Harley MS 3872

Origin:

Germany, S.; ff. 182r-190v: Italy.

Provenance:

Composite codex made of two manuscripts, one of paper and one on parchment, written by two different scribes (ff. 2-181 and ff. 182r-190v).

The copy of Cicero's 'De amicitia' in the first manuscript (ff. 161r-170r) is dated 1377: 'Explicit liber tullii de amicicia completus anno domini Mccclxxvii in die dorothee' (f. 169r).

Johann Georg Graevius (b. 1632, d. 1703), German classical scholar and critic: possibly owned and sold to Wilhelm in 1703 with the rest of his library (see Wright 1972).

Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine (b. 1658, d. 1716), owner of a library in Düsseldorf: bought the entire Graevius library in 1703 (see Wright 1972).

Giovanni Giacomo Zamboni (d. 1753), resident in London for the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt (c. 1723-1753), friend of Michael Maittaire (b. 1670, d. 1747), the classical scholar and historian of printing: bought the Wilhelm library sometime before 1724 through Johann Büchels (b. 1659, d. 1738): sold by him through Maittaire to Edward Harley on 6 Augustus 1724 (see Clark 1891; Wright and Wright 1966; Wright 1972).

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, ‘6 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.