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Harley MS 3641

Record Id:
040-002049473
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
040-002049473
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000096
LARK:
SLARK:
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Harley MS 3641
Title:
William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum, imperfect
Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-95r: William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum, imperfect.

The manuscript contains a few additions:

f. 1r: 3 unfoliated parchment pastedowns, 2 with Harleian shelfmarks ('117. C. 17 / 3641' and '31/V C') and 1 inscribed by Humfrey Wanley: 'Hunc Codicem pervetustem Londini e manibus indoctorum redemit illustrissimus Dominus meus A. D. 1716';

f. 2r: 1 parchment pastedown onto f. 2r, featuring a (?) 14th century note ('Note bene').

Decoration:

Large initials in red or blue, with penwork decoration in the same colours (ff. 1r, 1v, 46v). Initials initials in red, blue, or green, some with simple penwork decoration. Line-fillers in red. Rubrics in red. Quire signatures of Roman numerals decorated in green (f. 8v).

Collection Area:
Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Harley Collection
Hierarchy Tree:
[{ "id" : "040-002049473", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3641: William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum, imperfect" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-002045828
040-002049473
Is part of:
Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

 

Harley MS 3641 : William of Malmesbury, Gesta pontificum Anglorum, imperfect
Hierarchy:
032-002045828[3643]/040-002049473
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:
1175
End Date:
1199
Date Range:
4th quarter of the 12th century
Era:
CE
Access:

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User Conditions:
Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 345 x 215 mm (text space: 255 x 155, in 2 columns).

Foliation: ff. 95 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 3 unfoliated parchment strips with inscriptions pasted onto f. 1r and 1 on f. 2r; f. 95 has been vertically cut in half (loss of text) and the missing parchment has been substituted with blank paper.

Collation: i-xi 8 [ff. 1-88], xii seven [ff. 89-95].

Script: Protogothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Northern England.

Provenance:

The Cistercian abbey of St Mary, Byland, Yorkshire (founded in 1134, becoming part of the Cistercian Order in 1147): Its ownership inscription on f. 1r: 'Liber Sancte marie de Belelanda' (see Medieval Libraries, ed. by Ker (1964), p. 23).

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 with the date of acquisition ('1716') and with a note that it was acquired from an 'unlearned' Londoner by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley (a small parchment strip affixed to the lower margin of 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:

David N. Bell, An Index of Authors and Works in Cistercian Libraries in Great Britain, Cistercian Studies Series, 130 (Kalamazoo, Michigan: Cistercian Publications, 1992), p. 148.

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3641.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 23.

Anne Lawrence, ‘The Artistic Influence of Durham Manuscripts’, in Anglo-Norman Durham 1093-1193, ed. by David Rollason, Margaret Harvey, and Michael Prestwich (Woodbridge: Boydell, 1994), pp. 451-469 (p. 465).

Anne Lawrence, ‘English Cistercian Manuscripts of the Twelfth Century’, in Cistercian Art and Architecture in the British Isles, ed. by Christopher Norton and David Park (Cambridge: University Press, 1986), pp. 284-98 (p. 293, pl. 183).

Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2003), p. 210 n. 69.

Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)
Names:
William of Malmesbury, historian and monk, c 1080-1143,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000447076272,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/205295992
Places:
Northern England