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Detailed record for Harley 2883
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| Title |
Breviary, Use of the Humiliati |
| Origin |
Italy, N. (Appiano Gentile?) |
| Date |
1471 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
44 large historiated initials, the first with full foliate borders including heraldic arms, in colours and gold (ff. 7, 17v, 24, 30v, 37, 45v, 53v, 62v, 87 [with partial foliate borders], 111, 124v, 134, 146v, 150, 153, 159, 202, 213, 218v, 224v, 230v, 233v, 255, 271v [with a partial foliate border], 276, 281v, 284, 297v, 303v, 324v, 331, 339, 343v, 351v, 362v, 369, 370v, 372v, 376, 380, 383, 388v, 392, 394v). 3 large decorated initials, in colours and gold (ff. 89, 207v, 311v). Smaller initials in gold on red, blue and/or green grounds. Small initials in red with purple pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. |
| Dimensions in mm |
135 x 100 (95 x 70) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 402 (+ unfoliated parchment leaves after ff. 6, + 1 paper and 1 medieval parchment flyleaves at the beginning) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Speckled brown calf; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
Unidentified owner, by 1471: arms, d'or au château d'azur en chef d'or à l'aigle éployée de sable (f. 7) and inscription (f. 397v).
Many saints added to the calendar by a contemporary hand.
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 '13 die mensis Julij, A.D. 1723' (2nd flyleaf). 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 |
Added prayers in different 16th-century hands (ff. 398-402). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), II, no. 2883.
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), no. 708.
Cyril Ernest Wright, 'Manuscripts of Italian Provenance in the Harleian Collection in the British Museum: Their Sources, Associations and Channels of Acquisition', in Cultural Aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Essays in Honour of Paul Oskar Kristeller, ed. by C. H. Clough (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1976), pp. 462-84 (p. 469). |
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f. 7
Gethsemane |
f. 17v
Christ and Judas |
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