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Harley MS 7184
- Record Id:
- 040-002053038
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002053038
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000935.0x0002c9
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 7184
- Title:
-
John Gower, Confessio Amantis
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
John Gower, Confessio Amantis; beginning: 'Torpor ebes sensus scola parva labor minimusque / Causam ergo minimus ipse minora canam'; ending : 'hath do wherof his kniȝthiede / Is yit comended over all'. Imperfect: the text lacks 1 folio after f. 25 (containing English Works 1900-1901, I.3322-II.46); f. 55 (containing III.1908-2103); f. 61 (containing IV.400-575); f. 78 (containing IV.3701-V.161); f. 110 (containing V.6183-6360); and f. 118 (containing the beginning of book 6, through VI.182); 12 leaves after f. 126 (containing VI.1671-VII.1405); 4 leaves after f. 131 (containing VII.2354-3088); and about 30 leaves after f. 134 (containing VII.3594-VIII end).
The text belongs to the third recension [see Boffey and Edwards, A New Index (2005), no. 2662; for an edition, see English Works (1900-1901)]. Gower's Latin marginal notes have been incorporated into the main text columns, in red. Some short Latin notes, many of them dialogue attributions, in both red (Amans) and black (Confessor), with pen-flourished paraphs, have been maintained in the margins. Some English marginal notes added in an 18th-century hand.
Decoration:
Large initial in colours and gold with foliate decoration including acanthus leaves, ivy, and foliate feathering extending into the margins to form a partial border, including a male figure (f. 1r). Large initial in colours and gold with foliate feathering extending between the columns and into the margins at the beginning of each book: ff. 7r, 45r (with 2 dragons), and f. 59v (with a male figure); the other ones are missing. Smaller initials in gold with purple. These are occasionally faded to grey and often combined with blue (including a dragon on f. 102v and a hybrid creature and male face on f. 109r) or ochre pen-flourishing, or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Running titles written in elaborate Gothic bookhand with flourished initials. Paraphs in gold with purple pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Beginning-of-line capitals marked in yellow. A few cadels (e.g., ff. 45r, 51r, 118r). Ruled in purple. Catchwords written horizontally and introduced by a flourished paraph. The pen-flourishing is very elaborate and includes numerous foliate motifs. The manuscript also contains an added pencil drawing of a man and bird (f. 86r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002053038", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 7184: John Gower, Confessio Amantis" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002053038 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 7184 : John Gower, Confessio Amantis - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[7194]/040-002053038
- 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:
- 1474
- Date Range:
- 3rd quarter of the 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 545 x 390 mm (text space: 400 x 215 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. 134 ( + 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end).
Collation: Mainly in quires of 12.
Script: Gothic cursive.
Binding: British Museum in-house.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: England.
Provenance:
? 'Philippa', owned in the 15th or 16th century: her name in an inscription on f. 82r: 'liber pilip[a]'.
An unknown 16th-century English owner: inscribed the date '1548' on f. 18v.
John Bowntin (?), 16th-17th century: added inscriptions: 'The ffer of The lord / [...] Johna I Bow' (f. 24v); 'John a Bowntin with my / In my benning b[?]good [...]' (f. 68v). The name ‘John’ also on f. 63v and f. 69r; and perhaps also in an erased marginal inscription on f. 31r.
An unknown (?) 18th-century English woner: added annotations throughout the manuscript (e.g., ff. 6v, 7r, 28v, 29r, 30r).
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 'Oxford B.H.' (f. 1r).
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish Harley, 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 Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
Julia Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London: British Library, 2005), no. 2662.
Carleton Brown and Rossell Hope Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943), no. 2662.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), III (1808), p. 520 (no. 7184).
A. I. Doyle and M. B. Parkes, 'The Production of Copies of the Canterbury Tales and the Confessio Amantis in the Early Fifteenth Century', in Medieval Scribes, Manuscripts & Libraries: Essays Presented to N. R. Ker, ed. by M. B. Parkes and Andrew G. Watson (London: Scolar Press, 1978), pp. 163-210 (p. 201).
Siân Echard, 'Dialogues and Monologues: Manuscript Representations of the Conversation of the Confessio Amantis', in Middle English Poetry: Texts and Traditions, ed. by A. J. Minnis, York Manuscript Conferences, 5 (York: York Medieval Press, 2001), pp. 57-75 (pp. 72-73).
Chris Fletcher, Roger Evans, and Sally Brown, 1000 Years of English Literature: A Treasury of Literary Manuscripts (New York: Abrams, 2003), pp. 28-29.
The English Works of John Gower, ed. by G. C. Macaulay, Early English Text Society, Extra Series, 81, 82, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1900-1901), I, pp. clxii-clxiii [manuscript description], 1-519; II, pp. 1-336.
Derek Pearsall, 'The Manuscripts and Illustrations of Gower's Works', in A Companion to Gower, ed. by Siân Echard (Cambridge: Brewer, 2004), pp. 73-97 (p. 76, fig. 1).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- Bentinck, Margaret Cavendish, duchess of Portland, née Harley, collector of art and natural history specimens and patron of arts and sciences, 11 Feb 1715-17 Jul 1785,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000115857160,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/2356861
Gower, John, poet, d 1408,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000109397129
Harley, Edward, second earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, 2 Jun 1689-16 Jun 1741,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000108078249,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/160524259
Harley, Henrietta Cavendish, Countess of Oxford and Mortimer, née Holles, patron of architecture, 4 Feb 1694-9 Dec 1755,
see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000030125833,
see also http://viaf.org/viaf/6045563 - Places:
- England
- Related Material:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-1812), III (1808), p. 520:
'The remains of a very fine Copy of Gowers Confessio Amantis, written on Vellum and illuminated. The size a large and magnificent Folio. The first page a little defaced, the rest very clean. There are no paintings, except for the ornamenting if initial Letters. It appears, however, to have been mutilated, at some period, for the sake even of these Illuminations.
Thus, at the end of Book I. about 124 Lines are wanting, and 46 from the beginning of Book II. which had been written on the illuminated Leaf. There is a similar Chasm at the end of Book IV. where part of the deficient Leaf remains. Again at the beginning of B. VI. which is also deficient at the end, with the beginning of B. VII. Of the 7th Book a very large Part is wanting, (namely from fol. 177 of Caxton's Edition) and the whole of B. VIII.
Thus miserably mutilated, the MS. is still well worthy of Collation, from its antiquity, & from the Care with which it was originally written. It is apparenlty of the 14th Century. XIV'.