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Detailed record for Harley 2804
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| Title |
Bible (the 'Worms Bible'), Psalms-Acts 16:17, imperfect |
| Origin |
Germany, Central (Middle Rhineland) |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 12th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Protogothic |
| Decoration |
2 large miniatures in colours and gold of Jerome writing and of David as harpist as a preface to Psalms (ff. 1v, 3v). Canon tables in colours and gold, with decorated capitals and other features including animals and people (ff. 165v-169v). 5 large historiated initials in colours and gold (ff. 33, 172v, 188v, 199, 216v). 4 large historiated initials in colours (ff. 108, 119v, 130v, 231). Large initials in colours and sometimes gold with interlace and/or foliate decoration and usually clasps, some also with human or animal heads, animals, or dragons (ff. 1v, 4, 31v, 43, 47, 49, 56, 57, 77, 77v, 90v, 107v, 119, 124 (x2), 130v, 137v, 153v, 164v, 165, 187v, 198, 215v, 228v (x2), 229v, 230v, 237, 243, 247, 249, 251, 252v, 254v, 255v, 256v, 258v, 259v, 260v, 261, 265v). Large initials in red, some with penwork decoration. Small initials in red or brown, some with highlighting in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
535 x 355 (390 x 230) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 274 ( + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Brown 'Harleian' binding with gold tooling; marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
Possibly written or illuminated in 1148 in the Augustinian abbey of Mary Magdalene in Frankenthal, 10 kilometers south of Worms: inscription 'anno m.c.xlviii [inceptus est liber] ?' (f. 1): see Cohen-Mushlin 1990.
The Augustinian monastery of St Mary, outside of Worms: 17th-century inscription 'Hic liber pertinet ad Ecclesiam Beatae Mariae Virginis in Suburbio Wormatiensis', signed 'J. G.' (f. 1). J. G. might be Joannes Georgius Renner, dean from 1597-1605: see Cohen-Mushlin 1983 pp. 14-15.
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, probably acquired by George Suttie, their agent, in Germany in either 1717 or 1720 (see Cohen-Mushlin).
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. |
| Notes |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
The first volume of this Bible is Harley 2803.
There is an inscription 'anno M. C. XLVIII [the rest obscured]' which has been used as the date of the manuscript (see discussion Cahn). |
| Select bibliography |
Bibliography for each of Harley 2803 and 2804.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), I, nos 2803-4.
David Casley, Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (1736), II, p. 713, and I, p. 31.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 5.
J. A. Herbert, Illuminated Manuscripts (London: Methuen, 1911), p. 154.
Georg Swarzenski, Die Salzburger Malerei, 2 vols (Leipzig: Hiersemann, 1913), I, 69 n. 4, 76 n. 4.
[Eric G. Millar], British Museum Reproductions from Illuminated Manuscripts, Series 4 (London: British Museum, 1928), pl. 11.
Meyer Schapiro, 'From Mozarabic to Romanesque in Silo', Art Bulletin 21 (1939), 313-374 (p. 342 n. 91).
Ernst Kitzinger, Early Medieval Art with Illustrations from the British Museum Collection (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1940), pl. 42.
D. H. Turner, Romanesque Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Library (London: British Museum, 1966), p. 19, pl. 10.
C. R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe: 800 to 1200 (London : Penguin Books, 1971), p. 163.
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. 706.
Walter Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1982), no. 9, p .238, pls.146, 149, 201.
Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, The Making of a Manuscript: The Worms Bible of 1148 (British Library, Harley 2803-2804), Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, 25 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1983).
Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, A Medieval Scriptorium: Sancta Maria Magdalena de Frankendal, Wolfenbütteler Mittelalter-Studien, 3, 2 vols (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1990), passim, esp. I, 154-5; II, figs 4-6, 20, 340, 342, 344, 345, 349, 350-4, 357, 364, 366-7,8 ,
Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, 'The Twelfth-Century Scriptorium at Frankenthal', in Medieval Book Production: Assessing the Evidence, ed. by Linda l. Brownrigg, Proceedings of the Second Conference of The Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Oxford, July 1988 (Los Altos Hills, California: Anderson-Lovelace, 1990), pp. 85-101 (esp. pp. 88, 94).
Walter Cahn, Romanesque Manuscripts: The Twelfth Century, 2 vols (London: Harvey Millar, 1996), II, 179.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), no. 36.
Nicolas Bell Music in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2001), p. 58.
Christopher de Hamel, The Book: A History of the Bible (London: Phaidon, 2001), p. 83, pl. 58.
Edgar J. Hürkey, Schätze aus pergament: mittelalterliche handschriften aus Frankenthal (Frankenthal: Erkenbert-Musuem, 2007), no. 3 [exhibition catalogue].
Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), no. 81.
Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, 'A School for Scribes,' in Teaching Writing, Learning to Write: Proceedings of the XVIth Colloquium of the Comité International de Paléographie Latine, ed. by P. R. Robinson (London: King's College Centre for Late Antique & Medieval Studies, 2010), pp. 61-87.
Jeffrey F. Hamburger, 'The Hand of God and the Hand of the Scribe: Craft and Collaboration at Arnstein', in Die Bibliothek des Mittelalters als dynamischer Prozess, ed. by Michael Embach, Claudine Moulin and Andrea Rapp, Trierer Beiträge zu den Historischen Kulturwissenschaften, 3 (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2012), pp. 53-78 (pp. 65-66, fig 34, colour plate 26). |
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f. 1v
Jerome |
f. 1v
Jerome |
f. 3v
David |
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f. 3v
David |
f. 3v
Musicians playing bells and a horn |
f. 3v
David playing a harp |
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f. 3v
Musicians playing a rebec and a cithar |
f. 3v
David |
f. 4
Illuminated initial |
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f. 4
Beatus |
f. 31v
Interlace initial |
f. 33
King |
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f. 33
King |
f. 43
Decorated initial |
f. 43
Initial |
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f. 47
Decorated initial |
f. 47
Decorated initial |
f. 49
Illuminated initial |
| |
f. 56
Dragons |
f. 57
Decorated initial |
f. 57
Decorated initial |
| |
f. 77
Decorated initial |
f. 77v
Decorated initial |
f. 77v
Decorated initial |
| |
f. 90v
Inhabited initial |
f. 107v
Decorated initial |
f. 108
Esra |
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f. 108
Esra |
f. 119
Decorated initial |
f. 119v
Tobit |
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f. 124
Decorated initial |
f. 124
Decorated initial |
f. 130v
Esther |
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f. 130v
Esther and Ahasuerus |
f. 130v
Decorated initial |
f. 130v
Esther and Ahasuerus |
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f. 137v
Decorated initial |
f. 153v
Decorated initial |
f. 164v
Historiated initial |
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f. 164v
Inhabited initial |
f. 165
Inhabited initial |
f. 165
Zoomorphic initial |
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f. 165v
Canon tables |
f. 165v
Capital |
f. 166
Canon tables |
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f. 166
Head |
f. 166
Ornamental capital |
f. 166v
Canon table |
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f. 166v
Capital |
f. 167
Canon table |
f. 167
Canon tables |
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f. 167
Capital |
f. 167
Chase |
f. 167
Column |
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f. 167
Column |
f. 167v
Canon table |
f. 167v
Canon table |
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f. 168
Canon table |
f. 168
Columns |
f. 168v
Canon table |
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f. 168v
Canon table |
f. 169
Canon table |
f. 169
Canon table |
| |
f. 169v
Canon table |
f. 169v
Face |
f. 169v
Base |
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f. 169v
Face |
f. 169v
Detail |
f. 170
Decorated initial |
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f. 172v
Matthew |
f. 172v
Matthew |
f. 187v
Decorated initial |
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f. 188v
Mark |
f. 188v
Mark |
f. 198
Decorated initial |
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f. 199
Luke |
f. 199
Luke |
f. 215v
Decorated initial |
| |
f. 216v
John |
f. 216v
John |
f. 216v
John |
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f. 228v
Decorated initial |
f. 229v
Decorated initial |
f. 230v
Decorated initial |
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f. 231
Paul |
f. 231
Paul |
f. 231
Paul |
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f. 233v
Coloured initial |
f. 233v
Coloured initials |
f. 237
Decorated initial |
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f. 243
Decorated initial |
f. 247
Decorated initial |
f. 249
Decorated initial |
| |
f. 251
Decorated initial |
f. 252v
Decorated initial |
f. 254v
Decorated initial |
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f. 255v
Decorated initial |
f. 256v
Decorated initial |
f. 258v
Decorated initial |
| |
f. 259v
Decorated initial |
f. 260v
Decorated initial |
f. 261
Decorated initial |
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f. 265v
Decorated initial |
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