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Detailed record for Harley 2801
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| Title |
Passional (the 'Arnstein Passional'), the second of three volumes with June-September, with a portion of a calendar (ff. 1v-[1a] |
| Origin |
Germany, W. (Arnstein) |
| Date |
c. 1170- c. 1180 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Protogothic |
| Artists |
The same artist at that of the Arnstein Bible (Harley 2798-2799), according to Cahn |
| Decoration |
1 full-page miniature in colours of scenes from the lives of Peter and Paul (f. 21). Large zoomorphic initial in colours on a green ground (f. 2). 7 large historiated initials in colours (ff. 4, 7v, 86, 103, 121v (x2), 151). Large initials in red, some with animals or hybrids, all with foliate decoration, and some with clasps; some also with other colours at the beginning of each saint's passion. Large initials in red. Display script in colours. |
| Dimensions in mm |
545 x 365 (405 x 265) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 198 ( + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end + an unfoliated fragment after f. 1) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Red 'Harleian' binding with gold tooling; marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
The Premonstratensian abbey of St Mary and St Nicholas, Arnstein: inscribed: ‘Liber Sancte marie virginis sanctique nicolai in arinsteyn 1464’, Harley 2802, f. 231v (the third volume in this set).
Added text of the life of Luodcwicius, founder of the monastery where the manuscript was produced, added in a different late-12th century hand (ff. 196v-198).
Added list of saints' lives contained within the manuscript in a 14th- century or 15th- century hand (f. 1).
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 as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘‘16 die January, A.D. 1720/21’ (f. 1).
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish 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. |
| Notes |
This manuscript is from a three-volume collection of texts. The first volume is Harley 2800, with January-May; and the third is Harley 2802, with October-December).
Ampersands.
Decorated quire signatures (e.g., ff. 46v, 62v, 94). |
| Select bibliography |
This bibliography is for each of Harley 2800-2802:
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2800-2.
A. Kohl, 'Arnsteiner Handschriften im Britischen Museum zu London', Nassovia. Zeitschrift für nassauische Geschichte und Heimatkunde, 4 (1903), 106-108,120-121,133-134 (p. 107).
W. Levison, 'Conspectus codicum hagiographicorum', Monumenta Germanica historiae. Scriptores rer. Merov., 7 (1920), pp. 537-538, 603-605.
R. Schilling, 'Studien zur deutschen Goldschmiedekunst des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts', Form und Inhalt: Festschrift für Otto Schmitt zum 60. Geburtstag (1950), 76-78.
W. Weismann, 'Die 'Passio Genesii mimi' (BHL 3320), Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 12 (1977), pp. 22-43, esp. p. 26, 34-43.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), pp. 128-29.
Walter Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1982), p. 253.
F. Dolbeau, 'La Passion des saints Lucius et Montanus. Histoire et édition du texte', Revue des Études Augustiniennes, 29 (Paris, 1983), pp.39-82, esp. p. 43.
G. Philippart, 'Les Légendes Latines de Sainte Verena. Pour une Histoire de Leur Diffusion', Analecta Bollandiana: Revue Critique d’Hagiographie, 103 (1985), pp. 253-302, esp. 268-269, 295.
Sigrid Krämer, Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters, Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz: Ergänzungsband 1, 3 vols (Munich, 1989-90), II (1989), p. 25.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), pp. 55, 57.
Krone und Schleier: Kunst aus Mittelalterlichen Frauenklöstern, Bonn and Essen exhibition catalogue (Munich: Kirmer, 2005), no. 11. |
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f. 7v
Historiated initial |
f. 18
Zoomorphic initial |
f. 21
Peter and Paul |
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f. 21
Peter and Paul |
f. 21
Peter and Paul |
f. 21
Peter and Paul |
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f. 21v
Initials |
f. 86
Martyrs |
f. 121v
Mary |
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f. 121v
Dormition |
f. 121v
Virgin and Child |
f. 151
Inhabited initial |
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