|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Harley 1717
|
|
|
|
| Author |
Benoît de Sainte-Maure |
| Title |
Chronique des ducs de Normandie |
| Origin |
France, N. W. (?Normandy) or England |
| Date |
1st half of the 13th century |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic, written above top line |
| Decoration |
9 large historiated initials in colours and gold occasionally with dragons, of a baptism, a monk swinging a censer over the coffin of Gille, the first wife of Rollo, first duke of Normandy, men swearing allegiance to William of Normandy, Richard the Fearless becoming duke of Normandy, Richard riding towards a group of monks, Richard II, Richard II and his sister 'Maheut', Richard III, and Robert II le diable, father of future William I the Conqueror (ff. 13v, 59, 61v, 86, 112, 163, 172, 181v, 182v). Large decorated initials in colours and gold with interlace and animal heads, dragons, foliate decoration, fighting animals, etc. (ff. 1 (including dragon), 23, 61, 154v, 156v, 160, 166v, 174v (with a fabric curtain), 218, 236). Initials in colours and gold (ff. 143, 170v, 179, 188, 192, 220v, 228v, 243v). Initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing in the other colour. A miniature in colours and gold painted on a separate piece of parchment was lost (f. 13; no pigment bleeding through onto the verso, but traces around the edges remain). Many paraphs, ascenders and descenders decorated with brown pen-flourishing (e.g., ff. 85v, 86, 129v). |
| Dimensions in mm |
300 x 205 (235 x 135), in 2 columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 252 (+ 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 1 unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Gold-tooled light brown leather over wooden boards; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
Added Prophecy of the Eagle, or of Merlin Silvester, 13th century, in Latin (f. 250v).
Inscribed, 15th century, price 'xxvi s. viii d.' (on a piece of parchment pasted onto f. [ii]).
?The collegiate church of St. John of Beverley, Yorkshire, 15th century: inscribed 's[an]c[t]i Beverlaci' (f. 252).
Added Prophecy of Merlin, 15th century, in English (ff. 249v-250).
Added inscriptions in 15th-16th-century hands (ff. 251v-252).
Thomas Lorde, 16th century: inscribed with his name (f. 252).
Erased inscription, post-medieval (f. 244).
Henry Worsley (b. 1675, d. 1747), scholar and manuscript collector, envoy at the Court of Portugal (1714-21) and governor of Barbados (1721-31); donated by him to Robert Harley together with other manuscripts from Worsley's collection (now Harley 1585-1747, 1811, 1812) before December 1712 (see Diary 1966).
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, on four-line red staves (f. 251v).
Quire marks.
F. 1* is a paper flyleaf.
Ff. 251 and 252 are a reused leaves from another manuscript used as flyleaves. F. 251 recto is blank. F. 252 is a former pastedown. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 1717.
Harry Leigh Douglas Ward, Catalogue of Romances in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1883-1910), I (1883), p. 312.
Augustus Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1906-1965), I, p. 422.
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, pp. xix-xx.
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. 72-73, 227, 361.
Maria Careri, Christine Ruby and Ian Short, Livres et écritures en français et en occitan au XIIe siècle: Catalogue illustré (Rome: Viella, 2011), pp. XXV, 206. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
f. 1
Decorated initial |
f. 13v
Baptism |
f. 59v
Coffin of Gille |
| |
f. 59v
Coffin of Gille |
f. 251v
Musical notation |
|
|
|
|
