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Detailed record for Harley 2838
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| Title |
Speculum humanae salvationis |
| Origin |
England, S. E. (London) |
| Date |
between 1485 and 1509 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Artists |
Attributed to the Master of the Dark Eyes (see Cardon 1987) |
| Decoration |
192 miniatures (2 per page, ff. 3v-51) and 2 full-page miniatures, each divided into 6 compartments featuring two figures holding scrolls (ff. 51v-52). 1 partial border in gold and colours with acanthus, feathering and royal arms (f. 1). Initials in colours and gold, often accompanied by feathering extending in the margin. Small initials in gold with brown pen decoration or blue with red pen decoration. Cadels. Line-fillers. Chapter numbers written on scrolls at the top of the page. |
| Dimensions in mm |
470 x 345 (330 x 275), in 2 columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. i + 52 (+ 4 unfoliated paper leaves and 1 unfoliated parchment leaf at the beginning + 2 unfoliated parchment leaves and 4 unfoliated paper leaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Marbled end-papers. |
| Provenance |
Made for Henry VII (r. 1485-1509); arms of England with motto 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' in the lower border (f. 1).
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 |
Catchwords. Middle Dutch notes underneath the miniatures in quire C.
The miniatures were painted by a Dutch artist, probably based in London. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2838.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Ilustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 15.
J. Lutz, P. Perdrizet, Speculum Humanae Salvationis. Texte critique, traduction inédite de Jean Miélot (1448). Les sources et l'influence iconographique... (Mulhouse: J. Lutz, 1907), no. 61.
Edgar Breitenbach, Speculum humanæ salvationis: Eine typengeschichtliche Untersuchung (Strasbourg: Heitz, 1930), p. 5 no. 61.
Anglo-Flemish Art under the Tudors (London: British Museum, 1954), no. 22 [unpublished exhibition catalogue].
Bert Cardon, 'Het Speculum Humanae Salvationis manuscript Harley 2838 in de British Library te Londen, een handschrift omstreeks 1500 in Engeland verlucht door een miniaturist uit de Nederlanden?', in Miscellanea Neerlandica: opstellen voor Dr Jan Deschamps ter gelegenheid van zijn zeventigste verjaardag, ed. by Elly Cockx-Indestege and Frans Hendrickx, 3 vols (Louvain: Peeters, 1987), I, pp. 441-63.
François Avril, Claudia Rabel, and Isabelle Delaunay, Manuscrits enluminés d’origine germanique (Paris: Bibliothèque nationale de France, 1995), I: Xe-XIVe siècle, p. 181.
Kathleen L. Scott, Later Gothic Manuscripts 1390-1490, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles 6, (London: Harvey Miller, 1996), II, pp. 301 and 366.
Kathleen L. Scott, 'Four Early Fifteenth-century English Manuscripts of the Speculum humanae salvationis and a Fourteenth-century Exemplar', in Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10 (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 177-203 (p. 200).
Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination (London: British Library, 2011), no. 38 [exhibition catalogue].
Database of illustrations of the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, ed. by Berthold Kress, in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database [https://iconographic.warburg.sas.ac.uk/vpc/VPC_search/subcats.php?cat_1=14&cat_2=812&cat_3=2903&cat_4=5439&cat_5=13111&cat_6=9245&cat_7=2910] [accessed 3 July 2018]. |
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f. 4v
Fall of Man and Expulsion |
f. 4v
Fall of Man |
f. 4v
Expulsion from Paradise |
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f. 5
Adam and the Ark |
f. 5
Adam and Eve |
f. 5
The Ark |
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f. 9
Tower |
f. 10
Woman at a fountain |
f. 20v
Betrayal of Christ |
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f. 21v
Mocking of Christ |
f. 27
Codrus |
f. 28v
Deposition; Jacob |
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f. 30v
Miniatures |
ff. 33v-34
Miniatures (typological scenes) |
f. 33v
Harrowing of Hell and Moses |
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f. 33v
Harrowing of Hell |
f. 33v
Moses |
f. 34
Abraham and Lot |
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f. 34
Abraham |
f. 34
Lot |
f. 37
Moses |
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f. 43v
Hell |
f. 44v
Angel |
f. 44v
George |
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f. 44v
George |
f. 44v
Woman before a seated man |
f. 45
Feast |
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f. 45
Feast |
f. 49v
Christ enthroned |
f. 51
Presentation and Coronation |
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f. 51v
Figures |
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