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Harley MS 4987

Record Id:

040-002050831

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050831

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0001fa

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4987

Title:

Visio Tnugdali; Pseudo-Bernard, Meditationes; Regula Beati Augustini; Hugh of Saint-Victor, Soliloquium de arra animae; Pseudo-Basil, Admonitiones; Anselm of Canterbury, Meditatio 3 and 1; Robert Grosseteste, Templum domini;Pope Innocent III, Liber de contemptu mundi; Libellus de septem artibus philosophiae coelestis; Ambrose, De Virginitate

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a collection of theological texts that were copied by a single hand. Its contents strongly resemble those of Oxford, Magdalen College, MS 109 [CIX], as described by Henry Octavius Coxe, Catalogus codicum mss. qui in collegiis aulisque Oxoniensibus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1852), II, pp. 57-58.

Contents:

ff. 1r-5r: Collection of miraculous stories, beginning: 'Dilecto domino suo et amico diligendo G.'; featuring a line of (?) Middle English on f. 3r: 'Herre Rodolf þis if þat child in wos berthe sonn gun pe aingles'.

ff. 5r-16v: Visio Tnugdali (The Vision of Tundal).

ff. 16v-20v: 'De modo meditandi seipsumque regendi'; beginning: 'Si quis inter nos emendatioris vite desiderio actus intrinsecus cogitationum locutionum operumque suorum sollicitus'.

ff. 20v-29r: Pseudo-Bernard, Meditationes ('Meditationes beati Bernardi'), beginning: 'Multi sunt qui multa sciunt et seipsos nesciunt'.

ff. 29r-40v: 'Formula virtutum cum coll[?ati]one de caritate', beginning: 'Quatuor virtutum species multorum sapientium sententiis diffinitae sunt'; and after the explicit of the 'Formula virtutum' on f. 31r: 'Note quod amor dei quadruplex est'.

ff. 40v-61v: Regula Beati Augustini.

ff. 61v-70r: Hugh of Saint-Victor, Soliloquium de arra animae ('Soliloquium Hugonis de Sancto Victore de arra anime').

ff. 70r-85v: Pseudo-Basil, Admonitiones ('Ammonicionies Sancti Basilii Episcopi'), beginning: 'Audi fili admonicionem patris tui'.

ff. 85v-87v: Anselm of Canterbury, Meditatio 3 ('Meditatio Anselmi de Passione'), beginning: 'Anima Christiana, anima de gravi morte resuscitata, anima de misera servitute sanguine'.

ff. 87v: 'Vita et modus vivendi qualiter religiosus se debeat habere coram Deo et hominibus', beginning: 'Sunt aliqua necessaria inter virtutes et mores'.

ff. 90v-98v: Robert Grosseteste, Templum domini ('Summa Magistri Roberti Grosteste'), beginning: 'Templum dominum sanctum est'.

ff. 98v-113v: Pope Innocent III, Liber de contemptu mundi or De Miseria Condicionis Humane ('Tractatus domini pape de contemptu mundi'), beginning: 'Domino patri karissimo petro'.

ff. 113v-120v: Anselm of Canterbury, Meditatio 1 ('Meditatio beati Anselmi'), beginning: 'Terret me vita mea nam diligenter excusa apparet mihi'.

ff. 120v-128v: 'Haec est ars perutilis et compendiosa timendi et diligendi Deum et sanctae meditationis in quatuor manibus sequentibus descripta', beginning: 'Palma huius manus sinistre est timor de qua exeunt quinque digiti'.

ff. 128v-141r: 'Libellus de septem artibus philosophiae coelestis destinatus ad quondam prae timore mortis seculari philosophiae renunciantem', beginning: 'Magne spei signum apud illos mirifice fulget qui caris suis religiose vivendi'.

ff. 141v-144v: Ambrose, De Virginitate, beginning: 'Si iuxta celestis sententiam veritatis'; imperfect at the ending.

The manuscript contains a later addition:

f. 1*recto (parchment pastedown): An inscription of a ?name or ?place: Claubery Cleg[in]sberi'; added in the 16th century.

f. 145r: Quotation from Jerome, beginning: 'Amen dico vobis super omnia bona sua constituet eum'; added in the 15th or 16th century.

Decoration:

4 mnemonic hand diagrams on the subject of fear, love, 'meditacio nocturna' and 'meditacio diurna' (ff. 121r-121v).

1 large (5-line) puzzle initial in red and blue with penwork decoration inside the letter and pen-flourishing in red, blue and purple including foliate motifs, and a partial (3-sided) 'J' border (f. 1r). Large (3-line) plain blue initials throughout. Paraphs in red or blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050831", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4987: Visio Tnugdali; Pseudo-Bernard, Meditationes; Regula Beati Augustini; Hugh of Saint-Victor, Soliloquium de arra animae; Pseudo-Basil,…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050831

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4987 : Visio Tnugdali; Pseudo-Bernard, Meditationes; Regula Beati Augustini; Hugh of Saint-Victor, Soliloquium de arra animae;…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4987]/040-002050831

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 250 x 180 mm (text space: 180 x 120 mm, in 2 columns).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 145 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end); f. 1* is a parchment leaf at the beginning; 1 unfoliated parchment strip on f. 1*.

Collation: Indicated by catchwords and leaf signatures; each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house; rebound on 10 September 1965.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Brampton Bryan, county Herefordshire, family seat of the Harleys: kept at the Harley family seat Brampton Bryan and then send to London after Robert Harley's death in 1724, received in the Harleian library on 16 October 1725 (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), I, pp. xlii-xliii; and II, p. 387 n. 7; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 80-81).

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 ‘16 Octobris, 1725’ (f. 1*recto).

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. 235.

H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), II (1893), p. 434.

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, pp. xlii-xliii; II: 1723-1726, p. 387 n. 7.

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. 80-81.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Places:

England