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Harley MS 3680
- Record Id:
- 040-002049512
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049512
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0000bd
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059462788.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3680
- Title:
-
Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; Cuthbert of Wearmouth, Epistola de obitu venerabilis Bedae; a tract on the conversion of Kent; Catalogus sanctorum qui in Anglia requiescunt, imperfect
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century manuscript contains the Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (Ecclesiastical History of the English People) by the Benedictine monk Bede (b. 672/3, d. 735), the Epistola de obitu venerabilis Bedae (Letter on the Death of Bede the Venerable) by Cuthbert, a disciple of Bede, and tracts about the conversion of Kent and English saints. The manuscript was probably produced at the cathedral priory of St Andrew in Rochester, but was certainly owned there soon after its production, most likely until the priory's dissolution. The marginal annotations throughout the manuscript suggest that the monks used it as a sort of compendium of English saints and bishops, and as a hagiographical source for liturgical lections (see Webber, 'Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica as a Source of Lections’ (2015), pp. 54-55).
Contents:
ff. 2r-173v: Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum (ff. 2r-3v: A prologue; ff. 3v-173v: Books I-V, each preceded by a list of chapters).
ff. 173v-175v: Cuthbert of Wearmouth, Epistola de obitu venerabilis Bedae.
ff. 176r-177r: A Latin tract about the conversion of Kent, beginning ‘In nomine domini nostri ihesu Christi beatus augustinus Æhelbertum regem cantuariæ cum gente sua convertit et baptizavit’.
ff. 177v: Catalogus sanctorum qui in Anglia requiescunt (Catalogue of Saints who are Resting in England), beginning ‘Hae sunt notationes de sanctis qui in anglica patria requiescunt’, imperfect.
[ff. 1* recto, 1* verso, 1r, 1v are empty].
Decoration:
Large initials with penwork decoration in purple, green, red, and blue, a few also with yellow highlighting at the beginning of the prologue, books, or texts (ff. 2r, 4v, 36v, 63r, 100r, 137v ). Display capitals in red, green and purple. Medium and small initials in red, green, blue or purple, some with penwork decoration in another colour or colours. Rubrics in red, green, or purple. Numbers in red. Running headers in brown ink. A faint marginal drawing in brown ink on f. 6r (unidentified).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049512", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3680: Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; Cuthbert of Wearmouth, Epistola de obitu venerabilis Bedae; a tract on the conversion of…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049512 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3680 : Bede, Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum; Cuthbert of Wearmouth, Epistola de obitu venerabilis Bedae; a tract on the conversion… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3682]/040-002049512
- 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_100059462788.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1100
- End Date:
- 1124
- Date Range:
- 1st 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: 305 x 215 mm (text space: 225 x 130 mm).
Foliation: ff. 177 + 1* (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning + 2 at the end); f. 1* and f. 1 are original parchment flyleaves; f. 1 is smaller than the manuscript’s other leaves (290 x 290); a parchment strip (inscribed: ‘Beda h 15 (?) History of Britanny’) pasted on f. 1* recto (perhaps taken from a previous cover); medieval foliation throughout the manuscript. Strips of parchment have been cut out of the margins of f. 104 and f. 105; paper repair strips have been attached to ff. 102, 103r and 103v.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. British Museum/British Library in-house, gold-tooled brown leather binding, the spine inscribed in gold: ‘BEDÆ HISTORIA ANGLOR. COD. SEC. XII.’.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Rochester, Southeastern England.
Provenance:
The cathedral priory of St Andrew, Rochester: a 14th-century ownership inscription ('Liber Sancti Andree Roffensis ecclesiae') on f. 1r; a late 13th- or 14th-century inscription recording that the book belonged in the cloister and was given by Hubert the precentor ('liber de claustro Roffensis Huberti precentor') on f. 2r; the manuscript is listed in the priory’s catalogue of 1202, now Royal MS 5 B XII, ff. 23-3r (see Ker, Medieval Libraries (1964), p. 161; English Benedictine Libraries, ed. by Sharpe and others (1996), p. 503 (no. 50)); 12th- or 13th-century and 14th- or 15th-century marginal annotations highlight the Archbishops of Canterbury and the Bishops of Rochester. The latter are Justus (r. 604-624) on f. 42v; Romanus (r. 624-624/25) on f. 47r: Paulinus (r. 633-644) on f. 62r; Ithamar (r. ?-between 655-664) on f. 83v; Damianus (r. bet. 655–664-c. 664) on 102r; Putta (r. 669?- 676) and Cwichelm (r. 676?-678) on 112v; Thobias (bet. 699–716 726) and Ealdwulf (r. 727?-739) on 169r; a 12th- or 13th-century annotation on f. 48r refers to Paulinus, Bishop of Rochester, as ‘our father’ (‘Legenda S. Paulini patris nostri’). The addition of Roman numerals in the margins indicate that passages on the lives of St Augustine (ff. 20v-21v, 22r-23v) and St Cuthbert (ff. 131r-131v, 132r-133r) were used as liturgical lections, see Webber, 'Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica as a Source of Lections’ (2015), pp. 54-55. Monks from the priory perhaps also added two 15th-century English annotations: ‘Ryght reverent and [...]’, in green ink, about Saint Begu (d. 690), a nun of the Benedictine nunnery of Hackness, on f. 125r; ‘Watlingstrete’ (Watling Street) on f. 177v.
John Batteley (b. 1647, d. 1708), Church of England clergyman and antiquary: sold to Edward Harley with the rest of his collection through his nephew John Batteley on 5 November 1723 (Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 67).
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 with the date of acquisition by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley '5 die Novembris A. D. 1723’ (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:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
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), p. 51.
Venerabilis Baedae: Historiam Ecclesiasticam Gentis Anghrum, Historiam Abbatum, Epistolam ad Ecgberctum, una cum Historia Abbatum Auctore Anonymo, ed. by Charles Plummer, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1896), I, p. cxxvi.
Elliott Van Kirk Dobbie, The Manuscripts of Caedmon's Hymn and Bede's Death Song (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937), p. 8 (as Ha).
Max Ludwig Wolf Laistner and H. H. King, A Hand-List of Bede Manuscripts (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1943), p. 98.
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. 161.
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. 263 n. 1.
Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People, ed. by Bertram Colgrave and R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969), p.lviii.
Cyril Ernst Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 433.
Katharine Mary Waller, 'The Library, Scriptorium and Community of Rochester Cathedral Priory c. 1080-1150' (unpublished doctoral thesis, University of Liverpool, 1980), p. 269.
Mary Richards, Texts and Their Traditions in the Medieval Library of Rochester Cathedral Priory, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, 78, part 3 (Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1988), p. 89.
English Benedictine Librarires: The Shorter Catalogues, ed. by R. Sharpe and others, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 4 (London: British Library, 1996), p. 503 (no. 50).
Richard Gameson, The Manuscripts of Early Norman England (c. 1066-1130) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 108.
Joanna Story, ‘After Bede: Continuing the Ecclesiastical History’, in Early Medieval Studies in Memory of Patrick Wormald, ed. by Stephen Baxter and others (Ashgate: Farnham, 2009), pp. 165-184 (pp. 171, 176, 183).
Teresa Webber, 'Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica as a Source of Lections in Pre- and Post- Conquest England', in The Long Twelfth-Century View of the Anglo-Saxon Past, ed. by Martin Brett and David Woodman (Farnham: Ashgate, 2015), pp. 47-74 (pp. 54-55, n. 63, 69, 72).
- 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.