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Harley MS 3593

Record Id:

040-002049425

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049425

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000066

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3593

Title:

Lawrence of Aquilegia, Summa dictaminis and letter collection

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains the Summa dictaminis edita iuxta doctrinam Tullii (Summary of letter-writing, learned through the instruction of Tullius [Marcus Tullius Cicero]), a treatise on the ars dictaminis, the art of letter writing, written by the thirteenth-century Italian canon and teacher Lawrence of Aquilegia (b. before 1250, d. after 1304). It begins with a dedication from the author to the French king Philip the Fair (r. 1285-1314), stating that the text was composed in Paris during the papacy of Boniface VIII (r. 1294-1303). The text is followed by a collection of letters written by the same author.

Contents:

ff. 1r-35r: Lawrence of Aquilegia, Summa dictaminis edita iuxta doctrinam Tullii, beginning with a dedication from the author to Philip the Fair (f. 1r-v).

ff. 36r-53r: Lawrence of Aquilegia, Epistulae.

ff. 20r, 35v and 53v are blank.

Decoration:

Historiated initial in colours and gold with Lawrence of Aquilegia presenting his book to king Philip the Fair, combined with a partial border with acanthus and medallions with youths writing (f. 1r). Smaller initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour. Tables with green, blue, red lines, some occasionally taking decorative shapes of fish, leaves, snakes, bird heads, etc (ff. 16v-17v, 18v-19v, 20v-32r). Paraphs in alternating red or blue. Capitals with brown ink penwork and marked in yellow. Space for initial left blank (f. 36r). Some catchwords with brown penwork decoration (animal enclosing the word 'sceleratas' (f. 38v), foliate decoration (f. 46v)).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049425", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3593: Lawrence of Aquilegia, Summa dictaminis and letter collection" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049425

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3593 : Lawrence of Aquilegia, Summa dictaminis and letter collection

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3595]/040-002049425

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:

1300

End Date:

1349

Date Range:

1st half of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 290 x 220 mm (text space: 195 x 150).

Foliation: ff. 53 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 5 at the end).

Horizontal catchwords.

Script: Gothic cursive, closer to a documentary hand than a bookhand.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound in 1972. Red half-leather binding, with the Harleian armorial bookplate gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers.

Custodial History:

Origin: Northern Italy.

Provenance:

John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer: sold to Edward Harley on 28 August February 1724 (see Diary (1966), II, p. 312 n. 2; 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 ‘28 die Augusti, A.D. 1724’ (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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://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. 3593.

Charles H. Haskins, 'The Life of Medieval Students as Illustrated by their Letters', The American Historical Review, 3 (1898), 203-29 (pp. 208 n. 3, 226 n. 1).

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. 312 n. 2.

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.

Reiko Takeda, 'Cambridge, Trinity College Library MS O.5.4: A Fifteenth-Century Pedagogical Dictionary?', in Historical Dictionaries and Historical Dictionary Research: Papers from the International Conference on Historical Lexicography and Lexicology, at the University of Leicester, 2002, ed. by Julie Coleman and Anne McDermott (Tübingen: M. Niemeyer, 2004), pp. 11-18 (p. 12 n. 7).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Gibson, John, book-dealer, fl 1720-1726
Lawrence of Aquilegia, Italian canon and teacher, c 1250-c 1304

Places:

Northern Italy