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Harley MS 5319

Record Id:

040-002051165

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002051165

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000348

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5319

Title:

Compilations of French texts with German vocabulary and practice sentences; Arabic book with Qur'an text; The Fifteen Oes

Scope & Content:

This composite manuscript consists of three distinct parts, containing a 17th-century compilation of French letters and German vocabulary and practice sentences (ff. 2r-69v); an Arabic book that may have been written in the 15th or 16th century (ff. 70r-109v); and a copy of the Fifteen Oes, dated to the 4th quarter of the 15th century or 1st quarter of the 16th century.

Contents:

ff. 2r-33v: A collection of French texts, entitled: ‘Les Veilles de la Solitude. MDCLIII. A Samois sur Seine’, containing love letters and other items, preceded by the initials ‘J.N.D’, and variously dated between 1651 and 1654; imperfect due to the loss of pages 15-18.

ff. 34r-69v: Another collection of French texts, made by the same person who compiled the previous collection, entitled: ‘J. N. D. Sal, id est Salse acuteque dicta 1654 Dec. 20. ; containing Bon-mots, proverbs, sentences and sayings, copies of letters translated from Latin into German, and a German-French vocabulary (also featuring an inscription in Greek).

ff. 70r-109v: A small Arabic book with a partially erased title inscription in Latin on f. 109v: ‘Hic liber est Arabicus [...] caput ex Aleorano, quam in gratiam [...] foeminarum [...] et [...]’. It contains a Qur'an text which begins on f. 71v in the middle of Surah 6:164.

ff. 110r-123r: The Fifteen Oes of St Birgitta of Sweden (Latin), introduced by a long rubric about her vision of Christ, beginning: ‘Hec sunt quindecim collecte sive oraciones illius preclarissime virginis beate brigitte . quas ante ymaginem domini nostri ihesu cisti indies devotissime dicebat . tandem . ab eodem crucifixo per gratiam dignam responsionem habere meruit . et ipsa ymago ipsius crucifixi . que in ecclesia sancti pauli extat ipsam sanctam brigitam allocuta fuit . prout legenti infernis patebit . et tu lector lege devote . quia stupenda leges’ [etc.]; imperfect (lacking a bifolium after f. 112).

The manuscript contains a later addition:

ff. 1r, 124r-124v: Faded inscriptions in French; added in the 17th century.

Decoration:

12 miniatures in colours and gold introducing most section of the prayer (the last left blank (f. 122r), of the Passion of Christ: the Entry into Jerusalem (f. 112r), the Agony in the Garden (f. 113v), the Betrayal (f. 114v), the Flagellation (f. 115v), the Mocking of Christ (f. 116v), Christ before Pilate (f. 117r), the Carrying of the Cross (f. 117v), the Nailing to the Cross (f. 118v), the Crucifixion (f. 119), the Deposition (f. 119v; unfinished), the Pietà with John and Mary Magdalene (f. 120v), the Entombment (f. 121r). A space was left blank for the last miniature (probably the Resurrection), but it was never painted (f. 122r). 'Champ' initials in colours and gold. Paraphs in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002051165", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5319: Compilations of French texts with German vocabulary and practice sentences; Arabic book with Qur'an text; The Fifteen Oes" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002051165

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5319 : Compilations of French texts with German vocabulary and practice sentences; Arabic book with Qur'an text; The Fifteen Oes

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5321]/040-002051165

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Arabic
French
German
Greek, Ancient
Latin

Scripts:

Arabic
Greek
Latin

Start Date:

1470

End Date:

1654

Date Range:

c 1475-1654

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment (ff. 1, 110-124); paper.

Dimensions: 100 x 65 mm (text space: 70 x 50 mm).

Foliation: ff. 124 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 at the end); 2 unfoliated torn paper stubs between f. 8 and f. 9; ff. 2r-33v contain old pagination.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house.

Custodial History:

Origin:

France; Arab world; North-western France (Tours?).

Provenance:

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), p. 260.

Walter De Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster, 1879), p. 17.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

France
Northwestern France
Tours, France