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Harley MS 3895
- Record Id:
- 040-002049731
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049731
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000196
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100062423307.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3895
- Title:
- Compilation of saints lives with devotions to saints
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century manuscript predominantly contains the lives of the martyrs St Thomas of Canterbury, St Pelagia of Antioch, St Eustace, St Katherine of Alexandria, and the confessor St Aignan, Bishop of Orléans. It also includes hymns and prayers, a theological tract, and a commentary on the Song of Songs by Marbod of Rennes (b. c. 1035, d. 1123), archdeacon of Angers and Bishop of Rennes. The manuscript was owned and perhaps also produced at the Cistercian abbey of St Mary, Val-St-Lambert, near Liège.
Contents:
f. 1v: A table of contents: ‘In hoc volumine continentur hec. Vita et passio sancti thome archiepiscopi cantuariensis. Conversio vita et obitus sancte pelagie. Vita et passio sanctorum eustachii sociorum qui eius. Vita sancti Aniani aurelianensis episcopi. Vita et passio sancte Katherine virginis’.
ff. 2r-5v: Office of the Trinity, beginning ‘Incipit cursus sancte trinitatis cuius sit merces cantanti visio perpes’.
f. 5v: A miracle concerning the salvation of the soul of a person who devoutly recited the Office of the Trinity during his life: ‘Erat quidam famulus dei monachus cursum sancte trinitatis corde et ore tenens. Post eius obitum longe tempore domino revelante dum sepulcrum illius aperiretur . ut eius meritum et gloria demonstraretur . invente sunt tres rubentes rose in ore eius . et cartula hanc habens scripturam . Hec iccirco promeruit . quia cursum sancte trinitatis tenuit’.
ff. 6r-19v: Passio sancti Thomae Cantuariensis Archiepiscopus et Martyris (The Martyrdom of Saint Thomas of Canterbury), beginning ‘Ad laudem beatissimi martyris Thomae et fidelium aedificationem, opus impar scientiae meae aggredior’.
ff. 19v-31r: Reiner of St Laurent, Vita sancti Pelagiae sive Speculum poenitentiae (The Life of St Pelagia or the Mirror of Penitence), beginning: 'Exemplar conuersionis ac poenitentiae Pelagiam proposui, quae de tenebris ad lucem'.
ff. 31r-45v: Passio Sancti Eustachio Martyris (The Martyrdom of Saint Eustace), beginning ‘In diebus Traiani imperatoris demonum prevalente fallacia’.
ff. 45v-53v: Vita sancti Aniani episcopi et confessoris (The Life of St Anian, Bishop and Confessor), beginning: ‘Illo in tempore quo fulgens a rota seculi novella plantatio fidei’.
f. 53v: A suffrage to Katherine of Alexandria: ‘Deus qui dedisti legem moisy in monte sinay et in oedem loco corpus beate katherine virginis et martiris tue per angelos tuos mirabiliter collocala tribue quesimus ut eius meritis et intercessione ad montem qui Christus est valeamus pervenire per eiundem dominum’.
ff. 54r-60v: A hymn for the feast of St Katherine of Alexandria, entitled ‘Incipit passio sancte katerinae virginis et martyris’ [music notation on 4 staff-bars with c clef].
ff. 60v-78v: Vita et Passio sancti Katherine martyris, beginning ‘Cum memoria que fragilis est et plerisque sepius perturbata negociis. infinite rerum universitati'.
ff. 79r-87v: Marbod of Rennes, Commentary on the Song of Songs, beginning ‘Quem sitio votis nunc oscula porrigat oris quem mihi venturum promiserant organa vatum’.
f. 87v: Three prayers (?), now erased.
ff. 88r-91v: A theological tract, opening with a hymn attributed to St Ambrose, beginning ‘Almi prophetae progenies pia [B]eatus ambrosius secundum nomen eius ita et laus eius in fines terrae’.
The manuscript contains a 13th-century leaf that has been added later:
ff. 1*recto-1*verso: an unidentified theological text.
[f. 1r is blank].
Decoration:
Large initials in green or red, one with red penwork decoration (f. 61r). A large green initial with red pen-flourishing (f. 88r). Small initials in red. Initials and rubrics in red. Quire signatures (final versos) in brown ink.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049731", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3895: Compilation of saints lives with devotions to saints" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049731 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3895 : Compilation of saints lives with devotions to saints - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3887]/040-002049731
- 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_100062423307.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1224
- Date Range:
- 2nd half of the 12th century-1st quarter of the 13th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: approximately 170 x 115 mm (text space: 125 x 90 mm [ff. 2r-5v]; 135 x 85 mm [ff. 6r-53v]; 150 x 115 mm, in 4-line staffs [ff. 54r-60v]; 150 x 100 mm [ff. 61r-78v]; approximately 165 x 105 mm [ff. 79r-86v, in 2 columns]; 150 x 60 mm, in 1 column [ff. 87r-87v]; 105 x 75 mm [ff. 88r-91v]).
Foliation: ff. 1 * + 91 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end; f. 1* is a former pastedown with 13th-century text); f. [ii] is a modern paper with bibliographical notes; 1 parchment stub between f. 1 and f. 2; 2 parchment stubs between f. 5 and f. 6; the second stub contains text which indicates that f. 1* originally was placed before f. 6; ff. 2-5 probably have been inserted later.
Script: Protogothic; Gothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Blind-stamped, gold-stamped and -tooled brown leather binding, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum: ‘VITÆ SANCTOR. CANTICI COD. SEC. XIII’; marbled endpapers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Liège, Southern Netherlands (now in Belgium).
Provenance:
The Cistercian abbey of St Mary, Val-St-Lambert, near Liège, Belgium, founded in 1202: inscribed 'Liber sancte marie in valle sancti Lamberti' (f. 1v).
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, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 95.
Thomas Duffus Hardy, Descriptive Catalogue of Materials Relating to the History of Great Britain and Ireland to the End of the Reign of Henry VII, 3 vols (London: Longman, Roberts and Green, 1862-1871; repr. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), II (1865; repr. 2012): From A. D. 1066 to A. D. 1200, pp. 352-53.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 336.
Bernard Bavant, 'L'adaptation de la Vita Sanctae Pelagiae par Renier de Liège', Pélagie la pénitente, 2 (1984), 123-28.
- 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.