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Detailed record for Harley 2889


ff. 1-106
	Title		Lectionary ('The Siegburg Lectionary') (ff. 4v-77); with the Common of Saints (ff. 77-87v), directions and lessons for mass (ff. 87v-93v); various readings (see Notes)


	Title		Ivory covers

Origin		Germany, W. (Siegburg)
Date		2nd quarter of the 12th century
Language		Latin
Script		Protogothic
Decoration		7 full-page miniatures in colours and gold within rectangular frames, of Peter, Paul, James, John, Isaiah, the Tree of Jesse, the Women at the Sepulchre, Maurice, and Michael and two other angels fighting dragons (ff. 1v-4, 41, 66v, 68). 5 full-page initials or incipits in silver and gold with colours, some with zoomorphic features or in rectangular frames, at the readings for Christmas, Epiphany, Easter, Pentecost, and Michaelmas (ff. 5v, 12, 41v, 50, 68v). Numerous large initials in red and gold and/or silver on backgrounds of blue, green, and/or red with foliate decoration, and many with clasps, some with zoomorphic features (ff. 6, 8, 9v, 18v, 22, 52, 64, 96). Initials in gold with blue and/or green washes. Initials in red, some with red and blue washes. Highlighting of letters in red. Some text in silver or gold, or red. From ff. 76v-94v and 104-106v, initials in red only. Initial in gold and red in a rectangular border with coloured washes (f. 95).
Dimensions in mm		270 x 165 (185 x 95)
Official foliation		ff. 106 ( + 6 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 5 at the end)
Form		Parchment codex
Binding		BL/BM in-house. Original covers (stored separately).
Provenance		The Benedictine abbey of St Michael, Siegburg, in the diocese of Cologne: includes saints of general Cologne interest, such as Severinus and Gereon, and those specially connected with Siegburg, including its founder Archbishop Anno of Cologne, who consecrated the church under the name of Michael and Maurice and his companions on 22 September 1066 (see Turner 1962). 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.
Notes		Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts. Musical notation: neumes (contemporary), Germany, second quarter of the 12th century (ff. 16v-103v inconsistently); neumes (addition), Germany, beginning of the 13th century (ff. 9, 42). Leaves missing between ff. 8 and 9, and between ff. 93 and 94. After the lectionary are readings for masses of the dead and for St. Anno (ff. 94-95v), and readings and responses for Matins of the dead (ff. 96-106). Cloth curtain covering the initial (f. 15).
Select bibliography		A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2889. O. Dalton, Catalogue of the Ivory Carvings of the Christian Era with Examples of Mohammedan Art and Carvings in Bone in the Department of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (London, 1909), pp. 50-51, no. 52, plate 27. Wilhelm Köhler, 'Die Karolingishen Miniaturen', in Zweiter Bericht über die Denkmäler Deutscher Kunst (Berlin: Reimer, 1912), pp. 52-77 (p. 57). Arthur Watson, The Early Iconography of the Tree of Jesse (London: Humphrey Milford, 1934), 85-87, pl. II. Theodor Klauser, Das ro¨mische capitulare evangeliorum: Texte und Untersuchungen zu seiner a¨ltesten Geschichte, Liturgiegeschichtliche Quellen und Forschungen. 28 (Munster: Aschendorffschen, 1935), p. CXVII, no. 41. D. H. Turner, 'The Siegburg Lectionary', Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits, 16 (1962), 16-27, pls 2-3. D. H. Turner, Romanesque Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Library (London: British Museum, 1966), pl. 8. John Beckwith, Early Medieval Art: Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque , 2nd edn (London: Thames and Hudson, 1969), pl. 31. C. R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe: 800 to 1200 (London : Penguin Books, 1971), p. 163. Rhein und Maas: Kunst und Kultur 800-1400 (Cologne: Rudolf Müller, 1972), no. J46 [exhibition catalogue]. Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Manuscript (Oxford: Phaidon, 1979), pl. 16. Das Siegburger Lektionar, ed. by Mauritius Mittler, Siegburger Studien, 12 (Siegburg: Respublica, 1979) [with additional bibliography]. Mauritius Mittler, Untersuchungen zur Siegburger Liturgie I, Siegburger Studien, 13 (Siegburg: Respublica, 1981), p. 3 and passim as 'LS'. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, The Making of a Manuscript: The Worms Bible of 1148 (British Library, Harley 2803-2804), Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, 25 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1983), p. 209, no. 90. Mauritius Mittler, Untersuchungen zur Siegburger Liturgie II, Siegburger Studien, 15 (Siegburg: Respublica, 1983), passim as 'LS'. Miriam Foot, Pictorial Bookbindings (London: British Library, 1986), p. 46, pl. 43. Sigrid Krämer, Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters, Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz: Ergänzungsband 1 (3 vols, Munich, 1989-90), II (1989), p. 726. Peter Lasko, Ars Sacra 800-1200, 2nd edn (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), pp. 91, 185, pl. 126. Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting (London, 1997), p. 48. Canossa 1077: Erschütterung der Welt, ed. by Christoph Stiegemann and Matthias Wemhoff, 2 vols (Munich: Hirmer, 2006), II, no. 492 [exhibition catalogue]. [with additional bibliography] Scot McKendrick and Kathleen Doyle, Bible Manuscripts: 1400 Years of Scribes and Scripture (London: British Library, 2007), p. 88, fig. 75. Otto der Grosse: Magdeburg und Europa, ed. by Matthias Puhle, 2 vols (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern, 2001), II: Katalog, pp. 415-16, pl. VI.15.

Images

ff. 1-106

Lectionary ('The Siegburg Lectionary') (ff. 4v-77); with the Common of Saints (ff. 77-87v), directions and lessons for mass (ff. 87v-93v); various readings (see Notes)



front cover Front cover	front cover Front cover	front cover Front cover

f. 1v Peter	f. 2 Paul	f. 2v Jacob

f. 3 John	ff. 3v-4 Isaiah; Tree of Jesse	ff. 3v-4 Isaiah; Tree of Jesse

f. 3v Isaiah	f. 4 Tree of Jesse	f. 5v Decorated initial

f. 10v Illuminated initial	f. 12 Dragons	f. 13 Decorated initials

f. 21 Illuminated initial	f. 22 Decorated initial	f. 41 Holy Women at the Tomb

f. 41v Decorated initial	f. 45 Decorated initial	f. 50 Decorated initial

f. 62v Decorated initial	f. 66 Decorated initial	f. 66v Martyr

f. 67 Decorated initial	f. 68 Battle	f. 68v Illuminated initial

f. 102v Decorated initial

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