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Harley MS 4427
- Record Id:
- 040-002050264
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050264
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00031b
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4427
- Title:
-
Livy, Ab urbe condita, the first decade only, in a French translation
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 1r-206v: Livy, Ab urbe condita, the first decade only, in a French translation by Pierre Bersuire, the text fragmentary and damaged in parts, especially in the first gatherings and at the end.
f. 129 is a paper interleaf. Parts of the text excised (f. 180).
Decoration: 4 half-page miniatures of Rome (f. 7v), Quintus Fabius appeasing the patrician and plebeian sedition (f. 41v), the election of Lucius Sextius as Plebeian Consul (f. 151v), and the Roman army defeated at the Forche Caudine (f. 181r). Initials in gold and colours with ivy leaf decoration and sprays with flowers and berries extending into the margins. Initials and line fillers in purple and blue with white tracery. Rubrics in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050264", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4427: Livy, Ab urbe condita, the first decade only, in a French translation" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050264 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4427 : Livy, Ab urbe condita, the first decade only, in a French translation - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4420]/040-002050264
- 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:
- 1450
- End Date:
- 1474
- Date Range:
- 3rd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 385 x 270 (275 x 170) mm in two columns.
Foliation: ff. 206 (+ 3 unfoliated early modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and the end).
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: Post-1600. Armorial binding of light brown leather for Nicholas Joseph Foucault, his arms gilt at the centre of covers; marbled endleaves. Red edges.
Collation: Gatherings originally of 8, with leaf signatures in red ink at the centre of the lower margin of the rectos in the first half of gatherings and horizontal catchword in black in the lower right corner of the last verso.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France, probably northern.
Provenance:
Nicolas Joseph Foucault (b. 1643, d. 1721), marquis de Magny, statesman and archaeologist: his book-plate with the legend 'EX BIBLIOTHECA / NICOLAI JOSEPH FOUCAULT / COMITIS CONSISTORIANI' with his arms sable a lion rampant, dexter, crowned argent, as supporters two lions argent, a couronne de marquis surmounting the shield (f. [i] recto; see Wright, Fontes (1972)).Thomas Ballard, bookseller and book auctioneer in London; his sale, 20 February 1720/21, lot 176, bought for Edward Harley through Nathaniel Noel (see Wright and Wright, Diary (1966)).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 ‘23 Februarij, 1720/21’ (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: 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. 4427.
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. 91 n. 3.
Robert H. Lucas, 'Medieval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500', Speculum, 45 (1970), 225-53 (p. 239).
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. 62, 155, 444.
Fédéric Duval and Françoise Vielliard, Miroir des classiques, Traduction de l'ouvrage: T. Livius (Tite-Live), Ab Urbe condita libri CXLII, http://elec.enc.sorbonne.fr/miroir/titelive/traduction/?para=bersuire [accessed 4 June 2009].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)