|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Harley 3101
|
|
|
|
| Author |
John Cassian |
| Title |
Collationes of the Fathers (ff. 1v-115); Rite for the consecration of bells (ff. 115v-116). |
| Origin |
Germany, W. (Arnstein) |
| Date |
2nd half of the 12th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Protogothic |
| Scribe |
Sifridus |
| Decoration |
2 large zoomorphic initials with winged dragons, outlined in red, on green and blue grounds, with foliate motifs (ff. 26, 32). 26 large and smaller initials, outlined in red and occasionally black, on green and blue grounds, with foliate motifs and clasps (ff. 1v, 2, 7v, 12, 16v, 20v, 37v, 41v, 47v, 51v, 52, 55v, 60, 65v (two), 70, 72, 76v, 82v, 83, 87v, 90v, 93, 99v, 103v, 108v), three with winged dragons (ff. 87v, 99v, 108v). 2 small initial in red, with foliate motifs on a green or green and blue ground (ff. 90v, 99v). Numerous small initials in red, occasionally with reserved designs and penwork decoration in red or green (f. 83), four on blue ground (ff. 20v, 60, 93, 108v), three on green ground (ff. 70, 72, 82v), one on green and blue ground (f. 103). Simple initials in red. Display script in red for letters following first large initial (f. 1v). Rubrics and letters following some few large initials in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
345 x 270 (275 x 210), in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 116 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 1 unfoliated parchment flyleaf and 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Collation |
i-xiv8 (ff. 1-112v), xv6-1 (ff. 113-[117]; 5th leaf missing after f. 116) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1966; the previous covers of gold- and blind-tooled brown leather affixed to the inside covers. |
| Provenance |
The Premonstratensian abbey of St Mary and Nicholas, Arnstein, founded in 1139; written by the canon Sifridus: colophon, 'Liber sancte Marie sanctique Nicolay in arnestein. Quem scripsit Sifridus pro hoc misereatur sui deus' (f. 1; the same scribe also wrote Harley 3054; according to the inscription in Harley 3054 he was a canon). Added running headers; added monastic register (ff. 116-116v; see Krings 1990 and Kohl 1903); 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; 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, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘16 die Januarij, A.D. 1720/21’ (f. 1).
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 |
Leaf signatures (a1-a4, b1-b4 etc.); quire marks (in centre of the lower margin of the verso of the last leaf of the quires). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III, no. 3101.
A. Kohl, 'Arnsteiner Handschriften im Britischen Museum zu London', Nassovia. Zeitschrift für nassauische Geschichte und Heimatkunde, 4 (1903), 106-08,120-21,133-34 (p. 133).
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 81 n. 12.
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.
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), p. 252 no. 25. |
|
|
