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Detailed record for Harley 5431
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| Part 1 |
ff. 4-126v |
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| Title |
Rule of St Benedict, with a calendar |
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| Origin |
England, S. E. (Canterbury) |
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| Date |
last quarter of the 10th century, or 1st quarter of the 11th century |
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| Language |
Latin |
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| Script |
Minuscule |
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| Decoration |
Numerous large initials in brown and red ink, the first on a purple ground (f. 7), with thin interlace and/or foliate decorationn, and zoomorphic features of animal heads (a few with bodies), or clasps. Frame to a calendar in colours with foliate and interlace decoration (f. 4). Large initials in brown with penwork decoration, or in red with highlighting in green and/or blue. Small initial with penwork decoration and highlighting in blue, Small initials and letters in red or green. Tables in green and red with an animal mask or foliate decoration (f. 5r-v). Rubrics and headings in colours of green, red, or blue. Decorated run-over symbols, highlighted in colour. Highlighting of letters in red, blue, or green. Added initials in red. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
230 x 85 (160 x 50) |
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| Part 2 |
ff. 127-172v |
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| Author |
Bernard of Clairvaux |
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| Title |
De praecepto et dispensatione |
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| Origin |
England |
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| Date |
2nd half of the 13th century |
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| Language |
Latin |
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| Script |
Gothic, written below top line |
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| Decoration |
Large puzzle initial in red and blue with pen-flourishing forming a partial border (f. 127). Highlighting of letters in red. Paraphs in blue. |
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| Dimensions in mm |
230 x 85 (165 x 60) |
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| Part 3 |
ff. 173-270 |
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| Title |
Theological miscellany, including Guillelmus Peraldus, Tractatus de professione monachorum, Bernard of Clairvaux, Apologia (ff. 232v-260v); Hugh of Barzelles' De cohabitatione fratrum (ff. 251-260v) |
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| Origin |
England |
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| Date |
2nd half of the 13th century |
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| Language |
Latin |
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| Script |
Gothic, written below top line |
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| Decoration |
Large initials in blue with red pen-flourishing or in red with blue pen-flourishing. Paraphs in blue or red. Highlighting of letters in red. Small initial in red (f. 269v). |
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| Dimensions in mm |
230 x 85 (185 x 60) |
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| Official foliation |
ff. 270 ( + an unfoliated parchment leaf after f. 172 + a former pastedown after f. 270 + 2 unfoliated flyleaves at the beginning and at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. |
| Provenance |
? The Benedictine abbey of St. Augustine, Canterbury: its pressmark 'Dist. XIII. Gra. I' (f. 2), 14th century, with a list of contents and inscribed 'Et iste liber Sancti Augustini Cant'.
Added late 12th- or 13th-century text (f. 6).
Inscribed 'David Clarolet ? (f. 126v).
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 |
Full digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Digitised Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts.
The initials are of Wormald's 'Type Iia' and Type I.
Musical notation: Anglo-Saxon neumes, England (St Augustine’s – Canterbury ?), end of the 10th century (f. 1)
f. 2 is a parchment flyleaf.
F. 3 is a paper flyleaf with notes of 'Mss. In Dr. Needhams Collection'. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 5431.
The Palaeographic Society: Facsimiles of Manuscripts and Inscriptions, Second series, ed. by Edward Augustus Bond, Edward Maunde Thompson, and George Frederic Warner (London: Cloves and Sons, 1884-1894), I, pl. 63.
R. Priebsch, The Heliand Manuscript Caligula A. VII in the British Museum: A Study (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925), p. 32.
Eric. G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth Century (Paris: Van Oest, 1926), p. 107.
Francis Wormald, ‘Decorated Initials in English MSS. from A.D. 900 to 1100’, Archaeologia, 91 (1945), 107-135 (p. 120).
D. Talbot Rice, English Art 871-1100, Oxford History of English Art, 2 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1952), p. 206.
C. H. Talbot, ‘A List of Cistercian Manuscripts in Great Britain’, Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought and Religion, 8 (1952), 402-18 (p. 410).
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. 44.
T.A.M. Bishop, English Caroline Minuscule (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971) p. 18
Mechthild Gretsch, Die Regular Sancti Benedicti in England und ihre altenglische Ubersetzung (Munich, 1973), pp. 94-107).
Mechthild Gretsch, 'Aethelwold's Translation of the Regula Sancti Benedicti and its Latin Exemplar', Anglo-Saxon England, (1974), 125-51.
Elzbieta Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 2 (London: Harvey Miller, 1976), no. 38; p. 62. [with additional bibliography].
The Benedictines in Britain, British Library Series, 3 (London: British Library, 1980), no. 2 [exhibition catalogue].
The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art 966-1066, ed. by Janet Backhouse, D. H. Turner, and Leslie Webster (London: British Museum, 1984), no. 27 [exhibition catalogue].
Michelle Brown, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (London: British Library, 1991), pl. 70.
Making the Medieval Book: Techniques of Production, ed. by Linda L. Brownrigg, Proceedings of the Fourth Conference of The Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Oxford, July 1992 (Los Altos Hills, California: Anderston-Lovelace, 1995), p. 221, fig. 25.
Helmut Gneuss, ‘Origin and Provenance of Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts: The Case of Cotton Tiberius A. III’, in Of the Making of Books: Medieval Manuscripts, their Scribes and Readers: Essays presented to M. B. Parkes, ed. by P. R. Robinson and Rivkah Zim (Aldershot: Scholar Press, 1997), 13-48 (p. 29).
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. 440 (ff. 4-126).
K. D. Hartzell, Catalogue of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1200 containing Music (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2006), no. 166. [f. 1]
Michelle P. Brown, Manuscripts from the Anglo-Saxon Age (London: British Library, 2007), p. 108 (plate).
Teresa Webber, 'The lector and lectio in Anglo-Saxon England', in Manuscripts in the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Cultures and Connections, ed. by Claire Breay and Joanna Story with Eleanor Jackson (Dublin: Four Courts, 2021), pp. 108-118 (p. 114; fig. 8.4). |
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Part 1
ff. 4-126v |
| Rule of St Benedict, with a calendar |
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f. 4
Diagram |
f. 7
Decorated letters |
f. 15
Decorated initial |
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f. 38v
Decorated initial |
ff. 39v-40
Decorated initials |
f. 44
Decorated letters |
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f. 54v
Decorated letters |
f. 57
Decorated letter |
f. 65
Decorated letter |
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f. 68v
Decorated initial |
f. 70v
Decorated initial |
ff. 73v-74
Decorated initials |
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f. 79
Decorated initial |
f. 79v
Decorated initials |
f. 82v
Decorated initial |
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f. 86v
Zoomorphic initial |
f. 101
Decorated initial |
f. 105v
Decorated initial |
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f. 107
Decorated initial |
f. 118v
Zoomorphic initial |
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