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Harley MS 4861

Record Id:

040-002050704

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050704

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x00017b

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4861

Title:

Poems and emblems in honour of Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-8r: Illustrated poems in honour of Jean-Baptiste Colbert (b. 1619, d. 1683), Marquis de Seignelay.

Decoration:

Dedicatory frontispiece in colours and gold with the arms of Jean Baptiste Colbert (f. 1r). 7 full-page miniatures in colours and gold with verses and mottos in Colbert's honour (ff. 2r, 3r, 4r, 5r, 6r, 7r, 8r). The miniatures are edged with burnished gold borders, include finely painted landscapes, eagles, roosters, storks, frogs, dolphins and putti.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050704", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4861: Poems and emblems in honour of Jean-Baptiste Colbert" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050704

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4861 : Poems and emblems in honour of Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4860]/040-002050704

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

French
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1650

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

2nd half of the 17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 220 x 160 mm.

Foliation: ff. 8 (+ 6 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); unfoliated blank paper leaves inserted between all parchment leaves.

Script: Humanistic.

Binding: Post-1600. Mottled brown leather with gold tooling; marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Central France (Paris).

Provenance

Jean Baptiste Colbert (b. 1619, d. 1683), Marquis de Seignelay in 1668: his arms in the dedicatory frontispiece; inscribed on f. 1r: 'A Monseigneur Colbert' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p.107).

Matthew de Varenne, London bookseller and auctioneer (fl. 1723/4): his sale, 21 December 1723, lot 194 (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 336).

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. 212.

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. 266 n. 4.

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. 107, 336.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

Paris, France