Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 6615

Record Id:

040-002052464

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002052464

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000935.0x00008b

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 6615

Title:

The Chastising of God's Children; Walter Hilton, Eight Chapters on Perfection (extract); Bridget of Sweden, Liber celestis revelacionum (extract, English translation); William Flete, De remediis contra temptationes (First English translation); Walter Hilton, Scale of Perfection (extract); The Lay Folk's Catechism; William Flete, De remediis contra temptationes (Second English translation)

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains one of the twelve surviving copies of the Middle English Chastising of God's Children, an anonymous devotional text from the late 14th or early 15th century that was designed to provide guidance to religious women in contemplation and the discernment of spirits. The manuscript also features chapters from Middle English translations of Bridget of Sweden (b. c. 1303, d. 1373), Liber celestis revelacionum, and Walter Hilton (b. c. 1343, d. 1396), Scale of Perfection, and two translations of William Flete (fl. 1352–1380), De remediis contra temptationes.

Contents:

ff. 1r-100r: The Chastising of God's Children.

ff. 100v-103v: Walter Hilton, Eight Chapters on Perfection, Chapter 2.

ff. 104r-109v: Middle English translation of Bridget of Sweden (b. c. 1303, d. 1373), Liber celestis revelacionum, Book VII, Chapter 5, entitled: 'How reson schal be keper of þe soule to putte owte and to wiþstonde temptaciouns þat þey entre nat in to þe soule'.

ff. 109v-123r: First Middle English translation of William Flete (fl. 1352–1380), De remediis contra temptationes.

ff. 123r-126v: Walter Hilton, Scale of Perfection, Book I, Chapters 37-39, beginning: 'It behouyth a man or a woman for to suffer many temptacyouns'.

ff. 127r-140r: The Lay Folk's Catechism, beginning: 'Attendite popule meus legem meam'.

ff. 140r-141v: Sayings about clerical duties, beginning: 'Beatus Gregorius in quadam omelia supra Iohannem quartusdecimo capitulo dicit'.

ff. 141v-142v: Middle English text on temptation, beginning: 'De tribulacione electorum. Owre lorde Jhesus suffriþ men and women þat ben chosen of hym for to ben dyspicyd and haue grete tribulacyoun in þis worlde boþe in body and in sowle'.

ff. 142v-152r: Second Middle English translation of William Flete's De remediis contra temptationes.

Decoration:

Initials in blue with pen-flourished decoration in red. Paraphs in blue and red. Rubrics, marginal notes and occasional underlining of words in red. Initials highlighted in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002052464", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 6615: The Chastising of God's Children; Walter Hilton, Eight Chapters on Perfection (extract); Bridget of Sweden, Liber celestis…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002052464

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 6615 : The Chastising of God's Children; Walter Hilton, Eight Chapters on Perfection (extract); Bridget of Sweden, Liber…

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[6620]/040-002052464

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

2nd half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 155 x 110 mm (text space: 110/120 x 65/70 mm).

Foliation: ff. 1* + 152 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end); f. 1* is an early modern paper flyleaf; 1 unfoliated blank parchment leaf after f. 1* (original flyleaf). Early modern foliation ('150'-'301') throughout.

Script: Gothic cursive (Secretary with Anglicana 'a').

Collation: Gatherings of 8, with horizontal catchwords in the lower right corner of the last verso of each gathering, often trimmed away.

Binding: Post-1600. 17th-century binding of gilt-tooled red morocco; with marbled endpapers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Thomas Granger (d. 1732), clerk to the committee of Private Trade, East India Company, 1687-1732: his signed inscription on f. 1*recto (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 170).

? John Murray (b. 1670/71, d. 1748), library agent and book collector, of Sacombe in Hertfordshire: inscribed 'IMS' (f. 'i verso'), the same initials as other Harley manuscripts (see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 291).

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. 380.

Henry E. Nolloth, The Lay Folks’ Catchism, Early English Text Society, Original Series, 118 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1901) [edition from another manuscript].

The Chasting of God's Children and the Treatise of Perfection of the Sons of God, ed. by Joyce Bazire and Eric Colledge (Oxford: Blackwell, 1957), pp. 4-5.

Michael B. [Benedict] Hackett, 'William Flete and the De remediis contra temptaciones', in Medieval Studies Presented to Aubrey Gwynn, S.J., ed. by John A. Watt, John B. Morrall and Francis X. Martin (Dublin: Colm Ó Lochlainn, 1961), pp. 330-48 (pp. 340, 347 nos. 10, 11).

Michael B. [Benedict] Hackett, Eric Colledge, and Noel Chadwick, 'William Flete's "De Remediis contra Temptaciones" in Its Latin and English Recensions: The Growth of a Text', Mediaeval Studies, 26 (1964), 210-230 (pp. 220, 221, 224, 226).

Fumio Kuriyagawa, 'The Inner Temple Manuscript of Walter Hilton's "Eight Chapters on Perfection", Studies in English Literature, English Number (1971), 7-34 [with variants from this manuscript].

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. 170, 291, 468.

Domenico Pezzini, 'How resoun schal be keper of the soul: Una traduzione del Quattrocento inglese delle Rivelazioni (VII, 5) di S. Brigida di Svezia', Aevum: Rassegna di scienze storiche linguistiche e filologiche, 60 (1986), 253-81 (pp. 256, 261, 265-66).

Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, ed. by Thomas H. Bestul (Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 2000), pp. 65-70.

Domenico Pezzini, The Translation of Religious Texts in the Middle Ages: Tracts and Rules, Hymns and Saints' Lives, Studies in Language and Communication, 69 (Oxford: Lang, 2008) pp. 23-24, 50-57, 64.

Jessica Michelle Lamothe, 'An Edition of the Latin and Four Middle English Versions of William Flete’s De remediis contra temptaciones (Remedies against Temptations)' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of York, 2017), pp. 65-70 [as 'H2'] [edition with variations from both the English translations in this manuscript].

'London, British Library, Harley MS 6615', in Digital Birgitta [test site] [accessed 4 October 2021].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Brigitta, Saint, nee Birgitta Birgersdotter; mystic and founder of the order of Bridgettines, c 1303-1373
Hilton, Walter, c 1343-1396,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000118213408
William of Flete, fl 1352-1380,
see also http://isni.org/isni/000000006698367X

Places:

England