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Harley MS 5915

Record Id:

040-002051763

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002051763

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000899.0x0001b6

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 5915

Title:

A collection of fragments from manuscripts of different date and origin

Scope & Content:

The volume is a collection of fragments from manuscripts of different date and origin. It was originally part of a collection of fragments from manuscripts and printed books, including maps and drawings, assembled by the bookseller and antiquary John Bagford (b. 1650/51, d. 1716) for historical purposes. Drawings and printed book fragments from the volume were transferred to the Print Room and the Department of Printed Books in the British Museum in the 19th century.

Contents:

ff. 2r-2v: A leaf from Augustine's In Johannis ad epistolam ad Parthos (tractatus V), in an English hand of the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 11th century; parchment; 205 x 140 mm.

ff. 3r-3v: A leaf from Isidore of Seville's Differentiarum sive de proprietate sermonum (book II: De differentiis rerum, xviii-xxxix), in an English/French hand from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century; parchment; 175 x 130 mm.

ff. 4r-4v, 19r-19v: 2 leaves with homilies translated from Origen, cropped, in an English/French script from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century; parchment; 280 x 190 mm.

ff. 5r-5v: A leaf from Vita Sancte Marie Magdalene, cropped, in an English script from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century; parchment; 330 x 225 mm.

ff. 6r-6v: A leaf from Bede's Homilies in a Northern English script from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century; parchment; 365 x 255 mm.

f. 7v: A piece of parchment from a booklist inscribed with: 'A Augustinus B Beda C Cassiodorum D'.

ff. 8r-9v: A bifolium from Aelfric's Grammar, cropped, in an English script from the 1st half of the 11th century; parchment; 240 x 165 mm.

ff. 10r-10v: A leaf from Justinus's Epitome historiarum Trogi Pompeii, cropped, in a Northumbrian script from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 8th century; parchment; 195 x 125 mm.

ff. 11r-11v: A leaf from St Augustine's Enarratio in Psalmum 75 (1-5), written in an English 12th-century hand; parchment; 300 x 200 mm.

ff. 12r-12v: A fragment containing the end of St Augustine's Contra mendacium followed by the beginning of De cura pro mortuis gerenda, cropped leaf, written by Eadmer of Canterbury in the late 1080s; parchment; 215 x 175 mm.

ff. 13r-13v: A leaf from Aelfric's 'Catholic Homilies', I.xx and xxviii, cropped, in an English hand from the 1st quarter of the 11th century; parchment; 125 x 195 mm.

ff. 14r-14v: A leaf from an unidentified biblical chronicle (?), in a English/French script from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century; parchment; 370 x 230 mm.

ff. 15r-15v: A leaf from Priscianus' Institutiones Grammaticae (Books 14-15), in an 11th-century hand; parchment; 240 x 180 mm.

ff. 16r-16v: A leaf from Poggio Bracciolini's De infelicitate principum, cropped, written by Thomas Candour in the 3rd quarter of the 15th century; parchment; 195 x 150 mm.

ff. 17v-17v: A leaf from a Commentary on Psalm 70, in an English/French script from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century; parchment; 310 x 220 mm.

ff. 18r-18v: A leaf from Hrabanus Maurus' De Universo, Book XIII, chapters 6-10, written in an English/French script from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 12th century; parchment; 315 x 230 mm.

ff. 19r-19v: A leaf from Origen's Homilies on Isaiah (Homiliae IV-V) in St Jerome's translation, referred to in the text as the third and fourth homilies (f. 19v), in an early 12th-century hand; parchment; 160 x 275 mm.

ff. 20r-20v: A leaf from a legal text on emphyteusis, written in a 13th-century hand; parchment; 310 x 200 mm.

ff. 21r-21v: A leaf from a Missal, with text relating to the offices for Friday and Saturday after the 4th Sunday of Lent, in an English script from the 1st quarter of the 13th century; parchment; 295 x 180 mm.

ff. 22r-22v: A leaf from Richard of Saint-Victor's De Trinitate, Book 2, chapters 16-20, in an English/French script from the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 13th century; parchment; 330 x 205 mm.

ff. 23r-23v: A leaf from a Lectionary, in an English script from the 2nd half of the 13th or 1st quarter of the 14th century; parchment; 295 x 190 mm.

ff. 24r-24v: A fragment from an unidentified manuscript of Apophthegmata patrum (f. 24r: Book 5, 37-38; f. 24v: Book 5, 35-37), written in an 11th-century hand; parchment; 190 x 140 mm.

ff. 25r-25v: A leaf from Guy de Chauliac's Surgery , Book VI, in English translation (originally ff. 107-107v in New York, Academy of Medicine, MS. 12, from which it was removed by John Bagford), written in an English script from c. 1440-1460; parchment; 325 x 235 mm.

f. 26r: A fragment from a 13th-century manuscript containing a text on natural philosophy; parchment; 170 x 180 mm.

f. 27r: A leaf containing 6 drawings made in a 17th-century style; paper; 290 x 180 mm.

Decoration:

ff. 2r-2v: Uncial capitals in ink.

ff. 3r-3v: Uncial initials in red.

ff. 4r-4v, 19r-19v: Initials in red with foliate decoration in yellow and blue (ff. 4v, 19v). Initial in red with penwork decoration in red (f. 4r). Small initials in green, two with highlighting in yellow. Rubrics in oxidised red.

ff. 5r-5v: Large initials in purple, red or green. Rubrics in oxidised red.

ff. 6r-6v: Large initials in green or purple with penwork decoration in green. Rubrics in oxidised red.

ff. 12r-12v: 1 large initial in red. Rubrics in display capitals in red.

ff. 14r-14v: Large initials in blue, green or oxidised red. Rubrics in oxidised red.

ff. 17v-17v: Plain initials in blue or oxidised red. Rubrics in red.

ff. 18r-18v: Large initials in red and/or green, two with penwork decoration in green. Rubrics in red.

ff. 19r-19v: 1 large initial in red and green with foliate decoration (f. 19v).

ff. 21r-21v: Initials in red or blue, 4 with penwork decoration in green or red. With musical notation of 4-line staves in red.

ff. 22r-22v: Initials in blue or red with pen-flourished decoration in the other colour. Rubrics in red.

ff. 23r-23v: Initials in red or blue with pen-flourished decoration in red and blue. Rubrics in red. Highlighting of capitals in red.

ff. 25r-25v: Full bar border and inhabited initial with foliate decoration in colours and gold. Paraphs in blue or red. Rubrics in red. Capitals highlighted in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002051763", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5915: A collection of fragments from manuscripts of different date and origin" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002051763

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 5915 : A collection of fragments from manuscripts of different date and origin

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[5919]/040-002051763

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Old
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

0700

End Date:

1699

Date Range:

8th century - 17th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment; paper.

Dimensions: variable.

Foliation: ff. 27 (+ several unfoliated interleaved modern paper leaves and flyleaves at the beginning and the end).

Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding.

Custodial History:

Origin: Multiple (see description).

Provenance:

John Bagford (b. 1650/51, d. 1716), bookseller and antiquary: part of the Bagford fragments sold to Edward Harley after his death.

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.

Inscribed 'Bagford Collection, Harl. 5966, 19 MS. fragments taken from Harly 5966 for the Department of MSS.' (initial cover leaf).

Publications:

Janet Backhouse, 'Bourdichon's 'Hours of Henry VII', British Library Quarterly, 38 (1973), 95-102 [f. 54, part 11].

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5961-5974.

Florence Eliza Glaze, 'Galen Refashioned: Gariopontus of Salerno’s Passionarius in the Later Middle Ages and Renaissance', in Textual Healing, Essays in Medieval and Early Modern Medicine, ed. by Elizabeth Lane Furdell (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2005), pp. 53-77, [on the text]..

Florence Eliza Glaze, 'Gariopontus and the Salernitans: Textual Traditions in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries', in La ‘Collectio Salernitana’ di Salvatore De Renzi, ed. by Danielle Jacquart and Agostino Paravicini Bagliani (Firenze: Sismel Galluzzo, 2009), pp. 149-90, [on the text].

Florence Eliza Glaze, 'Prolegomena: Scholastic Openings to Gariopontus of Salerno’s Passionarius', in Between Text & Patient: the Medical Enterprise in Medieval & Early Modern Europe, ed. by Florence Eliza Glaze & Brian K. Nance (Firenze: Sismel Galluzzo, March 2011), pp. 57-86 [on the text].

A Masterpiece Reconstructed: The Hours of Louis XII, ed. by Thomas Kren and Mark Evans with essays by Janet Backhouse, Thomas Kern, Nancy Turner and Mark Evans (Los Angeles: J. Paul getty Museum, 2005), pp. 82, 94 [f. 54, part 11].

Milton McC. Gatch, 'John Bagford as a Collector and Disseminator of Manuscript Fragments', The Library, Sixth Series, 7 (1985), 95-114 [p. 111].

Cyril E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1723-1726, p. 440.

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. 59, 457.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)