Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 3976

Record Id:

040-002049813

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049813

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0001e8

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3976

Title:

Pius II, Cosmographia

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a copy of the Cosmographia, written by Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (b. 1405, d. 1464), who became Pope Pius II in 1458.

Contents:

ff. 1r-183v: Pius II, Cosmographia.

Decoration:

1 large white vine initial in colours and gold enclosing a portrait of Pope Pius II in profile (f. 1r). Numerous spaces for initials have been left blank throughout the text (e.g. ff. 2r, 31v, 46v, 63r, 80v, 84v, 96v, 98v, 101v, 105v, 108v, 113v, 131v, 135v, 152v, 156r, 159v, 163r, 169v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049813", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3976: Pius II, Cosmographia" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049813

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3976 : Pius II, Cosmographia

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3969]/040-002049813

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:

1450

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 315 x 220 mm (text space: 205 x 115/20 mm).

Foliation: ff. 183 (+ 1 unfoliated paper and 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the end).

Script: Humanistic.

Binding: Post-1600. The 'Harleian' binding of this manuscript was the work of Thomas Elliot, one of the two binders employed by Edward Harley for this style. The gold-tooled letters of Elliot's name appear in small roundels on the spine. Marbled endpapers. Part of the spine of a later British Library binding is now pasted on the inside front cover.

Custodial History:

Origin: Italy, Central (Rome).

Provenance:

Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (b. 1405, d. 1464), who became Pope Pius II in 1458: his portrait (f. 1r); see also Humfrey Wanley's notes (see Diary (1966), I, p. 143 n. 7).

John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer; sold to Edward Harley, in a package with 10 other manuscripts 'lately come from Florence', on 13 September 1722 (see Diary (1966); Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 162).

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 ‘13 die mensis septembris, A.D. 1722’ (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.

Information About Copies:

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: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3976.

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. 143 n. 7.

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. 162.

Cyril Ernest Wright, 'Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition', in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 466).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Gibson, John, book-dealer, fl 1720-1726
Pius II, Pope, 1405-1464,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121441321

Places:

Rome, Italy