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Harley MS 3731

Record Id:

040-002049563

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049563

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0000f0

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3731

Title:

Liber Hermetis Trismegisti and other astrological works

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-50r: Liber Hermetis Trismegisti, beginning: 'Incipit liber hermetis trismegisti de xxxvj decanis xij signorum et formis eorum et de climatibus et faciebus quas habent palanete in eisdem signis'.

ff. 51r-95r: Mā Shā’ Allāh ibn Athari [Messehalla], Epistola de rebus eclipsibus, beginning: 'Incipit epistola messealla in rebus et eclipsis lune et coniuncionibus planteorum ac revolucionibus'.

ff. 96r-170v: Sermones Almonsoris, beginning: 'Tres sunt modi ad inveniendum gradum ascendentis secundum per instrumentum per casum spermatis per animodar'.

ff. 170v-172r: Sermones Hermetis de accidentibus, beginning: 'Ordina significantiones fortiorem et debiliorem quia ceteri participant cum hijs duobus'; ending: 'Explicit sermo hermetis de accidentibus rescriptus ab haly'.

ff. 172v-175r: Astrological interrogation, beginning: 'Quando per questionem iam factam'.

ff. 175r-176r: Astrological tables.

ff. 176r-181v: Astrological treatise, introduced by the rubric: 'Revelata est mihi hec veritas quod additio 5 minutorum in omni anno in motu 8e spere est vera et naturalis, et iudicandum est per 9m celum et non per 8m, cum spere sint 9m et non 8m ut quidam voluerunt'; beginning: 'Ofriffiel Sachariel Samael Michael Annael Raphael Gabriel. Isti sunt septem angeli secundum septem planetas quorum quilibet ducit mundum 354 annis et 4 mensibus in numero dierum lune'.

ff. 181v-193r: Astrological treatise, introduced by the rubric: 'De directione gradus alicuius planete vel partis vel signi ad alium gradum alterius planete vel partis vel signi et est Atazir. Quod est precise scire vel videre quot gradus equales sunt Inter unum gradum et alium [etc.]'; beginning: 'Cum igitur volueris significatorem aliquem dirigere ad quemcumque locum circuli et fuerit yleg significator in gradu medij celi vel in gradu anguli terre'.

ff. 194r-205v: Astrological predictions for the year 1431, beginning: 'Numquam laude vel premio dignos putavi'.

Decoration:

ff. 1r-205v only: Large (1-3 lines) plain red initials. Capitals highlighted in red. Rubrics in red. Paraphs in red. Underlining in red. An astrological nativity diagram in black ink on f. 93v.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049563", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3731: Liber Hermetis Trismegisti and other astrological works" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049563

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3731 : Liber Hermetis Trismegisti and other astrological works

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3732]/040-002049563

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:

1425

End Date:

1435

Date Range:

c 1430

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 300 x 215 mm (text space: 230 x 140 mm, in 2 columns [ff. 1r-95r]; 215 x 125 mm [ff. 96r-193r]; 210 x 150 mm, in 2 columns [ff. 194r-205v]).

Foliation: ff. 295 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); 3 unfoliated blank paper leaves after f. 95 and f. 193v; 1 unfoliated modern paper pastedown on f. [iii]recto (bibliographical notes).

Collation: Indicated by catchwords.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600; blind-stamped and gold-tooled mottled brown leather; with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on paper pastedowns on the inside covers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Germany.

Provenance:

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 forms 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), p. 56.

Wilhelm Gundel, Neue astrologische Texte des Hermes Trismegistos; Funde und Forschungen auf dem Gebiet der antiken Astronomie und Astrologie, Abhandlungen der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Neue Folge, 12 (Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1936) [edition of ff. 1r-50r].

Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 vols (New York, Macmillan, 1923-1958), II (1923), pp. 221-22.

Lynn Thorndike, 'Three Astrological Predictions', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 26 (1963), 343-46 (pp. 343-45).

Otto Neugebauer, 'Notes on the Astrological Predictions for A. D. 1430/1431 in MS. Harley 3731', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 29 (1966), 432-33.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Mā Shā’ Allāh ibn Athari [Messahalla], Persian Jewish astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician, c 740-815,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000108888241,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/37256856

Places:

Germany