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Detailed record for Harley 863
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| Part 1 |
ff. 8-123v |
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| Title |
Psalter, with canticles (ff. 99-108), litany for the use of Exeter, prayers, and offices (The 'Leofric Psalter') |
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| Origin |
England, S. W. (Exeter) |
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| Date |
2nd half of the 11th century |
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| Language |
Latin, with English gloss on f. 107 |
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| Script |
Minuscule |
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| Decoration |
Initials in blue, red, green, and brown. Decorated line-fillers in brown. Unfinished, with spaces left for initials, for Psalm 1 filled in with an added puzzle initial and rubrics in brown and red. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
285 x 195 (235 x 135) |
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| Part 2 |
ff. 1-7v |
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| Title |
Calendar and verses |
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| Origin |
England |
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| Date |
2nd half of the 12th century, after 1173 |
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| Language |
Latin |
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| Script |
Protogothic |
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| Decoration |
Large 'KL' letters in red, blue, and green, with penwork decoration. Small initials in red, blue, green, or brown. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
285 x 200 (220 x 145) |
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| Official foliation |
ff. 1* + 125 ( + 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. |
| Provenance |
The cathedral church of St Peter, Exeter: evidence of the script and litany; perhaps made for Leofric, bishop (1046-1072) and given by him to the cathedral; added 12th-century calendar with Exeter entries, including for 23 May 'Festum reliquiarum ecclesie beati Petri Exon.' (added in the 14th-century) (f. 3) and numerous added obbits ?13th century including that of the lawyer Henry de Bracton (f. 5v); added 13th-century verses in a formerly blank space 'In festo reliquiarum Exoniensis ecclesiae ad processionem' (f. 7v).
For Part II, the inclusion of the feast of Thomas Becket provides a terminus post quem of 1173 (f. 6v).
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 |
Musical notation: Anglo-Saxon neumes (with littera significativa T), England (Exeter), third quarter of the 11th century
f. 1* is a parchment leaf, with numerous inscriptions of various dates.
The litany features the earliest attestation of the the cult of Pope Leo IX and saint Bardo, bishop of Mainz (see Bishop 1918). |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), I, no. 863.
E. S. Dewick and W. H. Frere, The Leofric Collectar, 2 vols, Henry Bradshaw Society, 45, 56 (London: 1914-21), II, p. ix n. 1, p. 435.
Edmund Bishop, Liturgica Historica. Papers on the Liturgy and Religious Life of the Western Church, [edited by R. H. Connolly and K. Sisam.], (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1918), pp. 406-08.
N. R. Ker, Catalogue of Manuscripts Containing Anglo-Saxon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1957), no. 232.
Cecilia Sisam and Kenneth Sisam, The Salisbury Psalter, edited from Salisbury Cathedral MS. 150, Early English Text Society, 242 (London: Oxford University Press, 1959), p. 7.
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. 83.
Nigel Morgan, 'Notes on the Post-Conquest Calendar, Litany and Martyrology of the Cathedral Priory of Winchester with a Consideration of Winchester Diocese Calendars of the Pre-Sarum Period', in The Vanishing Past: Medieval Studies Presented to Chrisopher Hohler, ed. by Alan Borg and Andrew Martindale (Oxford: B. A. R., 1981), pp. 133-174 (p. 168 n. 77).
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), no. 638.
Anglo-Saxon Litanies of the Saints, ed. by Michael Lapidge, Henry Bradshaw Society, 106 (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1991), no. 23.
Helmut Gneuss, Handlist of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: A List of Manuscripts and Manuscript Fragments Written or Owned in England up to 1100, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 241 (Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2001), no. 425 (ff. 8-125).
The Leofric Missal I, ed. by Nicholas Orchard, Henry Bradshaw Society, 113 (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 2002), p. 216.
K. D. Hartzell, Catalogue of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1200 containing Music (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), no. 156.
Andrew Prescott, 'What's in a Number? The Physical Organization of the Manuscript Collecctions of the British Library', in Beatus Vir: Studies in Early English and Norse Manuscripts, ed. by A. N. Doane and Kirsten Wolf, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 319 (Tempe, Arizona: ACMRS, 2006), pp. 471-526 (pp. 471-75, 477). |
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Part 1
ff. 8-123v |
| Psalter, with canticles (ff. 99-108), litany for the use of Exeter, prayers, and offices (The 'Leofric Psalter') |
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f. 1v
Calendar page |
f. 2v
April |
f. 8
Decorated initials |
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f. 36v
Musical notation |
f. 37v
Text page |
f. 37v
Text page |
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f. 108
Coloured initials |
f. 110
Coloured initials |
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Part 2
ff. 1-7v |
| Calendar and verses |
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