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Harley MS 5040

Record Id:

040-002050884

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050884

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x00022f

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5040

Title:

English alchemical work based on Guido di Montanor's Scala Philosophorum

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-50v: An acephalous alchemical work, imperfect at the beginning due to the loss of folios, following the structures of the twelve grados and the concluding Recapitulatio in Guido di Montanor's Scala Philosophorum; attributed in a poem at the end to an author from Cirencester: 'Hoc opus gregi . Sit summo gracia regi / Gloria sit illi finem ponendo labori / Circa natale quod est tempus yemale / Anno milleno tricentesimo nonogeno / Sit celo locatus auctor Circencestrie natus / Pro ipso cari pluries curate precari'.

The manuscript contains a few additions:

f. 1*recto: A note on the manuscript: 'Written by a Munke of Cirencester anno 1390 pag: 50 perhaps Rasis vid: Mr Ashmole [i.e. Elias Ashmole (b. 1617, d. 1692)] in prologem'; added in the 17th century.

f. 1r: A title inscription: 'Secretum Chimicum'; added in the 17th century.

ff. 51r-52r: Copy of a letter in Old English of Aelfric, Abbot of Eynsham, to Wulfstan, Bishop of York, imperfect at the beginning and now opening mid sentence: 'ðe ƿe hataþ manna. ðe feoƿertig geara afedde Godes folce'; copied in the 17th century.

Decoration:

11 large (2-line) 'Champ' initials in gold in blue and purple frames with flower buds (ff. 3v, 8v, 12v, 18r, 26r, 31v, 37r, 41v, 44r, 47, 48v). Capitals marked in red. Catchwords decorated with penwork in black ink occasionally including a face (e.g., ff. 16v, 32v, 40v, 48v). Paraphs in red. Some ascenders decorated with penwork in red and black ink. Catchwords in decorated frames, one with the head of Hermes (f. 40v).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050884", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5040: English alchemical work based on Guido di Montanor's Scala Philosophorum" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050884

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5040 : English alchemical work based on Guido di Montanor's Scala Philosophorum

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5040]/040-002050884

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
English, Old
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1400

End Date:

1449

Date Range:

1st half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 170 x 115 mm (text space: 120 x 75 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 52 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning +2 at the end); f. 1* is a parchment leaf that originally was an endleaf; 6 blank unfoliated parchment leaves after f. 1*; 2 unfoliated ruled parchment leaves after f. 52.

Collation: Indicated by catchwords.

Script: Gothic; imitative Anglo-Saxon square minuscule (ff. 51r-52r).

Binding: British Museum in-house; brown speckled calf with gold fillets and blind tooling, and the initials 'M.B.' (Museum Brittanicum) gold stamped on the upper cover.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

An unknown late medieval or early modern owner: their effaced inscription on f. 52v.

John Batteley (b. 1647, d. 1708), Church of England clergyman and antiquary: sold to Edward Harley with the rest of his collection through his nephew John Batteley (of the Court of Augmentations) on 5 November 1723 (see Diary, ed. by Wright and Wright (1966), II, p. 263 n. 1; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 66-67).

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 '5 die Novembris, A.D. 1723' (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), no. 5040.

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. 263 n. 1.

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. 66-67.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

England