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Detailed record for Harley 5710
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| Title |
Bible with masorah magna and parva |
| Origin |
Italy, S. (Rome?) or Italy, N. (Bologna) |
| Date |
Last quarter of the 13th century |
| Language |
Hebrew |
| Script |
Ashkenazi square and semi-cursive script, unpunctuated |
| Decoration |
9 initial-word panels with penwork decoration, medallions and foliated borders inhabited by fish, hybrids, birds, in colours and gold (ff. 1, 34v, 63, 83, 110v, 137, 155, 172v, 215v). Miniature of a menorah, in colours (f. 136). Full border (f. 1). 2 unfinished foliate scrolls around initial-word panels (ff. 86, 90).
Numerous initial-word panels with pen-work decoration, in red and violet ink. |
| Dimensions in mm |
390 x 265 (220 x 150) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 258 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves and 2 unfoliated parchment flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Collation |
Mostly quires of 10 or 12 leaves. |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Harleian, red-dark brown leather. |
| Provenance |
Clemento Renatto, censor: inscribed with his name, undated (f. 258v).
Edward Harley: bought by him through Nathaniel Noel (b. 1681, d. 1753), bookseller for £31 10s (price of the two volumes) (see Wright and Wright 1966; Wright 1972); inscription by Harley's librarian, Humfrey Wanley, 18 January 1723/4 (f. 1). 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 |
Bible in two volumes: Harley 5710 (vol. 1) and Harley 5711 (vol. 2). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5710-11.
George Margoliouth, Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: British Museum, 1899-1935; vols I-III repr. 1965); IV, Introduction, Indexes, ed. by Jacob Leveen (London: British Museum, 1977), I, no. 54.
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. 254, 461.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), II: 1723-1726, p. 227 n. 6.
Luisa Mortara-Ottolenghi, 'Un gruppo di manoscritti ebraici romani del sec. 13. e 14. e la loro decorazione', in Studi sull'ebraismo italiano : in memoria di Cecil Roth et al., ed. by Elio Toaff (Rome: Barulli, 1974), pp 139-58.
Bezalel Narkiss, Kitvei yad ivriyim metzuyarim (Jerusalem: Keter, 1984), p. 57.
Mendel Metzger, 'Two Centuries (13th-14th) of Hebrew Manuscript Ilumination in Italy', in Die Juden in ihrer Mittelalterlichen Umwelt eds. by Alfred Ebenbauer and Klaus Zatloukal (Vienna: Böhnlau Verlag, 1991), pp. 131-50 (p. 132).
The´re`se and Mendel Metzger, Jewish Life in the Middle Ages: Illuminated Hebrew Manuscripts of the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Centuries (New York: Alpine Fine Arts Collection, 1982), p. 304.
Luisa Mortara-Ottolenghi, 'Scribes, Patrons and Artists of Italian Illuminated Manuscripts in Hebrew' Jewish Art, 19 (1993/1994), 86-97 (pp. 87-88).
Ilana Tahan, Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image (London, British Library, 2007), p. 30. |
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f. 1
The Creation |
f. 1
Creation |
f. 34v
Decorated initial-word panel |
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f. 34v
Decorated initial-word panel |
f. 63
Decorated initial-word panel |
f. 83
Decorated initial-word panel |
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f. 110v
Deuteronomy |
f. 110v
Deuteronomy |
f. 135v
Text page |
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f. 136
Menorah |
f. 137
Decorated initial-word panel |
f. 155
Inhabited intial-word panel |
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f. 172v
Inhabited initial-word panel |
f. 215v
Inhabited initial-word panel |
f. 215v
Inhabited initial-word panel |
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