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Harley MS 4329

Record Id:

040-002050166

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050166

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000391

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4329

Title:

Martin de Braga (translated by Jean Courtecuisse), Le livre des quatre vertus (De quatuor virtutibus); Marcus Tullius Cicero (translated by Laurent de Premierfait), Le livre de vieillesse (De senectute); Le livre de amitié (De amicitia); letter of Bernard of Clairvaux; hymn to the Virgin

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-28v: Martin de Braga (translated by Jean Courtecuisse), Le livre des quatre vertus (De quatuor virtutibus).

ff. 30r-129v: Marcus Tullius Cicero (translated by Laurent de Premierfait), Le livre de vieillesse (De senectute).

ff. 130r-192v: Marcus Tullius Cicero (translated by Laurent de Premierfait), Le livre de amitié (De amicitia).

ff. 193r-195v: Letter of Bernard of Clairvaux.

ff. 196r-199r: Hymn to the Virgin.

Decoration:

1 full-page miniature with a large decorated foliate initial and full foliate borders including heraldic arms and scrolls, in colours and gold (f. 130r). 3 large decorated foliate initials with full foliate borders including heraldic arms and scrolls, in colours and gold (ff. 1r, 30r, 107r). 7 smaller decorated foliate initials with three-sided foliate borders including scrolls and a few also the heraldic arms, in colours and gold (ff. 33r, 44r, 53r, 63r, 85v, 124, 126v); 1 page missing after f. 35r). Small decorated foliate initials with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold. Small initials in blue on red grounds, decorated with golden acanthus, with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold. Line fillers decorated with coloured flowers on red or blue grounds, at the beginning including the letters T and G (ff. 1r-28v). Capital letters highlighted in yellow.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050166", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4329: Martin de Braga (translated by Jean Courtecuisse), Le livre des quatre vertus (De quatuor virtutibus); Marcus Tullius Cicero…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050166

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4329 : Martin de Braga (translated by Jean Courtecuisse), Le livre des quatre vertus (De quatuor virtutibus); Marcus Tullius…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4322]/040-002050166

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1460

End Date:

1460

Date Range:

1460

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 150 x 90 mm (written space: 95 x 55 mm).

Foliation: ff. 216 (+ 1 paper and 2 parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 2 parchment and 1 paper flyleaves at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

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

Custodial History:

Origin:

Tours, France.

Provenance:

Jean Le Gous, notary and secretary of Charles VII, written for him by Pierre le Fevre, colophon with the date 1460 'transcriptz par moy Pierre le Fevre pbrestre et cure de Marsac aux fraiz et costz de hounorable homme et saige Maistre Jehan le Gous notaire et secretaire du roy Charles vii^e. de ce nom a present regnant et roy de France. le penultime jour davril mil.CCCC. et soixante' (f. 192v); his arms and anagram 'Je glane nous' (ff. 1r, 30r, 107r, 130r, etc.).

Inscribed in French by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand (ff. 199v, 213v-216r).

Inscribed in French in a 16th-century hand (f. 35r).

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 Augusti, A.D. 1724.' (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.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III, no. 4329.

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. 18.

Robert Lucas, 'Medieval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500', Speculum, 45 (1970) , 225-53 (pp. 235-36).

Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c.700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library (London: British Museum, 1979), I, no. 807.

Jean Fouquet: Peintre et enlumineur du XVe siècle ed. by François Avril (Paris: Hazan, 2003), no. 31.

A l'Escu de France: Guillebert de Mets et la peinture de livres a Gand a l'epoque de Jan van Eyck (1410-1450), ed. by Dominique Vanwijnsberghe and Erik Verroken, 2 vols (Brussels: IRPA, 2017), p. 574, L26.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Courtecuisse, Jean
Martin of Braga, Saint, Bishop of Dumium and Archbishop of Braga, c 520-580
Premierfait, Laurent, secretary of the Duc de Berri, c 1365-1418
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600

Places:

Tours, France