740105.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3571
- Title:
-
A Life of the Virgin Mary and Christ, in Italian
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript features an Italian text that can be described as a vita of the Virgin Mary and Christ, although it also highlights the role of St Joseph after Christ's death. The narrative starts with the Virgin's birth and childhood and ends with her assumption into heaven. Perhaps another version of this text, with the same incipit, was printed in the last quarter of the fifteenth century in Northern Italian cities. However, no other manuscript copies of this version have as of yet been identified.
Contents:
ff. 1r-99r: A life of the Virgin Mary and Christ in Italian, 'In quello tempo era uno homo perfetissimo e sancto lo quale avena nome Joachim del tribu de iuda e de la cita de ierusalem'. The treatise itself ends with an exposition on the Our Father ('Lo pater noster in volgare'). For printed editions see the incipit 'In quello tempo si era uno homo perfectissimo e sancto' in the Gesamtkatalog der Wiegendrucke ( http://gesamtkatalogderwiegendrucke.de/ [accessed 24-02-2017]).
ff. 99v-100v: Latin quotes from each of the four Gospels.
Decoration:
Numerous (98) miniatures in colours and gold in the lower margins. Only the miniature on f. 1r is written on the top half of the page.
One large initial in yellow (f. 1r). Numerous empty spaces were left in the manuscript where small initials were planned.
Numerous rubrics introducing the treatise's sections and biblical quotes.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049403", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3571: A Life of the Virgin Mary and Christ, in Italian" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049403 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3571 : A Life of the Virgin Mary and Christ, in Italian - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3573]/040-002049403
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- Parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100057740105.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Italian
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- -9999
- End Date:
- -9999
- Date Range:
- 1st half of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 285 x 200 mm (text space: 180 x 135 mm).
Foliation: ff. 100 (+ 3 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 3 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the end).
Binding: Post-1600, gold-tooled red morocco binding.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Italy, N (?).
Provenance:
Unidentified 15th-century owner or patron: his heraldic shield (Azure, a bend argent between two étoiles of six points or), with blazon on f. 1r (almost completely effaced), and displayed in numerous miniatures. Similar examples of the shield are found in volume 9 of the Hill heraldic manuscripts (Add MS 46813), pp. 88-89 (e.g. see the Cantori family); see also the shields of the Douglas Scotti family of Fombio and lords of Marnix in Savoy.
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.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3571.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Ilustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 10.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)