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 3661
- Record Id:
- 040-002049493
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049493
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0000aa
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100181359103.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3661
- Title:
- The elections of abbesses of Holy Trinity Abbey, Caen
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a guide to the election of abbesses of Holy Trinity Abbey in Caen, France, based upon the procedure followed at Agnès de Thieuville’s election in 1482. The guide is appended with a later account of the appointment of Anne de Montmorency as abbess in 1555, by which time abbesses were nominated by the King and confirmed by the Pope, rather than elected by the convent (as explained on f. 36r-v).
Contents:
f. 1r-v: A list of contents, written in Middle French.
ff. 2r-11v: A set of statutes for electing the abbess, written in Middle French.
ff. 11v-34r: A set of statutes for installing a new abbess, written in Middle French and Latin (ff. 11v-17r only).
ff. 34v-35v: A list of benefices where the abbess holds the right of presentation, written in Middle French.
ff. 36r-39v: An added account of the appointment of Anne de Montmorency as abbess in 1555, written in French.
Decoration:
Full borders of acanthus and flowers, and hybrid creatures (f. 2r), with partial borders in the same style (ff. 10v, 18v, 26r, 29r, 31v, 33v).
4 large historiated initials in colours and gold, three bearing the arms of Agnès de Thieuville (ff. 2r, 10v, 18v), and one bearing the arms of Anne de Montmorency (f. 36r).
4 small historiated initials in colours and gold bearing the monogram of Anne de Montmorency (ff. 36v, 37r, 37v, 38r). 1 blank space left for an initial (f. 39r).
4 large initials in colours and gold with gold scrolls or chequered inner grounds (ff. 26r, 29r, 31v, 32v). 1 large ribbon initial with flowers (f. 33v).
Numerous smaller blue initials with red pen-flourishing, or gold with black pen-flourishing. Capitals marked in yellow. Line-fillers in blue and gold.
Some catchwords decorated with pen-flourishing in brown ink.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049493", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3661: The elections of abbesses of Holy Trinity Abbey, Caen" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049493 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3661 : The elections of abbesses of Holy Trinity Abbey, Caen - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3663]/040-002049493
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100181359103.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
French, Middle
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1482
- End Date:
- 1482
- Date Range:
- 1482
- 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:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 265 x 190 mm (text space: 140 x 100 mm).
Foliation: ff. 39 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 unfoliated ruled parchment leaf at the beginning and 2 unfoliated ruled parchment leaves and 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); original foliation in Roman numerals (starting with the first page of text and ending with f. 35r).
Quire signatures. Vertical catchwords.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Brown half-leather binding, with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers. Rebound 9 September 1964.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Caen, France.
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of the Sainte Trinité, Caen (Normandy): made on the occasion of the election as abbess of Agnès de Thieuville (d. 1491), in June 1482. Her election is narrated in the manuscript (date of 1482 stated on f. 25r), her arms argent 2 bends gules between 8 escallops of same (ff. 2r, 10v, 18v); at the abbey c. 1555 when the second part of the volume was written at the end of the last quire.
Inscribed 'XV', former pressmark? (f. 1r).
The convent of discalced Carmelites, Nevers (Nièvre): inscribed, late 17th century, 'Ex conventu Nivernensi Carmelit. Discal.' (f. 1r).
Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 255): sold to Edward Harley on 13 August 1724.
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 ‘13 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.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3661.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 304 n. 7.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 92, 250, 253, 255.
Joan Davies, 'The Montmorencys and the Abbey of Sainte Trinité, Caen: Politics, Profit and Reform', Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 53 (2002), 665-85 (pp. 673 n. 22, 680 n. 45).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)