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Detailed record for Harley 2841
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| Title |
Prayer book |
| Origin |
Germany, S. |
| Date |
c. 1450 |
| Language |
German |
| Script |
Gothic cursive |
| Decoration |
2 large full-page miniatures, followed by large or small decorated initials with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 60v, 138v). 2 large historiated initials with three-sided foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 16, 41v). 11 large decorated foliate initials with full foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 159, 162v, 177, 196, 212, 225, 233, 244, 254, 263, 268). 8 large or small decorated initials with partial foliate borders, in colours and gold (ff. 27, 38, 77, 78, 85, 108, 142, 151v). Small initials (2 lines) in gold with brown pen-flourishing or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Small initials (1 line) in plain gold or blue. Capital letters highlighted in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
120 x 85 (170 x 45) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 286 (+ 3 paper and 1 recycled parchment leaf containing text at the beginning and 1 medieval parchment and 4 paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Rebound in 1969. |
| Provenance |
Inscribed prayers in German and Latin, late 15th century (ff. 156-158, 161, 194v-195, 266-267).
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 |
Fragment of a 14th-century text leaf of a Bible, Apc. 5., used as a flyleaf. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), II, no. 2841.
Walter de Gray Birch and Henry Jenner, Early Drawings and Illuminations: An Introduction to the Study of Illustrated Manuscripts (London: Bagster and Sons, 1879), p. 14.
Deutsche Handschriften in England, ed. by Robert Priebsch, 2 vols in 1 vol (Hildesheim: Olms, 1979, first publ. Erlangen: Junge, 1896-1901), II: Das British Museum mit einem Anhang über die Guildhall-Bibliothek, no. 19. |
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f. 16
Annunciation |
f. 138v
John the Evangelist |
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