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Detailed record for Harley 5774
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Title |
Prophets with masorah magna and parva |
Origin |
Spain, N. (Castellon d'Ampurias) |
Date |
1396 |
Language |
Hebrew |
Script |
Sephardi square script, punctuated |
Scribe |
Ezra ben Jacob ben Aderet |
Decoration |
Numerous micrographical designs. |
Dimensions in mm |
240 x 175 (150 x 105) |
Official foliation |
ff. 323 (+ 2 unfoliated modern and 1 older paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 unfoliated modern and 2 older paper flyleaves at the end) |
Collation |
41 quires: i-xl8 (ff. 1-320), xli4 (ff. 321-322, 322a, 323). Remains of catchwords and Hebrew quire numeration. |
Form |
Parchment codex |
Binding |
Post-1600. Harleian binding. Black buckram. |
Provenance |
Ezra ben Jacob ben Aderet, scribe: inscribed with his name in the colophon, Castellon d’Ampurias, Elul 5156 [1396] (Harley 5775, f. 217v). Hebrew inscriptions (ff. 1, 24, 169, 323); Narkiss reads them as the following: Abraham, Makhluf, Obadiah ha-Levi Joshua (see, Narkiss, 1982, p. 115). John Covel (b. 1638, d. 1722), chaplain to the Levant Company at Constantinople: in his collection (no. IX.): inscribed (f. [iii]). His manuscripts were acquired for the Harley Collection for £300 in 1716. Edward Harley: bought by him, together with Covel's other manuscripts, for £300 on 27 Feb. 1715/6 (Diary 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 |
In two volumes: Harley 5774 and Harley 5775. Watermark, f. [iii], of a of a crowned coat of arms (presumably with a fleur-de-lis and with the monogram 'WR'), similar to Edward Heawood, Watermarks (Monumenta Chartae Papyraceae Historiam Illustrantia, I) (Hilversum: Paper Publication Society, 1950), no. 1784 (1683). Watermark, ff. [324], [325] of the monogram 'IHS' with a cross, similar to Edward Heawood, Watermarks (Monumenta Chartae Papyraceae Historiam Illustrantia, I) (Hilversum: Paper Publication Society, 1950), no. 1785a. Flesh side and hair side are distinguishable. Parallel Hebrew foliation on the verso side. Unfoliated blank leaf after f. 322. |
Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5773-75.
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. 121.
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, 254, 461.
Bezalel Narkiss, Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles: A Catalogue Raisonne´. The Spanish and Portuguese Manuscripts, 2 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), I, no. 24; II, figs 338-51.
Ilana Tahan, Hebrew Manuscripts: The Power of Script and Image (London, British Library, 2007) p. 129. |
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ff. 23v-24 Micrography |

ff. 46v-47 Micrography |

ff. 196v-197 Micrography |
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f. 245 Micrography |

f. 288v Micrography |

f. 294 Micrography |
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f. 322 Micrography |
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