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Harley MS 4882

Record Id:

040-002050725

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050725

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000190

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4882

Title:

Georgius Villicus, De Quantitatibus Syllabarum

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 2r-148v: Georgius Villicus, De Quantitatibus Syllabarum. Preceded by a Prologue (ff. 2r-2v), entitled: 'Prologus ad lectorem de necessaria quantitatis syllabarum cognitione et de Scriptoribus earum', and beginning: 'Quantitas syllabarum vera et magna cognitio'. The treatise is entitled (f. 3r): 'Incipiunt syllabe collecte a Georgio Villico Lunensi de Syllabographis aliis atque Poetis. Cum additione milium aliquot exceptionum. Poeticis cum testimonis ut plenius in prologo predicum fuit'; begins: 'Tractaturi de syllabis priusquam ad speciales veniamus regulas'.

ff. 149r-201r: An alphabetical subject index, entitled: 'Index vocabulorum'.

f. 201v: A poem for the reader, entitled: 'Auctoris Carmen ad Lectorem'; and beginning: 'Qui cupis egregiam prorsam vel carmina digna / Cernere Vergilium cum Cicerone lege. / Syllaba quanta tibi sed erit quaecunque tenenda: / Quisquis scire voles hunc modo sume librum. / In quo sunt collecta tenent quae vera Libelli / Syllabici reliquis menda notata simul.'; ending with the Greek inscription: 'τέλος'.

f. 201v: A poem: 'Hoc sonat in toto duntaxat syllaba libro / Obstat ibi fidei nil puto Christicolae. Romanae Ecclesiae se in contis subijcit auctor./ Si tamen hic fuerit quod minus illa Probet.'.

Decoration:

Large initials in red ink. Rubrics in red. Corrections, marginal text, asterisks and accents in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050725", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4882: Georgius Villicus, De Quantitatibus Syllabarum" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050725

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4882 : Georgius Villicus, De Quantitatibus Syllabarum

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4881]/040-002050725

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Greek, Ancient
Latin

Scripts:

Greek
Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1549

Date Range:

2nd half 15th century-1st half 16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Paper.

Dimensions: 310 x 210 (text space: 245 x 155 mm, written in 2 columns).

Foliation: ff. 201 (+ 6 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 6 at the end); paper pastedowns with corrected text throughout the manuscript.

Script: Semi-Humanistic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house; gold-tooled brown speckled leather with the Harleian arms gold-stamped on the outside covers; marbled endleaves.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Italy.

Provenance:

An unknown (?) Italian owner, 15th or 16th century: their possible ownership inscription on f. 1v, now crossed out.

Conyers Middleton (b. 1683, d. 1750), Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1706, head librarian of the University Library at Cambridge (1721-50); his sale, 25 February 1724/5 (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), II, p. 341, n. 9; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 239).

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 ‘25 die Februarij, A.D. 1724/25’ (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: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), p. 713.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 341, n. 9.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 239.

Paul Oskar Kristeller, Iter Italicum: Accedunt Alia Itinera: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts of the Renaissance in Italian and Other Libraries, 7 vols (London: Warburg Institute; Leiden: Brill, 1963-1997), IV (1989), p. 181.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

Italy