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Detailed record for Harley 3054
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| Author |
Gregory the Great |
| Title |
Moralia in Job, books 24-35 |
| Origin |
Germany, W. (Arnstein) |
| Date |
2nd half of the 12th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Protogothic |
| Scribe |
Sifridus |
| Decoration |
12 large and smaller initials, outlined in black, with red and light brown, on green and/or blue grounds, frequently with foliate motifs and clasps, occasionally with dragons, one with a man directing an arrow against a lion or a dog (book 28, f. 43v) and one including a face (book 34, f. 113), for the beginning of books 24-35 (ff. 1v, 10v, 18, 32v, 43v, 52, 63, 75, 90v, 101, 113, 120). Display script in red or black for letters following some large initials. Rubrics in red. Small initials were added in dark brown ink. |
| Dimensions in mm |
380 x 280 (280 x 205) in 2 columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 126 (+ 2 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 2 at the end) |
| Collation |
i-x8 (ff. 1-80), xi8-1 (ff. 81-87; 7th leaf excised after f. 86), xii-xv8 (ff. 88-119), xvi8-1 (ff. 120-126; 7th leaf excised after f. 125) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1964. |
| Provenance |
The Premonstratensian abbey of St Mary and Nicholas, Arnstein, founded in 1139, written by the canon Sifridus: inscribed 'Tertia Pars moralium. Quam scripsit Sifridus canonicus sancte marie sanctique nicolai in arenstein' (f. 1).
A near contemporary hand century hand added John the Deacon's Vita S. Gregorii papae (f. 1).
Notes in later hands including that of abbot Heinrich Schupp (d. 1574).
Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681, d. c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the Continent, where his agent was George Suttie (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 ‘16 die Ianuarij, A.D. 1720/21’ (f. 1).
According to Wright, Edward Harley went to Noel on 9 January 1720/21 and selected this and other manuscripts which Noel had 'lately brought from Germany'. The manuscripts arrived on 16 January 1720/21 (see Wright and Wright 1976).
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 |
The manuscript is the third of three volumes; the first is Harley 3052, and the second is Harley 3053.
Running headers.
Quire marks for quires 1-15.
Quire signature for quire 16.
Guide script for rubricator in lower margins (e.g., f. 43v). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II, no. 3054.
A. Kohl, 'Arnsteiner Handschriften im Britischen Museum zu London', Nassovia. Zeitschrift für nassauische Geschichte und Heimatkunde, 4 (1903), 106-08,120-21,133-34 (pp. 120-121).
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 53, 254.
C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1976), I, p. 81 n 9.
Sigrid Krämer, Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters, Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz: Ergänzungsband 1, 3 vols (Munich, 1989-90), I (1989), p. 26.
Bruno Krings, Das Prämonstratenserstift Arnstein a. d. Lahn im Mittelalter (1139-1527) (Wiesbaden: Selbstverlag der Historischen Kommission für Nassau, 1990), pp. 251-252, no. 24. |
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f. 1
Ownership inscription |
f. 43v
Decorated initial |
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