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Detailed record for Harley 3647
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| Title |
Astronomical miscellany including Sacrobosco, 'De sphaera' (ff. 22-33); Solar tables for 1292-95 (ff. 61-62v); 'Theorica Planetarum' (ff. 81-88); canons for Toledan tables (ff. 97v-119v) and Toledan tables (ff. 120-194v). |
| Origin |
France, Central (Paris) |
| Date |
c. 1292 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic, written below top line |
| Decoration |
6 historiated initials in colours and gold with a bar border sprouting with foliage and including hybrid creatures and animals (ff. 17, 22, 33v, 55, 63, 118). 10 illuminated initials of the same type (ff. 75v, 20, 81, 88, 91v, 94v, 95v, 97v, 197, 215). 12 large 'KL' letters in colours and gold (ff. 11-16v). Numerous initials in red or blue with pen-flourishing, frequently in the form of 'J-borders'. Numerous drawings and diagrams in brown and occasionally red, frequently with green and yellow washes and red and brown inscriptions. Numerous tables in brown, red or occasionally green, with red and brown inscriptions. Rubrics in red. Paraphs in red or blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
250 x 180 (150/155 x 95/100; tables, drawings and diagrams often extend beyond the writing frame); frequently in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 225 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 4 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1964; traces of two metal fastenings and of turn-ins of an earlier binding (f. i). |
| Provenance |
Includes a declination table with an ?added note for use in Paris (f. 60v); solar tables dated 1292-1295 (ff. 61-62v) and notes on dates 1272 (ff. 201v, 203v, 210v, 214), 1287 (f. 200) and 1293 (f. 212v) in the hand of the scribe.
Added, 14th century: table of contents (f. 1v).
Added, ?15th/16th century: empty ?banner with two heads (f. 194v).
Petavius (?) 'de laucerto' (Lauzerte, France), 15th century: inscribed 'Iste liber (...) de lauc(er)to lice(nt)ij in legibus' (f. 225v) (see Wright 1972).
Claudius Daneus (Daneau), 1573: inscribed 'Ex libris Claudij danej / 1573' (f. 2) (see Wright 1972).
James Woodman (d. 1728), London bookseller: acquired from him via the bookseller Charles Davis (fl. c. 1720) for the Harley Collection (see Diary 1966 and Wright 1972).
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 ‘29 die Octobris, A.D. 1722’ (f. 2).
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.
One diagram is unfinished (f. 225).
The full contents are listed in Pedersen 2002, p. 128. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3647.
Lynn Thorndike, 'Unde Versus', Traditio 11 (1955), 163-93 (pp. 173-74 n. 50).
Lynn Thorndike, 'Notes upon Some Medieval Latin Astronomical, Astrological and Mathematical Manuscripts at the Vatican, parts 1 and 2', Isis 47 (1956), 391-404 and 50 (1959), 33-50 (II, p. 36).
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by C. E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 169 n. 1.
C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 123, 125, 274, 359.
Olaf Pedersen, 'In Quest of Sacrobosco', Journal for the History of Astronomy 16 (1985), 175-221 (p. 185).
Fritz S. Pedersen, The Toldean Tables: A review of the manuscripts and the textual versions with an edition, 4 vols. with continuous pagination (Copenhagen: C. A. Reitzels, 2002), as 'Lg', pp. 40, 128, 345, 381, 789. |
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f. 5v
Mnemonic hand |
f. 11
'KL' letters |
f. 17
Teacher |
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f. 17
Teacher |
f. 21
Detail |
f. 22
Teacher |
| |
f. 22
Teacher |
f. 22v
Detail |
f. 23v
Figures |
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f. 29
Universe |
f. 32
Diagram |
f. 33v
Historiated initial |
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f. 33v
Detail |
f. 36v
Detail |
f. 39v
Detail |
| |
f. 43
Detail |
f. 45
Diagrams |
f. 45v
Decorated initial |
| |
f. 55
Historiated initial |
f. 55
Detail |
f. 57
Diagram |
| |
f. 58v
Figures |
f. 59
Figures |
f. 61
Table |
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f. 63
Historiated initial |
f. 63
Detail |
f. 64
Astrolabe |
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f. 68v
Drawing |
f. 77
Decorated initials |
f. 79v
Decorated initials |
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f. 81
Illuminated initial and diagram |
f. 81
Detail |
f. 81
Detail |
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f. 85
Detail |
f. 95v
Illuminated initial |
f. 95v
Detail |
| |
f. 99
Decorated initials |
f. 108
Decorated initials |
f. 116v
Decorated initials |
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f. 118
Historiated initial and diagram |
f. 168v
Table |
f. 190
Table |
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f. 197
Illuminated initial |
f. 215
Illuminated initial |
f. 215
Detail |
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