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Burney MS 216
- Record Id:
- 040-002237097
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002236305
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x000108
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100056012610.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Burney MS 216
- Title:
-
Paulus Orosius, Historia Adversus Paganos (imperfect); Pseudo-Dares Phrygius, De Excidio Troiae Historia; Constantinus Africanus, De Melancholia; Peter Abelard, Carmen ad Astralabium
- Scope & Content:
-
Contents:
ff. 5r-88v: Paulus Orosius, Historia Adversus Paganos (History Against the Pagans), imperfect, starting at a Nino beli filio rege Assyriorum; preceded by a capitula list (ff. 2v-4v).
ff. 89r-93v: Pseudo-Dares Phrygius, De Excidio Troiae Historia (On the destruction of Troy), followed (f. 93v) by the Origo Troianorum (The origin of the Trojans), beginning: 'Dardanus ex Iove et Electra filia Athantis'.
ff. 94r-99r: Constantinus Africanus, De Melancholia (On Melancholy).
ff. 99r-100v: William of Conches, De Philosophia Mundi (On the Philosophy of the World), imperfect, Book 4, 1-19; followed by a list of words, lettered A-Z (f. 100v).
ff. 100v-103v: Peter Abelard, Carmen ad Astralabium (Chant to Astrolabe (his son)); ending with eight anonymous lines of a verse called Lusus sapientum (Game of the wise), attributing verses to eight authorities: Epicure, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Thales, Diogenes, Democritus, Epicure and Pythagoras (f. 103v).
Decoration:
Four historiated initials, mainly in red, green, and blue (ff. 28r, 32v, 88v, 89r).
Six foliate initials, in colours, some with dragons and/or human heads (ff. 8v, 14r, 22v with gold, 44v, 56v, 69v).
Marginal drawings in ink (ff. 33r, 36v, 47v) or leadpoint (ff. 12r, 44r).
Small initials in combinations of red, green, and blue, occasionally with human faces (e.g., f. 57v).
Headings in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Burney Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002236305
040-002237097 - Is part of:
- Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts
Burney MS 216 : Paulus Orosius, Historia Adversus Paganos (imperfect); Pseudo-Dares Phrygius, De Excidio Troiae Historia; Constantinus Africanus,… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002236305[0211]/040-002237097
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100056012610.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1150
- End Date:
- 1174
- Date Range:
- 3rd quarter of the 12th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 250 x 170 mm (text space: 200 x 130 mm, in 2 columns).
Foliation: ff. ii + 106 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning; f. i-ii are early modern parchment flyleaves; f. 4* is an early-modern parchment flyleaf inserted between f. 4 and f. 5; f. 104 is an early modern parchment flyleaf, ff. 105-106 are modern paper flyleaves); the Swan pagination, ff. 1-205. An erased ink foliation started on a former leaf preceding the present f. 5.
Collation: ifive (ff. 1 and 4* are 18th-century parchment; ff. 1-4*), ii8-1+1 (1st leaf missing and replaced; ff. 4*, 5-11), iii-viii8 (ff. 12-51), ix8-1 (2nd leaf missing; ff. 52-58), x-xii8 (ff. 59-82), xiii10 (ff. 83-92), xiv8 (ff. 93-100), xv4-1+1 (last leaf cancelled, and replaced with another by Swan; ff. 101-104). Traces of original quire signatures on final versos, in plain or red (f. 27v) ink. Late 18th-century binder's quire signatures in pencil on first rectos.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Brown leather, with marbled endpapers and parchment flyleaves ruled in red ink, all typical of manuscripts owned by Swan, c. 1790.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Kirkham, Northern England.
Provenance:
The Augustinian priory of the Holy Trinity or Christ Church, Kirkham, Yorkshire (founded c. 1122): the main scribe (ff. 5r-88v) also wrote Add MS 38817, ff. 5r-91v, from Kirkham, and Arundel MS 36, ff. 1r-12v, each with similar initials of a northern type (according to Michael Gullick; cited by Webber and Watson, The Library of the Augustinian Canons (1998), p. 32).
Unidentified 13th-century owner: added chapter-list and table of contents, between 1200 and 1225 (ff. 2v-4v).
>William T', unidentified owner: inscribed with the name 'William Ti[…]' and ?shelfmark '24:3' (f. 2r, upper right and upper left respectively, both erased).
John Langley of Amies (d. ?1661), antiquary: bequeathed to his nephew.
John Langley (d. 1709 or 1710) (see Ker, 'The Migration of Manuscripts from the English Medieval Libraries' (1985), pp. 459-69 (p. 461)).
?John Somers (b. 1651, d. 1716), Baron Somers, lawyer and politician: owned by his brother-in-law, Jekyll.
Sir Joseph Jekyll (bap. 1662, d. 1738), lawyer and politician, brother-in-law of Somers: his sale, 26 February 1739, lot 246, sold for 7s. 6d.
Joseph Ames (b. 1689, d. 1759), bibliographer and antiquary: his sale, 5 May 1760, lot 343.
Anthony Askew (bap. 1722, d. 1772), physician and book collector: his sale, 7 March 1785, lot 500, bought by Munro for 7s. 6d.
John Monro (b. 1715, d. 1791), physician and specialist in insanity: his sale, 23 April 1792, lot 3400.
David Swan, collector of the 'Bibliotheca Swaniana', c. 1790: his characteristic binding, foliation, and red-lined parchment flyleaves, inscribed 'Bibliotheca Swaniana, 1792' above a table of contents (f. 1r) (cf. Burney MS 13).
?Unidentified bookseller: inscribed in pencil with a price(?): '1.11.6' (f. 2r, top left).
James Sims (b. 1741, d. 1820), physician: his sale, 20 February 1809, lot 2447, bought by Burney for £2.
Charles Burney (b. 1757, d. 1817), D.D., classical scholar; acquired by the British Museum as part of Burney’s library from his son Charles Parr Burney in 1818.
- Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk.manuscripts/.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part II: The Burney Manuscripts (1840), p. 59.
H. L. D. Ward and J. A. Herbert, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I, pp. 16-17.
D. J. A. Ross, 'Illustrated Manuscripts of Orosius', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 9 (1955), 35-56 (pp. 51-53, pls 15b-c).
J. M. Bately and D. J. A. Ross, 'A Checklist of Manuscripts of Orosius "Historiarum Adversum Paganos Libri Septem"', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relative aux manuscrits, 15 (1961), 329-34 (no. 74).
N. R. Ker, 'The Migration of Manuscripts from the English Medieval Libraries', reprinted in his collected articles: Books, Collectors, and Libraries: Studies in the Medieval Heritage, ed. by Andrew G. Watson (London: Hambledon, 1985), pp. 459-69 (p. 461).
B. Munk Olsen, L’Étude des auteurs classiques latins aux XIe et XIIe siècles, 3 vols (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1982-1989), II (1985), p. 120 no. 94.
Peter Abelard, Carmen ad Astralabium: A Critical Edition, ed. José M. A. Rubingh-Bosscher (Groningen: Groningen, 1987), pp. 45-47.
Suzanne Lewis, The Art of Matthew Paris in the Chronica Majora (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1987), pp. 38, 480 no. 129, fig. 16.
David J. A. Ross, Alexander Historiatus: A Guide to medieval illustrated Alexander Literature, 2nd edn, Athenäum Monografien, Altertumswissenschaft, Beiträge zur Klassischen Philologie, ed. by Ernst Heitsch and others, 186 (Frankfurt: Athenäum, 1988), p. 75.
T. Webber and A. G. Watson, The Libraries of the Augustinian Canons, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 6 (London: British Library, 1998), p. 32.
L. B. Mortensen, 'The Diffusion of Roman Histories in the Middle Ages. A List Of Orosius, Eutropius, Paulus Diaconus and Landolfus Sagax Manuscripts,' Filologia Mediolatina,VI-VII, (2000), 101-200 (p. 132).
Michelle P. Brown, 'Marvels of the West: Giraldus Cambrensis and the Role of the Author in the Development of Marginal Illustration', in Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 34-59 (p. 50).
Anne Lawrence-Mathers, Manuscripts in Northumbria in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2003), p. 189.
Peter Kidd, 'David Swan's Bibliotheca Swaniana', in Manuscripts.org.uk (London, 2015) http://www.manuscripts.org.uk/provenance/collectors/swaniana.htm [accessed 28 February 2017].
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.