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Harley MS 5334

Record Id:

040-002051180

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002051180

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000357

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5334

Title:

Breviary

Scope & Content:

ff. 1r–94r: Breviary.

ff. 94v–95r: Intercessions for the abbots, priors and patrons of Bury St Edmunds Abbey.

f. 99r–v: Added Marian prayer from the late 15th century.

Decoration:

3 decorated initials in colours and gold with an acanthus leaf, with a partial bar border and foliate feathering (ff. 13v, 44r, 66v). Initials in blue with red pen-flourishing. Coloured initials in red or blue.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002051180", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5334: Breviary" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002051180

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5334 : Breviary

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5336]/040-002051180

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:

1360

End Date:

1440

Date Range:

Late 14th century-early 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: parchment.

Dimensions: 120 × 80 mm (written area 90 × 55 mm).

Foliation: ff. 99 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 2 unfoliated ruled parchment leaves and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end).

Script: Gothic.

Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound in 1964.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Johannes Fenyngham, monk of the Benedictine abbey of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: given to the abbey in the 15th century (see inscription on f. 94 transcribed below).

The Benedictine abbey of Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk: inscribed, 15th century, 'Liber monasterii Sancti Edmundi regis et martiris de Bury de dono dompni Iohannis fenyngham eiusdem loci monachi cuius anime propicietur deus amen' (f. 94r, in red at the end of the main text); obits of abbots etc. (ff. 94v–98r).

Added prayer, 15th century (f. 99r–v).

Sir Clement Heigham (b. in or before 1500, d. 1571), judge and speaker of the House of Commons (as Harley MSS 4968, 5388 and 5442, from Bury).

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 on 5 November 1723.

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 November A.D. 1723’ (f. 1).

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 available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5334.

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. 20.

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, 90, 150, 185.

Richard Rastall, Minstrels’ Playing, vol. 2 of Music in Early English Religious Drama (Cambridge: Brewer, 2001), p. 2.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)