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Harley MS 3667
- Record Id:
- 040-002049499
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049499
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0000b0
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056054471.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3667
- Title:
-
Easter Table (imperfect); A letter from Dionysius Exiguus to Bonifatius on the date of Easter; Apuleian spheres and scientific diagrams; including Byrthferth of Ramsey’s diagram; T-O world map; Abbo of Fleury, De Differentia Circuli et Spherae
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains part of a computus, probably compiled by Byrhtferth of Ramsey (b. c.970, d. c.1020) in the late 10th century. This copy was made at Peterborough Abbey in the 2nd quarter of the 12th century. A fragment of the same manuscript is now Cotton MS Tiberius C I, ff. 2-17 (see Ker, 'Membra Disiecta', p. 132).
Contents:
ff. 1r-2v: Part of an Easter-table with obits and other historical notices, pertaining to Peterborough Abbey.
ff. 3r-4r: A letter from Dionysius Exiguus (b. c 470, d. c 540) to Bonifatius on the date of Easter.
ff. 4r-4v: Notes on years (anni communis) in frames of red arches.
f. 4v: Apuleian spheres (prognosticating devices for predicting the survival of a patient), including a vertical list of letters assigned to Roman numerals, a circular diagram labelled 'ratio sp[her]e pythagori' with compartments labelled 'vita' and 'mors' and two human figures holding scrolls with Roman numerals.
f. 5r: An Apuleian Sphere, with a diamond-shaped diagram labelled 'organu[m] pp.', plus explanation beginning, 'De quacumque re scire volueris'.
f. 5v: A circular diagram of the twelve winds, with each wind being depicted as a human head with wings, and a text beginning 'Martian. inq[u]it luna quidem sexcentesimam'.
f. 6r: A circular diagram, perhaps unfinished, listing the months and numbers related to lunar months.
f. 6v: A diagram of the branches of knowledge, labelled 'Phylosophyae divisio'.
f. 7r: A diagram of complex acrostic poem which can perhaps be attributed to Abbo of Fleury (b. c. 945, d. 1004), abbot of Fleury (see Lapidge and Baker, 'More Acrostic Verses' (1997), p. 6). The first horizontal line begins 'O decus et cui vernat honor...'
f. 7v: A diagram of creation, with a mandorla surrounded by the names of the four Evangelists, the names of the Apostles, the names of Old Testament figures, notes on the hours of the day and night and the Old English names of the directions and wnds, along with notes on the place of the heavens in the structure of the creation.
f. 8r: 'Byrthferth's diagram' of the physical and cosmological fours, labelled 'H[a]ec figura composite est de concordia mensium atque elementorum'. This copy of Byrhtferth's diagram does not have some of the text or the ogham inscriptions found in the copy in Oxford, St John's College MS 17, f. 7v.
f. 8v: A map of the world based on a T-O model, with some major cities and regions labelled.
ff. 8v-10v: Abbo of Fleury, De Differentia Circuli et Spherae (On the Difference between the Circle and the Sphere), including tables (ff. 9v-10r), a diagram listing the signs of the zodiac (f. 9v), a diagram showing the phases of the moon in relation to the sun (f. 10r).
Decoration:
Frames, arches and decorative lines in red (ff. 1r-2v, 4r-5r, 6r). Drawing of figures with halos holding scrolls with Roman numerals written on them (f. 4v). Drawing of the personification of the winds in brown, red, and green (f. 5v). Full-page charts, maps, or diagrams in brown and red, a few also with yellow, green and/or purple washes. Large initials in green, red or purple, some with penwork decoration. Rubrics in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049499", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3667: Easter Table (imperfect); A letter from Dionysius Exiguus to Bonifatius on the date of Easter; Apuleian spheres and scientific…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049499 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3667 : Easter Table (imperfect); A letter from Dionysius Exiguus to Bonifatius on the date of Easter; Apuleian spheres and… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3669]/040-002049499
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056054471.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- English, Old
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1122
- End Date:
- 1149
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter of 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 315 x 205 mm (text space: approximately 230 x 160 mm).
Foliation: ff. 10 (+ 4 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 9 at the end).
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Peterborough, Eastern England.
Provenance:
The Benedictine abbey of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew in Peterborough, founded in 966: includes annals of the abbey (ff. 1-2v). The hand of the text is similar to that of the scribe of the annals for 1122-1131 in the E text of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, also copied at Peterborough (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud Misc. 636; Clark, 'Notes' (1954), p. 71); these folios possibly date between 1122 and 1135: Ralph (Radulfus) d'Escures (d. 1122), archbishop of Canterbury is listed in the margin of the Easter table in the original hand, while the death of Henry I (b. 1068/9, d. 1135), king of England and lord of Normandy is recorded in another hand (f. 1v); added 12th-century notes, including note relating to the coronation of Henry II (f. 2r); part of this manuscript may have been listed as 'A.ii' in the Peterborough 'Marticularium' from the late 14th or early 15th century (see Ker, Catalogue (1957), p. 260 and James, List (1926), p. 34).
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:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3667.
M. R. James, List of Manuscripts formerly in Peterborough Abbey Library, Supplement to the Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, 5 (1926), pp.16, 34.
Neil R. Ker, 'Membra disiecta', British Museum Quarterly, 12 (1938), 130-35 (p. 132).
Cecily Clark, 'Notes on MS. Laud Misc. 636', Medium Ævum, 23 (1954), 71-75.
N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), no. 196.
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. 151.
C. M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190, Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 3 (London: Miller, 1975), no. 37.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), no. 559.
Cyril Hart, 'The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle at Ramsey', in Alfred the Wise: Studies in Honour of Janet Bately on the Occasion of her Sixty-fifth Birthday, ed. by J. Roberts and J. Nelson (Cambridge: Brewer, 1957), pp. 65-88 (pp. 66-67, 66 n. 5).
Byrhtferth's Enchiridion, ed. by P. S. Baker and M. Lapidge, Early English Text Society, S.S. 15 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. lv-lvii.
Michael Lapidge and P. S. Baker, 'More Acrostic Verse by Abbo of Fleury', The Journal of Medieval Latin, 7 (1996), 1-27.
The Leofric Missal I, ed. by Nicholas Orchard, Henry Bradshaw Society, 113 (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 2002), p. 189.
Martin Foys, 'An Unfinished Mappamundi from Late Eleventh-Century Worcester: CCCC 265 and the Evidence for a Family of Late Anglo-Saxon Maps', Anglo-Saxon England, 35 (2006), 271-84 (271-75, 279-82).
László Sándor Chardonnens, Anglo-Saxon Prognostics, 900-1100: Study and Texts (Leiden: Brill, 2007), pp. 518-19.
Anglo-Saxon Prognostics: An Edition and Translation of the Texts from London, British Library, MS Cotton Tiberius A III, ed. and trans. by R. M. Liuzza (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2010), pp. 20, 73-74.
Jill Bradley, 'You Shall Surely Not Die': The Concepts of Sin and Death as Express in the Manuscript Art of Northwestern Europe, c. 800-1200 vol I (Leiden: Brill, 2008), pp. 378-79, 394, 693.
Byrhtferth of Ramsey: Lives of St Oswald and St Ecgwine, ed. and trans. byM. Lapidge (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2009), pp. xxx-xxxi, 5.
Doyle, Kathleen and Charlotte Denoël, Medieval Illumination: Manuscript Art in England and France 700-1200 (London: British Library, 2018), also published as Enluminures Médiévales: Chefs-d'oeuvre de la Bibliothèque nationale de France et de la British Library, 700-1200 (Paris : BnF Éditions, 2018), p. 162.
Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story (London: The British Library, 2018), no. 106 [exhibition catalogue].
- Exhibitions:
- Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War, British Library, London, 19 October 2018 - 19 February 2019
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.