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Harley MS 5234

Record Id:

040-002051078

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002051078

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0002f1

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5234

Title:

Theological miscellany including Isidore of Sevile, Sententiae

Scope & Content:

f. 1**v: Table of contents (13th-century).

f. 2*r–v: Names of the bishops of Lindisfarne and Durham.

f. 2*v: Updated table of contents, reflecting later additions to the book (14th-century).

ff. 1r–2r: Agreement between the bishop of Durham and the priory and convent.

ff. 2v–4r: Bull of Pope Boniface on the differences between parish priests and preachers and brothers in minor orders, with metrical fragments.

ff. 5r–12r: Bonaventure, Lignum vitae (‘De arbore crucifixi’), preceded by an image of the Cross as a tree (f. 5r).

ff. 13r–14r: Ogier of Locedio, Meditatio de lamentatione beate virginis (‘Quis dabit capiti meo aquam in oculis meis ymbrem lacrimarum ut possim flere per diem et noctem donec seruo suo Iohanni. dominus appareat in uisu uel in sompno consolans animam. …’).

ff. 14r–18r: Uthred of Boldon, Meditatio devota (added in the 15th century).

ff. 19r–53v: Isidore of Sevile, Sententiae.

ff. 53v–55r: Pseudo-Augustine, Speculum peccatoris.

ff. 56r–85v: Flos florum, with table of contents at the end.

ff. 85v–86r: Verses on monks, with additions in the margins.

ff. 86v–87v: Treatise on penitence.

ff. 88r–89v: De confessione.

ff. 89v–103v: Lucidarius.

ff. 104r–111r: ‘Alphabetum secundum Bedam … Abusus est profunditas …’.

ff. 111r–113v: Stephen of Eston, Meditationes de gaudiis beatae Mariae.

ff. 114r–122r: Lotario dei Segni (later Pope Innocent III), De miseria condicionis humane.

ff. 122r–153r: Innocent III, De officio missae.

ff. 153r–155v: Poem on Christ and the Last Judgement, in Anglo-Norman (‘Seingurs ore escutez ke deu vous beneye …’, Dean no. 485).

ff. 155v: Further added verses.

ff. 156r–161r: Bernard of Clairvaux, Meditationes.

f. 161r: Added extracts.

ff. 161r–167v: Robert Grosseteste, Templum dei.

ff. 167v–168v: ‘Incipit modus confessionis. Ad rectam et sanctam confessioni tria sunt necessaria ipsi re intenti …’

f. 168v: Added notes on the soul.

f. 169r–v: ‘Sermo de passione Cristi. Ad Philypenses. Factus est obediens. Glosa. Humiliauit se Cristus usque ad incarnacioni …’.

f. 169v–171v: Further theological extracts.

ff. 171v–173r: Added proverbial verses.

ff. 173v–180r: Hugh of Saint-Victor, De institutione novitiorum.

ff. 180r–181v: Debate between body and soul in Anglo-Norman (Dean no. 692).

ff. 181v–183v: William of Saint-Amour, De passione domini.

ff. 183v–184v: Theological distinctions.

ff. 185r–195r: Isidore of Seville, Liber differentiarum, beginning with the preface ‘Nonnulli norunt quod iste liber …’.

f. 195r: Notes on the love of God.

ff. 195v–196v: De vii stellis et xii apostolis (‘Est igitur humilitas quasi prima stella …’).

Decoration:

Full-page drawing in red and black ink with a brown wash of the Crucifixion and the tree of life with verses (f. 5r). Large initials in blue with red pen-flourishing, or in red with blue pen-flourishing, some also with decoration in the other colour. Highlighting of letters in red. Paraphs in red. Rubrics in red. Small initials in red or blue. Marginal drawings in ink (ff. 110v, 136r, 145r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002051078", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5234: Theological miscellany including Isidore of Sevile, Sententiae" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002051078

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5234 : Theological miscellany including Isidore of Sevile, Sententiae

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5234]/040-002051078

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Anglo-Norman
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1250

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

2nd half of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: parchment.

Dimensions: 220 × 150 mm (written area 180 × 115 mm, in two columns).

Foliation: ff. 198 + 1*, 1**, 2* (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).

Collation: i⁴⁺² (ff. 1**–4; 1–2 added), ii¹² (ff. 5–16), iii³ (ff. 17–18; this gathering probably a later addition) | iv¹⁰ (ff. 19–28), v⁸ (ff. 29–36, numbered ‘xxxix’), vi¹⁰ (ff. 37–46), vii^10–1 (ff. 47–55; 10th cancelled) | vii–viii¹⁰ (ff. 56–75), ix¹² (ff. 76–87), x–xi⁸ (ff. 88–103), xii–xiii¹⁰ (ff. 104–123), xiv⁸ (ff. 124–131), xv¹² (ff. 132–143), xvi¹² (ff. 144–155), xvii⁸ (ff. 156–163), xviii¹² (ff. 164–175), xix⁸ (ff. 176–183), xx^16–1 (ff. 184–198; 1st excised).

Script: Gothic, Gothic cursive, written below top line. Composite manuscript, written by a variety of scribes.

Binding: British Library, 1977.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Benedictine cathedral priory of St Cuthbert, Durham. Inscribed: ‘liber sancti cuthberti ex dono et labore fratris T. de Wluestoun. et quicumque alienauerit post mortem anathema’, 13th century (f. 2*r); ‘Liber […] Ecclesie Cathedralis Dunelm’ (text partially erased), 14th/15th century (f. 1**v); several pages are inscribed, ‘Presul cuthbertus finiat istud opus’ (e.g. ff. 56r, 88r).

Provenance:

William Ebchester, prior of Durham from 1446 to 1456: gave book to Thomas Caly.

Thomas Caly, monk of Durham: inscribed, ‘Liber domini Thome Caly Monachi ecclesie Cathedralis Dunelm ex dono venerabilis Patris magistri Willelmi Ebchestr. Prioris ecclesie Dunelmensis’, 15th century (f. 4v).

Added texts, contents lists, and pen-trials (ff. 1** verso–4v, 196v–197v). f. 198 is a 15th-century flyleaf.

Thomas Tempest (d. 1743), 4th baronet of Stella, county Durham: inscribed, ‘Sir Thomas Tempest Baronet’ (f. 2*).

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.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage: Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Robert Nares and others, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808–12), no. 5234.

A. Wilmart, ‘Les méditations d’Étienne de Salley sur les Joies de la Vierge Marie’, Revue d‘ascétique et de mystique, 10 (1929), 368–415.

C.H. Talbot, ‘A List of Cistercian Manuscripts in Great Britain’, Traditio, 8 (1952), 402–18 (p. 416), https://doi.org/10.1017/S0362152900011740.

D.H. Farmer, ‘The Meditacio devota of Uthred of Boldon’, Analecta monastica, 5th ser., Studia Anselmiana, 43 (1958), 187–206.

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 73.

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

Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, Supplement to the Second Edition, ed. by Andrew G. Watson, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 15 (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1987), p. 31.

Ruth J. Dean, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society Occasional Publications Series, 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), no. 485.

Maureen Boulton, Sacred Fictions of Medieval France (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2015), p. 308.

Thomas H. Bestul, ‘Meditation by Bernard on the Lamentation of the Blessed Virgin (Meditacio Bernardi de lamentacione beate virginis)’, in Texts of the Passion (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015), pp. 165–185.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)