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Harley MS 4409
- Record Id:
- 040-002050246
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050246
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000289
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100058017960.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4409
- Title:
-
Vie de saint Denys et ses compaignons
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript includes:
1. Ordinances of the Confraternity of Saint Denis, Rouen, title: 'Ci enssieuvent les bien qui font fais de iour en iour en la confrarie dieu et monseigneur saint Denis de rouen'; incipit: 'Premierement il est ordene' (ff. 1r-2v).
2. Vie de saint Denys et ses compaignons, rubric: 'Incipit vita beatorum martirum dionisii rustici et eleutheri'; incipit: 'Apres la precieuse mort que nostre seigneur' (ff. 3r-24v).
Decoration:
19 large miniatures, in colours and gold (ff. 6r, 7r, 7v, 8r, 10r, 11v, 12v [in two compartments], 13r, 13v, 14r, 14v, 15r, 15v, 17r (x2), 20v, 21v, 22r (x2)); 2 miniatures excised on ff. 9r, 19v and 4 leaves excised after ff. 4, 5 and 17 (x2). 1 large historiated initial and full foliate borders including a squirrel and a peacock, in colours and gold (f. 3r). Small initials in gold on red and blue grounds. Line fillers decorated in red and blue. Cadels. Capital letters highlighted in yellow.
The miniatures are accompanied by captions in Latin. The subjects of the miniatures are:
f. 3r, Historiated initial 'A'(pres) of St Denis.
f. 6r, St Denis and his companions addressing the pope.
f. 7r, St Denis destroying idols with his prayer, in Arles.
f. 7v, St Denis ordaining a bishop.
f. 8r, St Denis and his companions entering Paris.
f. 10r, St Denis preaching.
f. 11v, St Denis and his companions before the prefect.
f. 12v, Miniature in two compartments; upper compartment: people testifying before the prefect; lower compartment: beheading of a man.
f. 13r, St Denis receiving his last communion from Christ.
f. 13v, St Denis and his companions being led by a herald.
f. 14r, St Denis blessing corpses of martyred Christians.
f. 14v, Flagellation of St Denis.
f. 15r, Martyrdom of St Denis and his companions.
f. 15v, St Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius appearing as doves during the mass celebrated by St Regulus, bishop of Arles.
f. 17r, St Denis holding his head and accompanied by angels; Angels taking the souls of St Denis, Rusticus, and Eleutherius to heaven.
f. 20v, A deer indicating the place of burial of St Denis and his companions.
f. 21v, The king of France (Clovis?) offering gold on the altar of the martyrs.
f. 22r, Coronation of Dagobert; Translation of the relics of St Denis and his companions.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050246", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4409: Vie de saint Denys et ses compaignons" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050246 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4409 : Vie de saint Denys et ses compaignons - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4402]/040-002050246
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- Parchment codex.
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100058017960.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- French
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1415
- End Date:
- 1425
- Date Range:
- c 1420
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 310 x 215 mm (text space: 200 x 130 mm).
Foliation: ff. 24 (+ 9 unfoliated paper flyleaves: 5 at the beginning and 4 at the end; excised leaves replaced by unfoliated modern parchment leaves, one after ff. 4, 5, and two after f. 17). Catchwords; bifolium signatures.
Script: Gothic.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France (Paris or Rouen?).
Provenance:
Confraternity of St Denis, Rouen: owned in the 15th century, according to Humfrey Wanley (see Diary 1972).
Inscribed, 'M de Corbechen' (or Corbelen) 16th/17th century (f. 1r).
Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent: purchased from him by Edward Harley on 18 January 1724 (see inscription below).
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 '18 die Januarij A.D. 1723/4.' (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.
- Administrative Context:
- France (Paris or Rouen?).
- Information About Copies:
-
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-1812), III, no. 4409.
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. 17.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 269, n. 9.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 126, 254, 289.
Ingeborg Baehr, Saint Denis und seine Vita im Spiegel der Bildueberlieferung der franzoesischen Kunst des Mittelalters, (Worms: Werner’sche Verlagsgesellschaft, 1984, pp. 104-08, 130, XXXII-XXXVI, figs 31-32.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)