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Harley MS 3941/1
- Record Id:
- 041-003346694
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002032707
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100035896620.0x000001
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100173572350.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3941/1
- Title:
- Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae
- Scope & Content:
-
The first of two volumes of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville (b.c. 560, d. 636), an encyclopedia in twenty books dedicated to Braulio, Bishop of Saragossa (b. 590, d. 651), the editor of the text. The second volume is Harley 3941/2.
Contents:
f. 1r: Letter of Braulio to Isidore, imperfect, beginning '…ad te loqui. quasi coram positus vultum viderem tuae faciei'.
f. 1r: Letter of Isidore to Braulio, beginning 'Item Isidorus braulioni'.
f. 2r: Preface and index of books, with, in the outer margin, an abridged version of the preface by a later hand and dedicated to Sisebut, King of the Visigoths (r. 612-621).
The twenty books are arranged as follows:
ff. 2r-21v: Book I, grammar.
ff. 21v-36v: Book II, rhetoric and logic.
ff. 36v-50v: Book III, mathematics, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy (i.e. the arts of the Quadrivium), with astronomy including small diagrams (ff. 39v, 40v).
ff. 50v-56r: Book IV, medicine.
ff. 56r-68r: Book V, laws and division of time (calendars).
ff. 68r-81r: Book VI, Scripture, canon law, and the liturgical calendar, including Easter tables (ff. 75r-75v).
ff. 81r-99r: Book VII, names of the celestial hierarchy, holy fathers, martyrs, and clergy. A portion of text (VII, 5, 6-8) that was accidentally skipped in the copying of f. 87r was added by the scribe on an inserted parchment strip (f. 92r), now mistakenly bound between ff. 91 and 93.
ff. 99r-112r: Book VIII, various religions, including heresies and paganism, philosophy, poetry, and art of divination, with list of contents added on an inserted parchment strip (f. 98v).
ff. 112r-128v: Book IX, languages and their names.
ff. 128v-139v: Book X, alphabetical glossary of substantives and adjectives relating to mankind and human qualities.
The manuscript is partly a palimpsest (ff. 125r-125v, 134r-135r): the palimpsest leaves contain extracts from the Chronicle of Eusebius-St Jerome (b. 347, d. 420) in uncial script datable to the 5th or 6th century.
The manuscript contains some later additions:
f. 1v: A prayer added by a later hand (12th century), beginning: 'De signis nativitatis Christi. Miserator et misericors humani generis', explicit: 'secundum signum erat. pax ammirabilis super omnes': other copies of it are Alençon, Bibliotheque Municipale, MS 13 (f. 66r; attributed to Isidore), Bruges, Stadsbibliotheek, MS 99 (ff. 60r-60v), and Melk, Stiftsbibliothek, cod. 1673 (f. 87r).
ff. 53v-55r, 73v, 102r, 112r, 126r, 136v: Marginal and interlinear glosses, in Latin and Old Breton in a contemporary and slightly later (10th century) script.
Decoration:
Several large initials with interlace decoration, usually in yellow, red (oxidised), blue, and green, outlined in brown. Initials in brown ink, filled in red (oxidised), yellow, and/or green. Diagrams in red and brown (ff. 39v, 40v). A marginal pen drawing of the head of a bearded man (f. 20v).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Harley Science Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002032707
041-003346694 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 3941 : Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae
Harley MS 3941/1 : Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3934]/040-002032707[0001]/041-003346694
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- Item
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100173572350.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Breton
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 0800
- End Date:
- 0899
- Date Range:
- 9th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
-
Letter of introduction required to use this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 250 x 195 mm (text space: 205 x 150 mm).
Foliation: ff. 139 (+ 4 modern unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 4 at the end); two foliated parchment strips (ff. 92 and 98).
Collation: Gatherings: i8+1 (first added from preceding gathering now lost) (ff. 1-9),ii8 (ff. 10-17), iii6-2 (third and fifth leaves cancelled) (ff. 18-21), iv-v8 (ff. 22-37), vi10-2 (third and seventh leaves cancelled) (ff. 38-45), vii-ix8(ff. 46-69), x10-2 (third and seventh leaves cancelled) (ff. 70-77), xi10-2 (fourth and eighth leaves cancelled) (ff. 78-85), xii10-2+i (third and seventh leaves cancelled, with strip originally inserted between first and second (ff. 86v-87), but now mistakenly bound back-to-front and up-side-down between ff. 91v and 93 and foliated 92) (ff. 86-94), xiii8+i (strip inserted between third and fourth leaves, foliated 98) (ff. 95-103), xiv8 (ff. 104-111), xv10-2 (third and seventh leaves cancelled) (ff. 112-119), xvi10(ff. 120-129) , xvii12-2 (third and ninth leaves cancelled) (ff. 130-139), continued in the second volume, Harley 3941/2. With hair-sides out and gathering number written in Roman numerals in lower margin of the last verso of each gathering.
Script: Caroline minuscule.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house. Rebound in 1966. The Harley arms and motto gilt-tooled at centre of covers.
- Custodial History:
-
For the origin and provenance of this manuscript, please see the catalogue entry for Harley MS 3941 in the Archives and Manuscripts catalogue.
- Former Internal References:
- Harley MS 3941, folios 1-139
Harley MS 3941, part one - Information About Copies:
-
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Default.aspx.
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript, see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
- Publications:
- For the bibliography of this manuscript, please see the catalogue entry for Harley MS 3941 in the Archives and Manuscripts catalogue.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)