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Detailed record for Harley 2802
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| Title |
Passional (the 'Arnstein Passional'), the last of three volumes with October-December, with a calendar (ff. 2v-3v), including the Vita of Fronto of Perigueux |
| Origin |
Germany, W. (Arnstein) |
| Date |
c. 1170- c. 1180 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Protogothic |
| Artists |
The same artist at that of the Arnstein Bible (Harley 2798-2799), according to Cahn |
| Decoration |
Large historiated initials in colours (ff. 190, 191, 206). Large initials in red, some with animals or hybrids, all with foliate decoration, and some with clasps; usually on grounds of green and blue, at the beginning of each saint's passion. Initial painted in colours with clasps, perhaps additional (f. 56). Large initials in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
545 x 360 (400 x 265) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 231 ( + 3 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Red 'Harleian' binding with gold tooling; marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
The Premonstratensian abbey of St Mary and St Nicholas, Arnstein, founded in 1139: inscribed 'Liber Sancte marie virginis sanctique nicolai in arinsteyn 1464' (f. 231v).
List of some of the saints' lives contained within the manuscript in a 14th century or 15th century hand (f. 1v).
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 January, 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 |
This manuscript is from a three-volume collection of texts. The first volume is Harley 2800, January-May; the second is Harley 2801, June-September).
The Vita of Fronto is probably the 'first' version (BHL 3181t); we thank Samatha Herrick for this information.
Amperesands.
Decorated quire signatures.
Offset of the original binding (f. 1). |
| Select bibliography |
This bibliography is for each of Harley 2800-2802:
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2800-2.
A. Kohl, 'Arnsteiner Handschriften im Britischen Museum zu London', Nassovia. Zeitschrift für nassauische Geschichte und Heimatkunde, 4 (1903), 106-108,120-121,133-134 (p. 107).
W. Levison, 'Conspectus codicum hagiographicorum', Monumenta Germanica historiae. Scriptores rer. Merov., 7 (1920), pp. 537-538, 603-605.
R. Schilling, 'Studien zur deutschen Goldschmiedekunst des 12. und 13. Jahrhunderts', Form und Inhalt: Festschrift für Otto Schmitt zum 60. Geburtstag (1950), 76-78.
W. Weismann, 'Die 'Passio Genesii mimi' (BHL 3320), Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, 12 (1977), pp. 22-43, esp. p. 26, 34-43.
Andrew G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in The Department of Manuscripts: The British Library, 2 vols (London: British Library, 1979), pp. 128-29.
Walter Cahn, Romanesque Bible Illumination (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1982), p. 253.
F. Dolbeau, 'La Passion des saints Lucius et Montanus. Histoire et édition du texte', Revue des Études Augustiniennes, 29 (Paris, 1983), pp.39-82, esp. p. 43.
G. Philippart, 'Les Légendes Latines de Sainte Verena. Pour une Histoire de Leur Diffusion', Analecta Bollandiana: Revue Critique d’Hagiographie, 103 (1985), pp. 253-302, esp. 268-269, 295.
Sigrid Krämer, Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters, Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz: Ergänzungsband 1, 3 vols (Munich, 1989-90), II (1989), p. 25.
Janet Backhouse, The Illuminated Page: Ten Centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Library (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997), pp. 55, 57.
Krone und Schleier: Kunst aus Mittelalterlichen Frauenklöstern, Bonn and Essen exhibition catalogue (Munich: Kirmer, 2005), no. 11.
Jeffrey F. Hamburger, 'The Hand of God and the Hand of the Scribe: Craft and Collaboration at Arnstein', in Die Bibliothek des Mittelalters als dynamischer Prozess, ed. by Michael Embach, Claudine Moulin and Andrea Rapp, Trierer Beiträge zu den Historischen Kulturwissenschaften, 3 (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2012), pp. 53-78 (p. 71, colour plate 36). |
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f. 17
Decorated initial |
f. 35v
Decorated initial |
f. 56
Decorated initial |
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f. 93v
Decorated initial |
f. 102
Decorated initials |
f. 190
Historiated initial |
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f. 191
Thomas |
f. 191
Saint |
f. 206
Silvester |
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f. 206
Decorated intials |
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