|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Harley 612
|
|
|
|
| Title |
The Revelations of Bridget of Sweden (Libri XII), Acts for the canonization of Bridget with accounts of her miracles, and various other texts, including the Tractatis de summis pontificibus (ff. 125-127), and the Vita venerabilis domine katerine filie beate Birgitte (ff. 288v-291v). |
| Origin |
England, S.E. |
| Date |
2nd or 3rd quarter of the 15th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Scribe |
Thomas Colyngbourn |
| Decoration |
Numerous marginal drawings. 19 large initials in colours with foliate motifs (ff. 2, 2v, 17v, 29, 37v, 95, 104, 108, 108v, 169v, 170, 184, 189, 196, 277, 287v, 291v, 294, 295v). 4 large historiated initials in colours (ff. 66v, 73v, 160v, 208). 2 smaller initials in colours with brief sprays (ff. 125, 295v). Plain initials in blue, some with red. Paraphs in red or blue. Rubrics in red. Running headers in red. Capitals marked in yellow. Cadels. |
| Dimensions in mm |
550 x 390 (385 x 260) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 302 (+ 3 unfoliated paper and 2 parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 2 ruled leaves + 1 partial ruled leaf + 1 unfoliated parchment and three paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. |
| Provenance |
Written by Thomas Colyngbourn for the Bridgettine abbey of St Saviour, St Mary and St Bridgit of Syon, Ilseworth, Middlesex, founded by King Henry V in 1415: an inscription (f. 302; see Gillespie 2001).
Added late medieval list of contents (f. 1).
Sir Simonds D'Ewes (b.1602, d. 1650), 1st baronet, diarist, antiquary, and friend of Sir Robert Cotton (see Wright 1972).
Sir Simonds D’Ewes (d. 1722), 3rd baronet and grandson of the former: inherited and later sold the D’Ewes library to Robert Harley on 4 October 1705 for £450 (see Watson 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 |
Horizontal catchwords, some with penwork frames.
Tabs on outer foredge.
f. 1 is a parchment leaf with an added list of contents. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I (1808), no. 612.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 185.
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. 131, 322-23.
Anders Frömark, Mirakler och helgonkult: Linköpings biskopsdöme under senmedeltiden. Acta universitatis upsalensis. Studia historica upsaliensia, no. 171 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1992), pp. 51-53, 148-50.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 6, 2 vols (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), I, 13, 108; II, 79, 159.
St. Bridget's Revelations to the Popes: An edition of the so-called Tractatus de summis pontificibus, ed. by Arne Jönsson, Studia Graeca et Latina Lundensia, 6 (Lund: Lund University Press, 1997), as 'L', also http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/bridget-tractatus.html.
William F. Pollard and Robert Boening, Mysticism and Spirituality in Medieval England (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1997), p. 238.
Jürgen Beyer, 'On the Transformation of Apparition Stories in Scandinavia and Germany, c. 1350-1700', Folklore, 100 (1999), 39-47 (pp. 40 n. 3, 46).
Syon Abbey, ed. by Vincent Gillespie, with The Libraries of the Carthusians, ed. by A. Ian Doyle, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues, 9 (London: British Library, 2001), pp. 240-41, 676.
Kathleen L. Scott, Tradition and innovation in later Medieval English manuscripts (London: British Library, 2007), p. 116.
Domenico Pezzini, The Translation of Religious Texts in the Middle Ages: Tracts and Rules, Hymns and Saints' Lives, Studies in Language and Communication, 69 (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2008) p. 325, n. 11. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
f. 1
Lists of contents |
f. 2
Decorated initial |
f. 26v
Hand holding a hammer |
| |
f. 26v
Hand holding a hammer |
f. 32v
Butterfly |
f. 32v
Butterfly |
| |
f. 50
Text page |
f. 75
Text page |
f. 78v
Marginal illumination |
| |
f. 78v
Shrouded head |
f. 80v
Fox and scroll |
f. 80v
Fox and scroll |
| |
f. 82v
Text page |
f. 141
Bleeding heart |
f. 141
Scroll with roses |
| |
f. 154
Banderole |
f. 154
Banderole |
f. 157
Scroll and shield |
| |
f. 157
Scroll and shield |
f. 164v
Open door |
f. 165
Altar with chalice |
| |
f. 187
Text page |
f. 187
Marginal text |
f. 207v
Scroll |
| |
f. 207v
Mary |
f. 208v
Cardinal's hat |
f. 208v
Cardinal's hat |
| |
f. 218v
Open book |
f. 232
Life of Bridget of Sweden |
f. 232
Marginal text |
| |
f. 234
Marginal scrolls |
f. 234
Marginal scrolls |
f. 272
Angel |
| |
f. 272
Angel |
f. 288
Plaque |
f. 288v
Life of Katherine |
| |
f. 289
Life of Katherine |
f. 289v
Life of Katherine |
f. 290
Life of Katherine |
| |
f. 290v
Life of Katherine |
f. 291
Life of Katherine |
f. 291v
Life of Katherine |
| |
|
|
|
|
