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Harley MS 7359

Record Id:

040-002053213

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002053213

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000935.0x000378

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 7359

Title:

Middle Dutch prayer-book

Scope & Content:

This Middle Dutch prayer-book contains a Calendar, an illustrated account of the Passion of Christ with prayers, and a few short prayers to Christ and the Virgin Mary. The account of the Passion has been supplemented with details from sources that embellish the biblical account of Christ's suffering and death. The scribe's interest in this so-called 'Secret Passion'-literature is also reflected in the choice for the prayer for the 'unknown shoulder wound' that Christ, according to the prayer's introduction, endured while carrying the Cross. The prayer-book has been illustrated with 11 miniatures by an unknown artist.

ff. 1v-12r: A Calendar.

f. 12v: A Table with the Golden Numbers and Sunday Letters for the years 1528-1546.

ff. 13r-57r: An illustrated Passion of Christ, intersected with prayers, beginning: ‘O alle ghij adams kinderen die verladen sijt met sonden · O ghi cleynmoedighe vallende kermender menschelijker naturen · Ghij sondaren out ende ionck en wilt niet meshopen want onser es raet ende medecijn verleent in veel mannieren’.

ff. 57v-58r: An antiphon to the Virgin Mary, ‘[rubric:] Hier nae volghet een antifenne · oft een lof van onser vrouwen · daer vore twe reysen aff gheruert es om te lesene [prayer:] Salve regina misericorse die vita dulcedo et spes nostra salve [etc.]’.

ff. 58r-59v: A prayer to Christ’s ‘unknown shoulder wound’, ‘[rubric:] Een devote oratie tot onsen heere · ende tot sijnder onbekinder wonden die hij ontfinck op sijn gebenedijde scouwere doen hij sijn heylighe cruce droech . Ende soe wie hem eenen Pater noster ende eenen Ave maria · oft dese navolgende oratie dagelijcs lesen oft eeneghen anderen devoten dienst bewijsen ter eeren van der grooter pijnen die hij in dese wonde leedt / Dien wilt hij wederom loonen ende met veel sunderlinghe gracien beghiften. Oratie. [prayer:] O lieve heere ihesu Christe saechtmoedich lam Ic aerm sondich minsche gruete u wonde die op u scouder stont [etc.]’ [Meertens, De godsvrucht in de Nederlanden, II (1931), pp. 24-26; Rudy, Virtual Pilgrimages (2011), pp. 106-107; Rudy, Postcards on Parchment (2015), pp. 212-13].

ff. 59v-60r: A prayer to the Virgin Mary before a statue or image of the Madonna of the Sun and Moon, with indulgences, ‘[rubric:] Soe wie dit navolghende ghebet spreeckt met devotien sijnde inden staet van gracien voer het beelde van onser vrouwen staende in sonne . die verdient telcken xi. duysent iaer warachtichs aflaets [prayer:] weest gegruet alder heylichste maria . moeder goids coninginne des hemels poerte des paradijs [etc.]’.

[ff. 1r, [12a] recto, [12a] verso, 60v are blank].

Decoration:

9 half-page miniatures with colours in frames, one with full scatter borders in imitation gold containing flowers and animals (f. 13r).

The subjects of the miniatures are as follows:

f. 13r: The Agony in the Garden.

f. 18r: The Arrest.

f. 19v: Christ before Annas.

f. 23v: Christ before Pilate.

f. 26r: The Flagellation.

f. 28r: Christ crowned with the crown of thorns.

f. 32r: Christ carrying the Cross (The left margin contains an instruction for the artist: ‘Here Jesus carries his cross’ [f. 32r: ‘hier draghet ihesus sijn cruce’]).

f. 37r: Christ nailed to the Cross.

f. 41v: The Crucifixion.

2 one-third page miniatures in colours and gold of the Virgin and Christ Child (ff. 57v, 59v).

1 large initial in imitation gold in a purple frame (f. 13r); 5 large initials in blue with red pen-flourishing (f. 18, 21v, 26, 37, 41v). 4 large initials in red with brown pen-flourishing (ff. 19v, 23v, 28, 32). Smaller initials in red or blue throughout the manuscript.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002053213", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 7359: Middle Dutch prayer-book" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002053213

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 7359 : Middle Dutch prayer-book

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[7369]/040-002053213

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Dutch, Middle

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1500

End Date:

1524

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 16th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: parchment.

Dimensions: 150 x 105 mm (text space: 95 x 65 mm).

Foliation: ff. 60 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf and 3 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and end); + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf between f. 12 and f. 13 (f. [12a]).

Script: Gothic (littera hybrida).

Binding: Post-1600. Mottled brown calf with gold tooling, the spine inscribed in gold by the British Museum: ‘HORAE B. MARIAE’; gilt edges.

Custodial History:

Origin:

Netherlands, N.

Provenance:

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.

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: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III, p. 527.

Karel de Flou and Edward Gailliard, Beschrijving van Middelnederlandse en andere handschriften die in Engeland bewaard worden, Verslagen en Mededelingen van de Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 3 vols (Ghent: Koninklijke Vlaamsche Academie voor Taal- en Letterkunde, 1895–1897), II (1896), pp. 115-16 (no. 10).

Maria Meertens, De godsvrucht in de Nederlanden: naar handschriften van gebedenboeken der XVe eeuw, 4 vols (Antwerpen: Standaard, 1930−1934), II (1931), pp. 24-26 [for a discussion of the prayer on Christ’s shoulder wound].

Robert Priebsch, Deutsche Handschriften in England, 2 vols (Erlangen: Junge, 1896–1901), II, p. 21 (no. 36).

Kathryn M. Rudy, Postcards on Parchment: The Social Lives of Medieval Books (London; New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015), pp. 212-13 [for a discussion of the prayer concerning Christ’s shoulder wound].

Kathryn M. Rudy, Virtual Pilgrimages in the Convent: Imagining Jerusalem in the Late Middle Ages, Disciplina Monastica, 8 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2011), pp. 106-07 [for a discussion of the prayer concerning Christ’s shoulder wound].

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Places:

The Netherlands

Related Material:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III, p. 527: ‘Horae B. Mariae, cum Calendario, Teutonicè. Codex membranaceus, cum picturis non inelegantibus, saeculi 16. xvi’.