Harley MS 6814

Origin: France, England and Northern Italy.

Provenance:

A French scribe, wrote ff. 1r-38r between 1650 and 1653: added dates to the collection of sermons in Latin and French .

An English scribe associated with Sidney College, wrote 39v-40r in the mid-16th century: a title with reference to Sidney College inscribed on f. 39r.

An English Jesuit, wrote ff. 40v-69r, probably in the late 16th century: text cites sources dated to 1575 (Gregorius Martinus), 1579 (Cardinal William Allen), 1580 (Nicholas Sander); refers to the Order of Jesuits, founded in 1540; and Robert Persons (b. 1546, d. 1610) ['P. Personius'], an English Jesuit priest at Rome who played an important role in his order’s ‘English mission’; ff. 70r-98v were written by different 16^th century English hands.

‘Marchissius Pupagiis’, wrote ff. 94r-112v in 1435; a colophon on f. 112v: ‘M. CCCCXXXV. die veneris vigesima tertia hora mensis madij Marchissius [sic] pupagiis finivit hunc librum ad honorem dei et matris eius et ad utilitatem proficuum mei et heredum meorum’; also wrote ff. 113r-127r; Harley MS 3949, ff. 1-71 in 1430 and 1431 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Lat. class e.4 at Brescia in 1442; the scribe identifies himself as ‘Marchixius Pupagius de Martinengo’ in Harley MS 3949, which, together with the dedication of the copy of the Fabulae to Gianfrancesco I Gonzaga (b. 1395, d. 1444), Marquess of Mantua (r. 1407-1444), suggests the scribe was active in Northern Italy.

‘Johannes Litherlande’, owned ff. 94r-127r in the 16th century. his name inscribed on f. 94r; and also is the first to feature in a copy or draft of an indenture on f. 87v; a ‘Johannes Litherland’ is recorded as deacon of Brooksby, Leicestershire, in 1527.

? Sidney Sussex College, founded in 1596, perhaps owned ff. 39v-40r: inscribed on f. 39r: ‘in Sidney College’, added in the 16th century.

An unknown 17th-century Italian owner of ff. 98-127: added a paper strip between f. 112 and f. 113 with a note in Italian: 'Aesopi viri Atheniensis Fabulae. Si ricerca se si puo trovare chi li scrisse' ( f. [112a]recto).

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.

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.