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Harley MS 3835

Record Id:

040-002049671

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049671

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00015a

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3835

Title:

Book of Hours

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-34v: The mixed hours of the Virgin and hours of the Cross; beginning imperfectly, in the middle of Matins.

ff. 34v-36r: Prayers to the Virgin, including the Salve Regina and Five Joys of the Virgin.

ff. 37r-40r: Hymn based on the Salve Regina (‘Ave virgo virginum stella matutina’); imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 40v-41r: The Seven Joys of the Virgin.

ff. 42r-54v: The Penitential Psalms; imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 54v-60v: Litany of Saints, followed by related prayers.

ff. 61r-88v: The Office of the Dead; imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 89r-99v: The Commendation of Souls; imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 100-108v: The Psalms of the Passion; imperfect at the beginning.

ff. 108v-120v: The Psalter of St Jerome, beginning with a long rubric: ‘Beatus vero Jheronimus in hoc modo psalterium istud disposuit sicut angelus domini docuit eum per spiritum sanctum’.

f. 121r: Prayer, beginning: ‘Cruci corone spinee clavis que dire lancee honore impendamus fel aceto spongeam lapas et obprobria devote celebramus hec sunt vexilla regis per que corone gaudia perpetue speramus’; preceded by a rubricated indulgence, beginning: ‘Dominus papa petrus primus concessit quondam quicumque hanc Antiphon cum verso et oracione d[ice]bit’.

ff. 121v-122r: Prayer, beginning: ‘Stella celi extirpavit que lactavit dominum’; preceded by a rubricated indulgence: ‘Ista oracio sequens est valde devota et sepius opprobata contra pestilencia’.

ff. 122r-124v: Memoria de sancta Trinitate, beginning: ‘Domine deus omnipotens pater et filius et spiritus sanctus da michi famulo tuo .N. victoriam contra omnis inimicos meos’.

ff. 125r-125v: The Eight Verses of Saint Bernard, entitled: ‘Octo versus sancti bernardi’ [without introductory narrrative].

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 125v: A poem in English, beginning: 'If thou art young then mary not [? erit] / If thou art old thou hast more vite' ; added in the 16th or 17th century, perhaps by Henry James of Comstock.

Decoration:

Full border in colours and gold with flowers, ivy, and acanthus leaves, with an initial excised (f. 100r). Initials in colours and gold, sometimes with foliate feathering extending into the margins. Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in gold with dark blue pen-flourishing. Line-fillers in blue and gold. Many initials have been excised; all folios with miniatures or large initials have been removed, except for f. 100r. Added marginal ink drawing with flowers and ivy probably copying the type of decoration found in this manuscript, post-medieval (f. 54r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049671", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3835: Book of Hours" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049671

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3835 : Book of Hours

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3827]/040-002049671

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:

1474

Date Range:

2nd quarter of the 15th century-3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 200 x 145 mm (text space: 115 x 75 mm).

Foliation: ff. 125 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); parchment stubs of removed leaves after f. 6 (beginning of Lauds), after f. 18 (beginning of Prime), after f. 21 (beginning of Terce), after f. 23 (beginning of Sext), after f. 25 (beginning of None), after f. 27 (beginning of Vespers), after f. 31 (beginning of Compline), after f. 36 (beginning of the hymn Salve virgo virginum stella matutina), after f. 41 (beginning of the Penitential Psalms), probably after f. 55 (leaf from the litany), after f. 60 (beginning of the Office of the Dead), after f. 88 (beginning of the Commendation of Souls), after f. 99 (beginning of the Passion Psalms), after f. 109 (beginning of the Psalter of Saint Jerome); parchment stubs after ff. 66 and 75 (Office of the Dead), but without loss of text.

Collation: Each quire has been mounted onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Red half leather with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; remains of the previous binding (gold- and blind-tooled dark brown sprinkled leather) have been pasted on the insides of the upper and lower covers; re-bound on 22 December 1965.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Southern Netherlands.

Provenance:

Probably made for the English market: Includes a suffrage to Thomas Becket, cancelled (f. 15r).

? Henry James of Comstock, Devon, 16th or 17th century: a memorandum on f. 125v (upper margin) records an obligation for 'Henery James of Comstock in the County of Devon' to pay 'Gilles Williames of oufcollome [Uffculme] in the same county', witnessed by 'Williame Goulde'; the same hand also added an English poem in the lower margin.

Samuel Knott (d. 1687), rector of Combe Raleigh, Devon (1661-1668), antiquary and collector of manuscripts: notes in his hand in the lower margins of ff. 1r and 125v, indicating that the manuscript was once located in Taunton and Chichester: 'Nuper Romani Chichester generosi de Church Taunten in Devon' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 211).

Robert Burscough (b. 1650/51, d.1709), prebendary of Exeter in 1701, archdeacon of Barnstaple in 1703, rector of Cheriton Bishop in 1705: sold by his widow on 17 May 1715 to Robert Harley, along with other manuscripts (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), I, p. 11 n. 6; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 87-88).

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 ‘17 Maij 1715’ (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), II (1808), p. 85.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 11 n. 6.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 87-88, 211.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

Southern Netherlands