|
|
|
|
|
|
Detailed record for Harley 2800
|
|
|
|
| Title |
Arnstein Passional (the first of three volumes, with January-May) |
| 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 |
Very large zoomorphic and/or inhabited initials in colours on a coloured ground (ff. 1, 228). Large historiated or anthropomorphic initials in colours (ff. 6, 39v, 43, 46, 61v, 143, 149v, 162v, 207v). 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. Large initials in red, green or in both colours. Display script in red or black. |
| Dimensions in mm |
545 x 370 (405 x 265) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 262 ( + 3 unfoliated paper flyleave at the beginning and 3 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Brown 'Harleian' binding with gold tooling; marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
The Premonstratensian abbey of St Mary and St Nicholas, Arnstein: inscribed ‘Liber Sancte marie virginis sanctique nicolai in arinsteyn 1464’, Harley 2802, f. 231v (the third volume in this set).
Added text with the date 1179 (f. 262v).
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 3 volume collection of texts. The second volume is Harley 2801, June-September; volume 3 is Harley 2802, October-December.
Ampersands.
Decorated quire signatures. |
| 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.
W. R. Tymms and M. D. Wyatt, The Art of Illuminating as Practised in Europe from the Earliest Times (London: Day and Sons, 1860; repr. Studio Editions, 1987), pls XII.1, 3.
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 (pp. 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 (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 (pp. 268-9, 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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
f. 1
Decorated initial |
f. 6
Bishop |
f. 6
Historiated initial |
| |
f. 6v
Decorated initial |
f. 61v
Historiated initial |
f. 143
Historiated initial |
| |
f. 143
Historiated initial |
f. 149v
Historiated initial |
f. 150
Historiated initial |
| |
f. 150v
Coloured initial |
f. 162v
Anthropomorphic initial |
f. 207v
Saint |
| |
f. 207v
Saint |
f. 207v
Saint |
f. 228
Decorated initial |
| |
f. 234
Decorated initial |
|
|
|
|
