|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Harley 5680
|
|
|
|
| Author |
Avicenna, Nathan ha-Meati |
| Title |
Books Three and Five of the Canon of Avicenna in Hebrew translation of Nathan ha-Meati |
| Origin |
Spain or Italy |
| Date |
1479 |
| Language |
Hebrew |
| Script |
Sephardi semi-cursive script, unpunctuated |
| Scribe |
Perahiah ben Solomon Maimon |
| Decoration |
Full floral border, in colours and gold (f. 209). |
| Dimensions in mm |
275 x 210 (195 x 130) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 213 (+ 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and at the end) |
| Collation |
15 quires: i14 (ff. 1-14), ii12 (ff. 15-26), iii-xi14 (ff. 27-166), xii-xiii12 (ff. 167-190), xiv10 (ff. 191-200), xvfifteen (ff. 201-213). |
| Form |
Paper codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of gilt-tooled red morocco. |
| Provenance |
Perahiah ben Solomon Maimon, scribe: inscribed with his name in the colophon, 4 Marheshwan [5]240 [1479] (f. 177).
Latin inscriptions mistakenly identifying the work as 'Afforismi de Galeno', undated (ff. 1, 1v, 213v).
Latin inscriptions identifying the work correctly as the Canon of Avicenna, undated (ff. 1v, 178v).
John Gibson (fl. 1720-1726), dealer: sold to Edward Harley on 13 September 1722 (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: inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley, ‘13 die mensis Septembris, A.D. 1722’ (f. 1; see Wright and Wright 1966).
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 |
Two unfoliated blank leaves after f. 212. Watermark, f. [214], unidentified.
Colophon was partially erased and overwritten in [5]243, that is, 1483. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5680.
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), III, no. 1028.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 159.
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. 246, 459. |
|
|
