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Detailed record for Harley 3183
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| Title |
Devotional Manual |
| Origin |
France, S. (Périgord) |
| Date |
1st quarter of the 16th century |
| Language |
French (Occitan or Provençal) |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
3 full-page miniatures in colours symbolising despair, vainglory and pride, and avarice (ff. 24v, 36, 40). 12 large initials in gold on blue or red grounds (ff. 1, 14, 60v, 71v, 88, 99, 118, 124v, 154, 161, 166v 181v). Numerous smaller initials in gold on blue or red grounds. 21 blue initials on red grounds (ff. 47, 188v, 190, 191, 193, 195v, 198v, 200v, 201v, 202v, 203v, 204, 205v, 206, 206v, 207, 207v, 208v, 209, 210, 211). Line fillers in red and blue and gold. Rubrics and various texts in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
150 x 110 (95 x 65) |
| Official foliation |
ff. 212 (+ 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
BM/BL in-house. Brown leather with gold tooling; gilt edges. |
| Provenance |
Pierre Jardin: inscription recording his gift of the manuscript to Jean Lacombe on 18 July 1660 (f. 212v).
Jean Lacombe, 17th century: ownership inscriptions (ff. 103v, 212v).
Anthoine Lacombe, 17th century: ownership inscription (ff. 127v-128).
Various other inscriptions (ff. 211-212).
Thomas Ballard, bookseller and book auctioneer in London; his sale, 20 February 1720/21, lot 12, bought for Edward Harley through Nathaniel Noel.
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 ‘23 Februarij 1720/21'(f. [iiii]).
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 |
Vertical catchwords.
Some initials and all of the miniatures have been damaged. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3183.
Clovis Brunel, Bibliographie des manuscrits littéraires en ancien provençal, Société de publications romanes et françaises, 13 (Paris: Librairie E. Droz, 1935), no. 19.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 89 n. 13.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 62. |
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