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Detailed record for Harley 4972
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| Title |
Apocalypse in prose, with prologue of Gilbert de la Porrée (ff. 1-43), Prophétie de la sibylle Tiburtine (ff. 43-47v) |
| Origin |
France, N.E. (Lorraine) |
| Date |
Last quarter of the 13th century or 1st quarter of the 14th century |
| Language |
French |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
Partial bar border with a miniature in colours and gold, an illuminated initial, and grotesques in the bas-de page (f. 1). 83 framed column miniatures in colours and gold of apocalyptic scenes (ff. 2, 2v, 3, 3v, 4 (x 2), 4v, 5, 5v, 6, 7, 7v, 8, 8v, 9 (x 2), 10, 10v, 11 (x 2), 11v, 12, 12v, 13, 13v (x 2), 14, 14v, 15, 15v (x 2), 16, 16v, 17, 17v, 18, 18v, 19, 19v, 20, 20v, 21 (x 2), 21v, 22 (x 2), 22v, 23 (x 2), 23v (x 2), 24v, 25v, 26 (x 2), 26v, 27, 27v, 28 (x 2), 28v (x 2), 29v, 30, 30v, 32v, 33, 33v, 34, 34v, 35, 35v, 36v, 37, 37v (x 2), 39, 39v, 40v, 41, 42 (x 2), 43v). 12 smaller framed column miniatures in colours and gold of grotesques, mermaids, birds, and animals (ff. 2, 9v, 11v, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 23, 28, 29, 38v). Large initials in gold with red and blue pen-flourishing. |
| Dimensions in mm |
240 x 170 (175 x 125) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 47 (+ 5 unfoliated paper and 1 parchment flyleaves at the beginning + 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Red leather; marbled endpapers. |
| Provenance |
Ownership inscription (f. 47v).
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.
Copied in the Lorraine dialect.
The manuscript is in excellent condition, but has been trimmed. The left side of the miniature of f. 43v has been cut off.
A folio is missing between ff. 31 and 32. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), II (1808), no. 4972.
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. 7.
L. Delisle and P. Meyer, L'Apocalypse en français au XIIIe siècle (Bibl. Nat. Fr. 403) (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1901), no. 26, p. cxviii.
Montague Rhodes James, The Apocalypse in Latin: MS. 10 in the Collection of Dyson Perrins (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1927), pp.12, 31.
Montague Rhodes James, The Apocalypse in Art, The Schweich Lectures of the British Academy, 1927 (London: British Academy, 1931), no. 26.
Hugh Shields, 'Philippe de Thaon, auteur du "Livre de Sibylle"?', Romania, 85 (1964), 455-77 (p. 456).
'Pearl and Some Illustrated Apocalypse Manuscripts', Viator, 12 (1981): 183-96,
Richard Kenneth Emmerson and Suzanne Lewis, 'Census and Bibliography of Medieval Manuscripts containing Apocalypse Illustrations, ca. 800-1500 II', Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought and Religion, 41 (1985), 367-409, no. 72.
Nigel Morgan, Early Gothic Manuscripts, 2 vols, A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in the British Isles, 4 (London Harvey Miller, 1982-1988), II: 1250-1285, 176.
Nigel Morgan, ‘French Interpretations of English Apocalpyses’, in England and the Continent in the Middle Ages: Studies in Memory of Andrew Martindale, Proceedings of the 1996 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by John Mitchell and Matthew Moran, Harlaxton Medieval Studies, 8 (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 2000), pp. 137-56 (pp. 146, 148).
Nigel J. Morgan, ‘The Bohun Apocalypse’, in Tributes to Lucy Freeman Sandler: Studies in Illuminated Manuscripts, ed. by Kathryn A. Smith and Carol H. Krinsky (London: Harvey Miller, 2007), pp. 91-110 (pp. 95-96).
'The Codicological Histories of Two Metz Compilations (MSS Douce 308 and Harley 4972 and the implications of Owner Manipulations' Pecia, 17 (2016), 93-127. |
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f. 1
John and the seven churches |
f. 2
John on Patmos |
f. 2v
Christ and the 7 candlesticks |
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f. 8v
The 4 symbols of the Apocalypse |
f. 11v
Rider on the pale horse |
f. 14
Angels with trumpets |
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f. 19
Measuring the Temple |
f. 21
The woman clothed with the sun |
f. 22v
Woman flying |
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f. 29
Hybrid creatures |
f. 35
Angel in the sun |
f. 37v
The first heaven and the first earth, and the new Jerusalem |
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f. 39
The holy city of Jerusalem |
f. 39v
The new Jerusalem |
f. 40v
The blessed in the new Jerusalem |
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f. 40v
The blessed in the new Jerusalem |
f. 41
The river of the water of life |
f. 43v
Tiburtine Sybil |
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