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Harley MS 4917

Record Id:

040-002050761

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050761

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0001b4

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4917

Title:

Marcus Tullius Cicero, De la vieillesse (De Senectute) and De l'amitié (De Amicitia) translated by Laurent du Premierfait

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains Laurent du Premierfait's translation of Cicero's De Senectute and De Amicitia. It was written around 1470 in Rouen and decorated by an artist of the circle of the Master of the Echevinage of Rouen.

Contents:

ff. 1r-108v: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De la vieillesse (De Senectute) and De l'amitié (De Amicitia) translated by Laurent du Premierfait.

Decoration:

2 large miniatures with large decorated initials and full foliate borders, the first including heraldic arms in the lower margin, in colours and gold, at the beginning of the prologues to the books (ff. 1r, 52r). 1 smaller miniature with full foliate borders, in colours and gold, at the end of the prologue for the beginning of the book which follows on the next page (f. 4r). Large and small initials in gold on red and blue grounds. Cadels, many including human heads. Capital letters highlighted in yellow.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050761", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4917: Marcus Tullius Cicero, De la vieillesse (De Senectute) and De l'amitié (De Amicitia) translated by Laurent du Premierfait" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050761

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4917 : Marcus Tullius Cicero, De la vieillesse (De Senectute) and De l'amitié (De Amicitia) translated by Laurent du Premierfait

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4917]/040-002050761

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:

1465

End Date:

1475

Date Range:

c 1470

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 283 x 200 mm (written space: 190 x 135 mm).

Foliation: ff. 108 (2 unfoliated modern parchment leaves after ff. 3, 51; + 5 parchment flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end).

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: Post-1600. Harleian binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers; gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin: France, N. W. (Rouen).

Provenance:

Jean II de Hangest (d. 1490), seigneur de Genlis, bailli of Evreux and later Rouen: his arms (f. 1r).

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: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III, no. 4917.

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. 18.

Robert Lucas, 'Medieval French Translations of the Latin Classics to 1500', Speculum, 45 (1970) , 225-53 (pp. 235-56).

Claudia Rabel, 'Artiste et clientele à la fin du Moyen Age: les manuscrits profanes du Maître de l'Echevinage de Rouen', Revue de l'Art, 84 (1989), 48-60 (pp. 57, 59 n. 53, fig. 13).

François Avril and Nicole Reynaud, Les manuscrits à peintures en France 1440-1520 (Paris: Flammarion, 1993), p. 171.

Patricia Stirnemann, 'Jean II de Hangest, Livy's Roman History, and an Unusual Miniature', in Von Kunst und Temperament, Festschrift zu Ehren Eberhard Königs 60. Geburtstag, ed. by Mara Hofmann and Caroline Zöhl (Turnhout: Brepols, 2007), 269-71 (p. 269).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Premierfait, Laurent, poet, humanist and translator, c 1370-1418
Tullius Cicero, Marcus, 106 BC-43 BC,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000139322910,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/78769600

Places:

Rouen, France