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Harley MS 5439
- Record Id:
- 040-002051285
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002051285
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0003c0
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 5439
- Title:
-
Lactantius, Divinae institutiones
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a copy of the Divinae institutiones (The Divine Institutes), a theological work by the Christian Roman philosopher Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius (b. c. 250, d. c. 350).
Contents:
ff. 1r-196r: Lactantius, Divinae institutiones.
f. 196v is blank.
Decoration:
6 large white vine initials in colours and gold (ff. 1r, 31v, 55v, 81r, 109v, 134v). Plain initials in blue. Rubrics and marginal notations in red. Capitals marked in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002051285", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5439: Lactantius, Divinae institutiones" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002051285 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 5439 : Lactantius, Divinae institutiones - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[5441]/040-002051285
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- Greek
Latin - Scripts:
- Greek
Latin - Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1424
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment.
Dimensions: 230 x 180 mm (written space: 140 x 100 mm) in two columns.
Foliation: ff. 196 (+ 3 unfoliated paper and 1 parchment flyleaves at the beginning and at the end).
Vertical catchwords.
Script: Humanistic.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound 22 December 1965. Red half-leather binding with the Harleian armorial bookplate, gold-stamped on the upper and lower covers; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Central Italy (Florence).
Provenance:
This manuscript was written in Florence c. 1400, according to unpublished notes of A. C. de la Mare at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.
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 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. 5439.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Lactantius, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus, rhetorician and Christian apologist, c 260-c 340
- Places:
- Florence, Italy