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Harley MS 5261

Record Id:

040-002051105

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002051105

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x00030c

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5261

Title:

Virgil, Bucolics, Georgica, Aeneid, and Epitaphs

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 1r-18r: Virgil, Bucolics.

ff. 18v-63r: Virgil, Georgica.

ff. 63v-266v: Virgil, Aeneid.

ff. 267r-268v: Virgil, Epitaphs.

Vertical catchwords.

Written by Johannes de Parma: signed in cypher substituting the vowels by the following consonants (ff. 63r, 266v).

Decoration:

Miniature in colours and gold, of Virgil reading in a landscape facing a large historiated initial of Aeneas standing with bow and arrow combined with a full white vine border with medallions enclosing two youth heads (ff. 64v-65r). Large historiated initial of shepherds minding their flock combined with a full white vine and interlace border with medallions enclosing a leopard, a goat?, a head in profile with a laurel crown (?Virgil), a hare, and a coat of arms supported by putti (f. 1r). Historiated initials in colours and gold at major divisions combined with white vine forming a partial border (picking fruit from a tree, ploughing and sowing (f. 18v)), or simply extending into the margin (man pointing at the sun, moon and stars (f. 23v), men pruning trees (f. 29v), shepherds with cattle (f. 40v), a man with a beehive (f. 52r), Aeneas in conversation with Dido accompanied by a child (f. 80v), Aeneas leaving on a ship (f. 96v), Anna and Dido, and the death of Dido (f. 111r), Aeneas and his fleet and two men partaking in the contests held in memory of Anchises (f. 125v), the Sybil giving the golden bough to Aeneas (f. 143r), Aeneas, guided by the Sibyl, entering the underworld (f. 143v), the Trojans? (f. 161v), a banquet (f. 162r), ships (f. 178v), ships, and 2 men beside a sleeping king in a tent (f. 193v), 2 soldiers (f. 210v), a man and a woman fighting on horseback (f. 238v), 2 soldiers carrying a dead body (f. 229r), a soldier brandishing a spear and another lying on the ground (f. 247v)). Large white vine initials in colours and gold with the white vine extending into the margin (ff. 2v, 6v, 9v, 10v, 11r, 11v, 13r, etc.). Large initials in colours and gold with interlace extending into the margin (ff. 4r, 7v, 10r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002051105", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5261: Virgil, Bucolics, Georgica, Aeneid, and Epitaphs" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002051105

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5261 : Virgil, Bucolics, Georgica, Aeneid, and Epitaphs

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5261]/040-002051105

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1474

Date Range:

3rd quarter of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Parchment.

Dimensions: 235 x 165 mm (text space: 145 x 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. 268 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 2 parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 1 paper flyleaf at the end).

Script: Humanistic.

Binding: Post-1600. British Museum in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Italy, Central (Rome?).

Scribe:

Johannes de Parma (ff. 63r, 266v).

Artist:

In the style of Joachinus de Gigantibus.

Provenance:

Made for a member of the Maffei family, of Volterra: its arms per fess: 1) azure, a stag's head horned or, and 2) bendy sinister of seven or and azure) (f. 1r).

Inscribed 'Cassius infelix M ?R', 15th century (f. 268v).

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), III (1808), no. 5261.

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. 231.

R. D. Williams, T. S. Pattie, Virgil. His Poetry through the Ages (London: The British Library, 1982), p. 137 [with reproduction of f. 63r].

Tammaro De Marinis, La Biblioteca napoletana dei re d'AragonaI, 4 vols (Milan: Ulrico Hoepli, 1952), I, pp. 80 n. 66, 430.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)