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Harley MS 3974
- Record Id:
- 040-002049811
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049811
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0001e6
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059464363.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3974
- Title:
-
Aimoin of Fleury, Historia Francorum
- Scope & Content:
-
This 12th-century manuscript contains the Historia Francorum (History of the Franks) by Aimoin of Fleury (b. c. 960, d. c. 1010), a French chronicler and monk at the Benedictine abbey of Fleury. It is thought to have been produced for Henri I (b. 1127, d. 1181), Count of Champagne, since it was decorated by the same workshop at Troyes that decorated other histories for the count (see Stirnemann, ‘Reconstitution’ (2003), p. 43).
Contents:
ff. 1v-121r: Aimoin of Fleury, Historia Francorum.
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
f. 121v: The Ave Maria (Hail Mary) or Angelic Salutation, ‘Ave maria gracia plena dominus tecum benedicta tu in mulieribus et benedictus fructus ventris tui Amen’, added in a 12th- or 13th-century script.
f. 1*r-1*v: ?14th-century hymns and music notation (neumes on a 4-staff bar in red ink) inserted upside down: hymns for the feast of the Nativity and St Michael (f. 1*r), All Saints and St Nicholas (f. 1*v), imperfect.
f. 1r: A description of the contents, in a 16th or 17th century script.
[ff. 101v, [101r], [101v], 121v are empty].
Decoration:
1 large blue initial with foliate decoration in red, green, brown and blue (f. 1r); 1 large green foliate initial with foliate decoration against a blue and red background (f. 2r). Initials in red or blue, occasionally with reserved lines, with penwork decoration in the other colour, or in both colours (e.g. see ff. 33r, 68v). Large blue and red initials in frames with penwork decoration in the other colour. Small blue and red initials (f. 1*r-1*v). Rubrics in red or blue. Capitals highlighted in red (f. 1v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- England and France 700-1200 Project
Harley Collection - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049811", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3974: Aimoin of Fleury, Historia Francorum" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049811 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3974 : Aimoin of Fleury, Historia Francorum - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3967]/040-002049811
- 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_100059464363.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1160
- End Date:
- 1175
- Date Range:
- c 1165-c 1170
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 315 x 215 mm (text space: 215 x 135 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 1* + 121 ( + 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf and 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the end); 1 unfoliated parchment leaf between f. 101 and f. 102 (f. [101]); f. 1* is a parchment leaf with hymns and music notation (bound upside down); the lower margin of f. 120 has been cut out; parts of the upper halves of f. 121 and f. [122] have been cut out; 1 parchment stub between f. 120 and f. 121.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Gold-tooled and blind-stamped speckled brown leather with gold-stamped edges, the spine inscribed in gold at the British Museum (gold partially faded): ‘[AIMOINUS FLORIACEN HISTORIA] FRANCORUM ALIUS DE GESTIS FRANCORUM’; an old (?) shelfmark number pasted at the top of the spine: ‘15’.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: ?Troyes, Northern France.
Provenance:
Henri I le Libéral (b. 1127, d. 1181), Count of Champagne from 1152, probably made for him: the manuscript was produced by a scribe and illuminator at work in a group of manuscripts commissioned by him (see Stirnemann, ‘Reconstitution’ (2003), pp. 37-45).
Unknown 12th-16th-century owners: a 16th-century (?) inscription (f. 1r); added pressmark '49' (f. 1r). The lower part of f. 120 has been excised to remove an ownership inscription.
Pierre Séguier (b. 1588, d. 1672), chancellor of France from 1635 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 301).
Andrew Hay (d. 1754?), book dealer: sold together with other manuscripts from the Séguier collection on 5 September 1720 (Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 183).
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 ‘5 Septembris, 1720’ (f. [i] recto).
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:
-
Complete 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 (1809), p. 100 (no. 3974).
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, pp. 50 n. 18, and 68 n. 1.
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. 182-83, 300-01.
Patricia Stirnemann, ‘Reconstitution des bibliothèques en langue latine des comtes de Champagne’, in Le Moyen-âge à livres ouverts - Actes du colloque (Lyon, 24 et 25 septembre 2002) (Lyon: ARALD, 2003), pp. 37-45.
- 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.