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Harley MS 3978

Record Id:

040-002049815

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049815

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x0001ea

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3978

Title:

A French translation of the Psalter and Canticles, with Peter Lombard's prologue to the Psalms in French, and other spiritual and moral texts, including 'Les Dits de saint Augustin'; the Office of the Dead in French; 'Les meditations Saint Anseaume'; 'Le Mireoir du monde'

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a French translation of the Psalter and Canticles, with Peter Lombard's prologue to the Psalms in French, and other spiritual and moral texts, dating from the second half of the 14th century. It is written in a dialect that replaces the 'c' sound with 'ch', as in 'cheulx' rather than 'ceulx', possibly local to Picardie (see Berger, La Bible Française (1884), p. 400). The manuscript also includes miniatures and prayers in Latin on inserted singletons between quires, dating from the first quarter of the 14th century.

Contents:

ff. 1r-4rv: Peter Lombard, prologue to the Psalms, in French (beginning 'Tout premierement et anchois que nous lisons les prophesies dou Psaltier').

ff. 4r-5v: 'Les Dits de saint Augustin', a text on the sayings of St Augustine in French (beginning 'Sains Augustins dist. Psalmoyer embiellist les ames').

ff. 7r-130v: The Psalms, in French, with rubrics specifying the weekday divisions in French (starting with the Sunday nocturn, 'Le dimenche nocturne'), and the opening words of the Psalm in Latin.

ff. 130v-140r: The Canticles, in French.

ff. 140r-144r: The lessons, responses and verses for the Office of the Dead, in French.

ff. 144r-149r: Meditations on the suffering of Christ, in French (beginning 'Tous poissans faisieres de tous purs douls rakateres de toute creature').

ff. 149r-153v: 'Les meditations Saint Anseaume', a French translation of St Anselm's first meditation (beginning 'Ma vie mespoente moult quant je regarde des ieuls de mon cuer').

ff. 153v-158v: 'Le Mireoir du monde', a poem on the inevitability of death in French (beginning 'Je vois morir venes avant').

Decoration:

13 large miniatures on inserted singletons between quires, dating from the first quarter of the 14th century, in colours and gold with rectangular frames enclosing gothic arches. Each miniature is preceded by a title in French and followed by a short prayer in Latin introduced by a decorated initial in colours and gold with ivy tendrils extending into the margins, including a face (f. 24r), and a bird's head (f. 52r). The subjects of the miniatures and the opening words of the accompanying prayers are as follows:

f. 6v: the Annunciation, prayer beginning 'Deus qui de beate Marie Virginis utero' (facing Psalms 1 and 2).

f. 15v: the Adoration of the Magi, prayer beginning 'Deus qui hodierna die unigenitum tuum gentibus' (facing Psalms 14 and 15).

f. 24r: the Massacre of the Innocents, prayer beginning 'Deus cuius hodierna die praeconium innocentes martyres' (facing Psalms 23 and 24).

f. 26v: the Baptism of Christ, prayer beginning 'Benedicat me Deus pater qui me creavit' (facing Psalms 25 and 26).

f. 33r: the Arrest of Christ, prayer beginning 'Domine Jesu Christe precor te per tuos sanctos' (facing Psalms 32 and 33).

f. 35r: the Entry into Jerusalem, prayer beginning 'Deus qui salutis eternae beatae Marie virginitate fecunda' (facing Psalms 41 and 42).

f. 52r: St Christopher carrying the Christ Child over the water, prayer beginning 'Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui nos ydoneos non esse perpendis' (facing Psalms 49 and 50).

f. 61v: the stoning of St Stephen, prayer beginning 'Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui primitias martyr levite stephani sanguine dedicasti' (facing Psalm 68).

f. 70r: St Julian the Hospitaller and his wife ferrying Christ as a leper in their boat, prayer beginning 'Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui nos ydoneos non esse perpendis' (Psalms 76 and 77).

f. 79v: the raising of Lazarus, prayer beginning 'Domine Jesu Christe auxilium sancte tue crucis adoro' (facing Psalms 85 and 86).

f. 96r: the martyrdom of St Laurence, prayer beginning 'Da nobis quesumus domine deus viciorum nostrorum' (facing Psalm 104).

f. 105r: St Fiacre healing people with disabled legs, prayer beginning 'Deus beatum Fiacrum confessorem tuum sanctificatis' (facing Psalms 113 and 114).

f. 113v: St Anthony of Padua with a kneeling man and woman (owner portraits?), prayer beginning 'Deus qui nos sanctorum confessorum tuorum confessionibus gloriosis circumdas' (facing Psalm 118).

Large initials in gold and colours with ivy tendrils extending into the margins to form a full border (f. 7r) or a partial border (ff. 27r, 40r, 49v, 50r, 62r, 75v, 88r, 102r).

Initials in colours and gold. Coloured initials and paraphs in red or blue. Capitals marked in red.

Stubs after ff. 43, 52 and 87 probably contained miniatures, now excised. Part of the decorated frame is still visible on the stub after f. 43, and there is no loss of text in each instance.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049815", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3978: A French translation of the Psalter and Canticles, with Peter Lombard's prologue to the Psalms in French, and other spiritual and…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049815

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3978 : A French translation of the Psalter and Canticles, with Peter Lombard's prologue to the Psalms in French, and other spiritual…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3971]/040-002049815

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1300

End Date:

1399

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 14th century-2nd half of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

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Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 225 x 145 mm (text space: 155 x 100 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 158 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated ruled parchment leaf and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end). f. 1* is a ruled parchment leaf and f. [159] is a former pastedown.

Script: Gothic.

Collation: Mainly in quires of 8.

Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers.

Catchwords written horizontally.

Custodial History:

Origin: Northeastern France.

Provenance:

Humfrey Wanley (b. 1672, d. 1726), Old English scholar, palaeographer, and librarian of Robert and Edward Harley, earls of Oxford: inscribed 'Liber Humfredi Wanley. 8vo die Junij A.D. 1715' (f. 1* recto).

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 ‘22 August 1715’ (f. 1* 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:

Select digital coverage: Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, http://www.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. 3978.

Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 8.

Samuel Berger, La Bible Française au Moyen Âge (Paris: Champion, 1884), pp. 399-400.

Edith Brayer and Anne-Marie Bouly de Lesdain, 'Les Prières Usuelles Annexées aux Anciennes Traductions Françaises du Psautier', Revue d'Histoire des Textes, 15: 1967 (1969): 69-120 (no. 27, p. 77).

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. 15 n. 2.

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. 341-44.

Vladimir Agrigoroaei, 'Les Traductions de la Bible aux XIIe-XIIIe Siècles, Videlicet Biblia Francorum (Les Psautiers)' (PhD thesis, University of Verona and University of Poitiers, 2017), pp. 143, 167, 208.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)