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Harley MS 5036

Record Id:
040-002050880
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
040-002050880
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x00022b
LARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100165169744.0x000001
SLARK:
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Harley MS 5036
Title:
Prayer-book
Scope & Content:

This composite manuscript consists of a prayer-book (ff. 1r-22r) that may have been written in the late 15th or early 16th century, with later additions in the first half of the 16th century (ff. 22r-28r), and second half of the 16th century (ff. 28v-43v). The contents of the latter part suggests that the prayer-book was designed or adapted for a female reader, possibly the 'Joan Holland' who has written her ownership inscription on f. 44r.

Contents:

ff. 1r-3v: 'A meditacion and prayer whan you entrest into the Chirche'.

ff. 4r-7r: 'A meditacion and prayer for grace to knowe god'.

ff. 7v-9r: 'A meditacion and prayer for grace to have the true faith wher by we be Justifyed'.

ff. 9v-12v: 'A meditacion and prayer to grace to know the lawes of god and the lawes of men to observe them bothe'.

ff. 13r-18v: 'A meditacion and prayer for grace to observe the perfect true Religion of Criste'.

ff. 19r-21r: 'A meditacion and prayer onli to god for graces to none other saint nor Creature'.

ff. 21r-22r: 'A meditacion and prayer for grace to honour god only and to advoyde all Idolatry'.

ff. 22r-25r: Prayer to Christ, beginning: 'O blessed Jhesu make me to love þe interly'.

ff. 25v-26r: Religious poem, beginning: 'Sustein, absteine, kepe well in your minde / beare, and fforbeare, have ever in remembrance / ffor y[ow] shall therby grett quietness ffinde / in all your lyffe what soever dothe chance'.

ff. 26v-27v: 'The prayer off queyne hester ffor hyrselfe and her people in the boke of hester the xiiij chapter'.

f. 28r: 'The pray[e]r of Sara Ragnells doughter in the boke of Thoby the iij. Chapter'.

ff. 28v-31r: 'A […] confession and shrifte of synnes neadefull unto all Christen men to theire salvation'.

ff. 31r-34v: 'An instruction and consolation of a good shepeherd unto his shepe in the tyme of confession'.

ff. 34v-35r: Quotations from the Epistle to the Romans and Epistle of James.

ff. 35r-42r: 'An Exhortacion of a trewe Christian and loving mother lyinge in her Extremis mad unto her deare daughter in the last talke she had with here beinge both in voluntary Exile for trewe Religion of Chryst'.

f. 42r: Religious poem, beginning: 'To torne to god trulye make no delaye / Slumber not; Slugge not, ne be thou secure / Custome of synne ware the conscience awaye / The good sprit is choked mynde made Impure'.

f. 42v: Religious poem, beginning: 'Laye not this bye whan I ame Deade and gone / Oute of sighte, out of mynde, do not disdayne / To learne it without booke; that is alone / the Beste waye to kepe it for to remayne'.

f. 42v: Quotations from the Second Epistle to Timothy.

f. 43r: 'The heavenly doctrine of oure Savioure Jesus Christe, whiche he preached in his Sermon apon the mountayne'; 'Conteyninge the foundation of Christian religions the consolation of the faithful people; The dewty of man toward god and his neyghbore and the perfect waye to eternall lyffe'; 'Bryefely collected owt of the holy scriptures, and drawn into meter'.

f. 43v: Fragment of a tract, beginning: 'As god hathe ordeyned for everie man to travayle in one vocation or other'; imperfect at the end.

The manuscript contains a few later additions:

f. 44r: Notes about the payment of a nurse in 1590: 'The 15th of February 1590 payd to John his nurse - vjs'; 'The 13th daye of March payed to John his nurse […]'; and 'the 3 of aprill payed to John his nurse […]'.

f. 1**verso: Quotation from 'Seneca ad Lucilium'; added in the 16th century.

Decoration:

Large (3- or 4-line) gold initials on a pink and blue ground (ff. 1r, 7v, 9v, 13r, 19r, 21r). Decorated initials in black ink (ff. 26v, 28r).

Collection Area:
Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Harley Collection
Medieval and Renaissance Women
Hierarchy Tree:
[{ "id" : "040-002050880", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5036: Prayer-book" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-002045828
040-002050880
Is part of:
Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

 

Harley MS 5036 : Prayer-book
Hierarchy:
032-002045828[5036]/040-002050880
Container:
View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
Record Type (Level):
File
Extent:
1 volume
Digitised Content:
https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100165169744.0x000001
Thumbnail:
Languages:
English
English, Middle
Scripts:
Latin
Start Date:
1400
End Date:
1499
Date Range:
c 1475-c 1590
Era:
CE
Access:

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User Conditions:
Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 170 x 125 mm (text space: 120 x 85 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 1** + 44 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); 1 unfoliated paper pastedown on f. [45]verso (bibliographical notes); ff. 1* + 1** are parchment leaves at the beginning; 1 unfoliated parchment stub before and attached to f. 1** and 1 after and attached to f. 44.

Collation: Each quire has been mounted separately onto a paper guard.

Script: Gothic cursive.

Binding: British Museum in-house; red half leather binding with the Harleian arms gold stamped on the outside covers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Joan Holland, late 16th century, ownership inscriptions and payment records, including: 'Johan Holland owethe this book god make her a good womon - A menne yf she yt lose and you yt fynd I praye you be so good and kynde as to lete her have her booke agayne and you shall have no worsse, but a pennye to put in your purs ffinis quod Johan holland'; and 'Johan Holland oweth this booke god make her a good woman' (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 192).

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), II (1808), no. 5036.

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. 192.

Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)
Places:
England