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Harley MS 4725

Record Id:

040-002050568

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050568

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0000f3

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4725

Title:

A theological miscellany including Usuard's Martyrology

Scope & Content:

The manuscript is a composite codex comprising 8 parts made in different periods of time between the 12th and 14th century and assembled together at a later date. Parts 1-6 formed one volume some time at the beginning of the 15th century when the the table of contents was added (f. 2*v).

Part 1: ff. 1*-19 (ff. 1*, 2*, 1-2 are added leaves):

ff. 1r-10r: Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis in Deum.

ff. 10r-19v: 'Testamentum patriarcharum'.

Part 2: ff. 20-47:

ff. 20r-40v: Augustine, De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae.

ff. 40r-41v: Augustine, Sermo 350.

ff. 41v-42r: Augustine, Sermo 346.

ff. 42r-42v: Augustine, Sermo 347.

ff. 42v-43v: Augustine, Sermo 348.

ff. 43v-45r: Augustine?, Sermo.

ff. 45r-47v: Boethius, De trinitate.

Part 3: ff. 48-55:

ff. 48r-55r: M. Tullius Cicero, De amicitia.

Part 4: ff. 56-81:

ff. 56r-81v: Martyrologium, with a preface attributed to Usuardus, here attributed to Gregory.

Part 5: ff. 82-155:

ff. 82r-82v: Definitions of various terms.

ff. 83r-119r: Richard of Saint-Victor, De duodecim patriarchis (Beniamin minor).

ff. 119v-155v: John Beleth, Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis.

Part 6: ff. 156-205:

ff. 156r-204r: Jacques de Vitry, Life of Mary of Oignies.

Part 7: ff. 206-213:

ff. 206r-210v: Tract or sermon on the Holy Cross.

ff. 210v-211v, Augustine, Sermo ad predicandum cotidianis diebus.

ff. 211v-212v: Sermon on silence.

ff. 212v-213v: Sermon on the Cantica Canticorum attributed to Petrus Comestor.

Part 8: 214-223 + 1 unfoliated flyleaf

ff. 214r-223v: The Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, incipit: 'In diebus illis erat vir in Ierusalem nomine Ioachim'

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050568", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4725: A theological miscellany including Usuard's Martyrology" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-002359165", "parent" : "040-002050568", "text" : "Harley MS 4725, ff 1r-19v: Bonaventure, Itinerarium mentis in Deum and Testamentum patriarcharum" },{ "id" : "041-002359170", "parent" : "040-002050568", "text" : "Harley MS 4725, ff 20r-47v: Augustine, De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae with a collection of sermons and Boethius, De trinitate" },{ "id" : "041-002359172", "parent" : "040-002050568", "text" : "Harley MS 4725, ff 48r-55v: M. Tullius Cicero, De amicitia" },{ "id" : "041-002359177", "parent" : "040-002050568", "text" : "Harley MS 4725, ff 56r-81v: Martyrologium" },{ "id" : "041-002359181", "parent" : "040-002050568", "text" : "Harley MS 4725, ff 82r-155v: Richard of Saint-Victor, De duodecim patriarchis and John Beleth, Summa de ecclesiasticis officiis" },{ "id" : "041-002359183", "parent" : "040-002050568", "text" : "Harley MS 4725, ff 156r-205v: Jacques de Vitry, Life of Mary of Oignies," },{ "id" : "041-002359187", "parent" : "040-002050568", "text" : "Harley MS 4725, ff 206-213v: Collection of sermons" },{ "id" : "041-002359188", "parent" : "040-002050568", "text" : "Harley MS 4725, ff 214r-223v: Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew" }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050568

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4725 : A theological miscellany including Usuard's Martyrology

Contains:

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 4725

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4724]/040-002050568

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1100

End Date:

1399

Date Range:

12th century-14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: ff. 1r-47v: 200 x 140 mm (text space: ff. 1r-19v: 155 x 110 mm; ff. 20r-47v: 170 x 115 mm); ff. 48r-55r: 195 x 140 mm (text space: 135 x 80 mm); ff. 56r-205v: 200 x 150 mm (text space: ff. 56r-81v: 130 x 100 mm; ff. 82r-155v: 160 x 100 mm; ff. 156r-204r: 145 x 90 mm); ff. 206r-223v: 200 x 145 mm (text space: ff. 206r-213v: 170 x 110 mm; ff. 214r-223v: 170 x 130mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 2* + 223 (+ 6 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves: 3 at the beginning and 3 at the end + 1 unfoliated medieval parchment flyleaves at the end. ff. 1*-2* and f. 205 are medieval parchment flyleaves).

Script: ff. 1-81v, 156r-204r: Gothic; 82r-155v; 206r-213v: Protogothic, written above top line; ff. 214-223v: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house binding; rebound in 1968.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Added table of contents, early 15th century (f. 2*v).

Inscribed: 'Ego lego istu[m] quat[er]nu[m]', 15th century (f. 1*r).

Thomas Swalwell (d. 1539), Benedictine monk and archivist, became a monk of Durham cathedral priory about 1483, purchased by him: 'Liber e[m]ptus p[er] d. th. Swalwell 12 die Junii 1513' (f. 1r)

The Benedictine cathedral priory of St Cuthbert, Durham (see Ker 1964 and Watson 1987).

Thomas Tempest (d. 1692), 4th baronet, county Durham, in his library: inscribed 'Sir Thomas Tempest Baronet' (f. 2*r); bequeathed to his daughter, Jane. William Widdrington, 4th baron Widdrington (b. 1678, d. 1743), husband of Jane (d. 1714), disposed of Tempest’s medieval manuscript collection to the Harleian Library after her death (Doyle, ‘Library of Sir Thomas Tempest’, 1984).

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.

Administrative Context:

England.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London, 1808-1812), III, no. 4725.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 73.

Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 142, 322, 325.

A. I. Doyle, ‘The Library of Sir Thomas Tempest: Its Origins and Dispersal’, in Studies in Seventeenth-Century English Literature, History and Historiography: Festschrift for Professor T. A. Birrell on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Brithday, ed. by G. A. M. Janssens and F. G. A. M. Aarts (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1984), pp. 83-93.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books ed. by N. R. Ker, Supplement to the Second Edition, ed. by Andrew G. Watson, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 15 (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1987), p. 31.

Rudolf Goy, Die Handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke Richards von St. Viktor im Mittelalter, Bibliotheca Victorina, 18 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), p. 225.

Codices Boethiani : A Conspectus of Manuscripts of the Works of Boethius ed. by M. T. Gibson and Lesley Smith, Warburg Institute Surveys and Texts, 25 (London: Warburg Institute, 1995- ), I: Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland, no. 131, pp. 150-51.

John Frederick Hinnebusch, ‘Extant Manuscripts of the Writings of Jacques de Vitry’, Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 51 (1997), 156-64 (p. 163).

Jennifer N. Brown, Three Women of Liege: A Critical Edition of and Commentary on the Middle English Lives of Elizabveth of Spalbeek, Christina Mirabilis, and Marie d'Oignies, Medieval Women: Texts and Contexts, 23 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008), p. 13.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names: