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Detailed record for Harley 2953
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| ff. 4-208 |
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| Title |
Psalter |
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| ff. 1v, 19v, 211 |
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| ff. 20r-v |
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| Origin |
Germany (S., Ausburg?) |
| Date |
1st half of the 16th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
4 large initials in colour on a gold ground combined with a partial or full border with naturalistic flowers, butterflies, including a wild man with a bow and a lady holding coats of arms (f. 21), a snail (f. 44v), a stag (f. 116), or David and Goliath (f. 132). 5 large initials in colours on a gold ground combined with a partial or full border with acanthus leaves, birds and flowers, some with nude men (ff. 58, 70v), or with wild men (ff. 84v, 100v, 169v). Coloured initials in red or blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
180 x 125 (110 x 80) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 211 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather (restored); marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
Conrad Peutinger (b. 1465, d. 1547), German humanist diplomat, politician, and economist, of Augsburg: the arms of the Peutinger family (azur on a bend gules 3 escallops argent), and Welser (party argent and gules, fleur de lys countercharged) in the border (f. 21).
Carolus Peutinger, son of the former: probably inherited from his father, numerous additions in his hand throughout (see especially ff. 1-3v, 10r-v, 19, 208v-210v), including entries in the calendar recording the deaths of emperor Maximilian I in 1519 (f. 4), of his sisters Sabina in 1556 (or 1557?)( f. 4v), and Regina in 1548 (f. 9), of his daughter Constantia in 1547 (f. 6v), of his father Conrad on 28 December 1547 (f. 9v), a record of the birth of his mother Margareta Welser in 1481 (f. 5), and of his father on 16 October 1465 (f. 8v), some of these inscriptions are signed 'C. P. F. S.' (i.e. Carolus Peutinger Filius Scripsit); added miniatures (see Part 2).
Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie: sold to Harley on 20 January 1721/2 (Wright 1972; Diary 1966).
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 ‘20 die mensis Januarij, A.D. 1721/22’ (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 |
Including a calendar (ff. 4-10v) and an index of the Psalms with corresponding page numbers (ff. 11-15).
ff. 1-3v, 10r-v, 19, 208v-210v are originally blank leaves with later additions in the hand of Carolus Peutinger (see Provenance).
ff. 1 and 211 are former pastedowns.
Catchwords written horizontally. Leaf signatures. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2953.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 138 n. 7.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 253-54, 275. |
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ff. 4-208 |
| Psalter |
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f. 21
Arms of Konrad Peutinger and Margareta Welser |
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ff. 1v, 19v, 211 |
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f. 1v
David and Bathsheba |
f. 19v
Three Living and Three Dead |
f. 211
Christopher |
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ff. 20r-v |
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f. 20
Triumph of Death |
f. 20v
King David |
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