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Harley MS 4327

Record Id:

040-002050164

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050164

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00038f

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4327

Title:

Lorraine Psalter; Little Office of the Virgin Mary

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-12v: Calendar.

ff. 13r-20v: Preface to the Psalter in French, beginning with the rubric: 'Cilz qui ait cest psaultier de latin translateit en romans prie et requieirt a touz ceulz qui lon vorront transcrire et copier . que il metient ou faicent metre tout devant lou psaultier . ceste prefaice et prologue qui sensuit pour entendre plus cleirement tout lou romans trait dou latin . au moins ceu quens en puet entendre . et pour savoir auci queil peril est de translateir la saincte scripture en romans et queil profit puet venir a celui qui devotement se welt acostumeir a dire lou psaultieir . soit en romans pour les gens layez soit en latin . pour ceulz qui lentendent'.

ff. 21r-214r: The Psalter in French ('li psaultiers en romans'), known as the 'Lorraine Psalter'; the Psalter ends with a rubricated colophon that dates the translation to 1365: 'Ci fenit li psautieir en romans escript et translateit per une main lan .m. ccc. et lxv. ans'.

ff. 214r-233r: The Canticles in French.

ff. 234r-329r: The Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Latin.

The manuscript contains an addition:

ff. 330r-331r: French prayers referring to various biblical figures, including Shadrach, Meschach and Abednego who were thrown into a fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar; written in the 15th century, but not in the Lorraine dialect ('langue messin').

Decoration:

17 initials in colours and gold with rinceaux decoration extending into the margins (ff. 21, 50v, 69v, 88, 106, 128v, 170v, 234, 240v, 248v, 252v, 255v, 257v, 260, 264v, 268, 286v). Similar initials in colours and gold without marginal extensions. Champ intials. Plain initials in red and blue. Rubrics in red. Marginal notes for rubricator.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050164", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4327: Lorraine Psalter; Little Office of the Virgin Mary" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050164

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4327 : Lorraine Psalter; Little Office of the Virgin Mary

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4320]/040-002050164

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 140 x 110 mm (text space: 100 x 70 mm).

Foliation: ff. 331 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 1 parchment flyleaf at the beginning + 4 paper flyleaves at the end); 1 unfoliated modern paper with bibliographical notes bound between the second and third flyleaves at the beginning (f. [ii] and f. [iii]); 1 unfoliated blank parchment leaf after f. 20 and f. 233.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house; brown half leather with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers; rebound on 15 June 1965.

Custodial History:

Origin:

North-eastern France (Metz).

Provenance:

'Allixet Rennat [Remiat]', 16th century: inscribed their name on f. 330v: 'set saitiez [? sautiez] a p[a]ra[i]tien a moy allixet Rennat […] la vaille de la St Andrea xvt a xxxxvj'.

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.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), p. 136.

Samuel Berger, La Bible française au Moyen Âge. Étude sur les plus anciennes versions de la Bible écrites en prose de langue d'oïl (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1884), pp. 270-80, 400.

François Bonnardot, Le Psautier de Metz, texte du XIVe siècle. Édition critique publiée d'apres quatre manuscrits par François Bonnardot Bibliothèque française du Moyen Âge, 3 (Paris: F. Vieweg, 1884) [an edition of the text of the Lorraine/Metz Psalter, with variants from Harley 4327].

'Psautier Lorraine en Prose' in Les Archives de littérature du Moyen Âge (ARLIMA) [accessed 17 February 2022]

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

Metz, France