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Royal MS 17 A XLII

Record Id:
041-003419951
Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
032-002105724
MDARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100062854917.0x000001
LARK:
ark:/81055/vdc_100165176471.0x000001
SLARK:
Format:
ISAD(G)
Reference (shelfmark):
Royal MS 17 A XLII
Title:

Sworne Book of Honorius or Liber iuratus Honorii

Scope & Content:

Contents:

ff. 2r-15r: Sworne Book of Honorius (Liber iuratus Honorii), or Liber Sacer,chapters 1-5 (chapter 4 in Latin, the remainder in English);

ff. 15r-23r: A treatise on Suffumigations (mostly in English, final paragraphs in Latin);

ff. 23r-27r: Lists of classes of angels and spirits (opening paragraphs in Latin);

f. 27r: Sworne Book of Honorius, chapter 137:20-22 (in English)

ff. 27r-v: A rite of exorcism of the blood to be use in drawing the Seal of God (in Latin);

ff. 27v-28v: Honorius, chapter 137:1-19 (in English);

ff. 29r-59v: Honorius, chapters 6 -11, 13-96 (6-11, 13-15 in Latin, 16-96 in English, with some prayers in Latin);

ff. 59v-72r: Honorius, chapters 98-115:4 (in English);

ff. 72r-77r: A treatise on different classes of angels (in English, except for a passage from Agrippa, De occulta Philosophia, in Latin on ff. 76r-v);

ff. 77v-79r: Drawings of angels

ff. 80r-81r: Lists of names of angels.

This manuscript is bound together with Royal MS 17 A xliv, (12 folios) and Royal MS 17 A xliii (23 folios).

Decoration:

Miniatures of rows of angels in gold, green and red, blue and red, green and gold, white and red or green and yellow (ff. 67v-70r). Pen drawings of angels (ff. 72v-79v). Initials at the beginning of lines with marginal pen-flourishing consisting of leaves and flowers (perhaps pheasant berry and fuschia) in red, green and yellow (ff. 14v-19r, 29r-31r), some forming partial borders (ff. 17v-18v, 31v-32r, 33r-35v), some without colour (ff. 20r-23r). A table of symbols (ff. 76v-77r). Rubrics, names, numbers and line-fillers in red or gold. Rubrics and line-fillers in blue or green (ff. 62v-72r). Rubrics in large brown script (ff. 33r-59v).

Collection Area:
Western Manuscripts
Project / Collection:
Royal Collection
Hierarchy Record Ids:
032-002105724
040-003419953
041-003419951
Is part of:
Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X : Royal Manuscripts
Royal MS 17 A XLII-XLIV : The Sworne Book of Honorius and other texts

 

Royal MS 17 A XLII : Sworne Book of Honorius or Liber iuratus Honorii
Hierarchy:
032-002105724[0000]/040-003419953[0001]/041-003419951
Container:
View / search within Archive / Collection: Royal MS 1 A I-20 E X
Record Type (Level):
Item
Extent:
Part of Royal MS 17 A XLII-IV
Digitised Content:
http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100165176471.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
Thumbnail:
Languages:
English
Latin
Scripts:
Latin
Start Date:
1400
End Date:
1499
Date Range:
15th century
Era:
CE
Access:

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User Conditions:
Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 185 x 140 mm (text space: 165/70 x 115/20 mm).

Script: Gothic.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

An added charm, in a cursive script, on the word, 'Calendant' against ague (f. 82r).

'R.T.' inscribed in a modern hand between drawings of a thistle, rose and oak (f. 1r).

The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): a modern shelfmark on a parchment flyleaf f. [iv]; presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. Bound together with Royal MS 17 A XLIII and Royal MS 17 A XLIV in 1966.

Publications:

George F. Warner and Julius P. Gilson, Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Royal and Kings Collection , 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1921), II, p. 224.

Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science: during the first Thirteen Centuries of our Era, 6 vols (New York: Macmillan, 1923-1958) II, pp. 286, 89.

The sworn book of Honourius the magician, as composed by Honourius through counsel with the angel Hocroell, ed. and translated by Daniel J. Driscoll (New Jersey: Heptangle Books, 1983 [an edition based on this manuscript and Sloane MS 313].

Robert Mathiesen, 'A Thirteenth century Ritual to attain the Beatific Vision from the Sworn Book of Honorius of Thebes', in Conjuring spirits: texts and traditions of medieval ritual magic, ed. by Claire Fanger (Stroud: Sutton, 1998), 143-62, p. 145

Gosta Hedegard, Liber Iuratus Honorii: A critical Edition of the Latin Version of the Sworn Book of Honorius (Stockholm: Almquist and Wiksell, 2002), pp. 10, 16-17.

Sophie Page, Magic in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2004), pp. 46-48, pl. 46.

Stephen Clucas, John Dee: Interdisciplinary Studies in English Renaissance Thought (Dordrecht: Springer, 2006), pp. 265, nn. 107-109, 267-68, nn.135, 148, 171, 173.

Frank Klaassen, The transformations of magic: illicit learned magic in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance (Pennsylvania The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013), p. 177.
Exhibitions:
Spellbound: Magic, Ritual & Witchcraft, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 31 August 2018 - 6 January 2019
Material Type:
Archives and Manuscripts
Legal Status:
Not Public Record(s)