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Detailed record for Harley 5776
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| Title |
Four Gospels with canon tables and Eusebius of Caesarea's letter to Carpianus, imperfect |
| Origin |
Eastern Mediterranean |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 10th century |
| Language |
Greek |
| Script |
Greek minuscule |
| Decoration |
4 headpieces in colour, one at the beginning of each Gospel (ff. 6, 94, 152, 242v). 4 initials in colours and gold (ff. 6, 94, 152, 242). Canon tables in red ink with foliate motifs and/or zoomorphic decoration (ff. 2, 2v, 3, 3v, 4, 4v). Display script in red and gold. |
| Dimensions in mm |
230 x 175 (160 x 100) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 309 (+ 5 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gold-tooled red leather; marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
Prayers added by the presbyter George, 13th century (ff. 91v, 148v, 241v).
Daniel, bishop of Proconnesus: presented by him to John Covel on 11 August 1674 (f. 6).
John Covel (b. 1638, d. 1722), chaplain of the Levant Company at Constantinople 1670-1676: inscribed, 'Covel I' and 'XXV' (f. 1); sold, together with Covel's other manuscripts, to Edward Harley for £300 on 27 Feb. 1715/6 (Diary 1966; Wright 1972).
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.
Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née 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. Purchased from Covel for the Harleian Library, 27 February 1715/16. |
| Notes |
Ruled in hardpoint.
Some mold damage, particularly at the end of the manuscript.
Binding by Chapman (restored and rebacked). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 5776.
Frederick Henry A. Scrivener, A Plain Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament for the Use of Biblical Students, 2 vols, 4th edn (London: Bell & Sons, 1894), evan. 65.
Hermann von Soden, Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren Textgestalt hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte, 4 vols (Berlin, 1902-1913), e 135.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, pp. xxxiv-xxxvi; II: 1723-1726, p. 211 n. 1.
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. 113-17.
Kurzgefasste Liste der griechischen Handschriften des neuen Testaments, ed. by Kurt Aland, Arbeiten zur neutestamentlichen Textforschung, 1 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 1994), no. 65.
Summary Catalogue of Greek Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1999- ), I, p. 189. |
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f. 6
Headpiece and decorated initial |
f. 94
Headpiece and decorated initial |
f. 152
Headpiece and decorated initial |
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f. 242v
Headpiece and decorated initial |
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