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Detailed record for Harley 3487
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| Author |
Aristotle |
| Title |
Libri Naturales, with extensive glosses |
| Origin |
England, Central (Oxford?) |
| Date |
3rd quarter of the 13th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic, written below top line |
| Artists |
Attributed to the Glazier Bible group |
| Decoration |
29 historiated initials in colours and gold, with animated extensions or partial bar borders, and pen-flourishing in gold, red, and blue (ff. 4, 4v, 10, 16v, 22v, 34, 39v, 47v, 52, 65v, 103v, 116, 121v, 140v, 145, 152, 161, 173, 180, 191, 197, 200, 202, 202v, 208, 211v, 214v, 216, 224). Initials in red with pen-flourishing in red, and blue. Running headers in blue, and red and sometimes gold, with penwork decoration, some in the form of heads. Paraphs in blue. Rubrics in while, red, or blue. Marginal diagrams in red, brown, and blue, with green and blue, and sometimes yellow washes (ff. 69, 69v, 70v, 76v, 90, 90v, 92v). Marginal drawing of an animal, in colours (f. 142v). Sketches for the illuminator (ff. 34, 52, 103v, 116, 140v, 152, 161, 173, 180, 191, 197, 200, 202v, 202, 208, 211v, 214v, 216, 224). |
| Dimensions in mm |
370 x 245 (175 x 105) in two columns |
| Official foliation |
ff. 235 + iiii ( + 4 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and 3 at the end) |
| Form |
Parchment codex |
| Binding |
Post-1600. Black leather with blind tooling. |
| Provenance |
Added 15th-century list of contents (f. 1v) and notes, 13th-14th century (ff. 2r, 3v).
Nicholas of Cusa [Nicholaus von Kues, or Nicholas Cusanus] (1401 – August 11, 1464), cardinal and theologian; given by him with other books from his library to St Nicholas hospital, founded by him in Cues in 1451: ownership inscription of St Nicholas hospital 'Liber hospitalis sancti Nocolai prope cusam' (f. 235v).
Nathaniel Noel (fl. 1681-c. 1753), bookseller, employed by Edward Harley for buying books and manuscripts chiefly on the continent, where his agent was George Suttie: acquired from him for the Harley collection.
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 with the date of acquisition by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘18 die Januarii, A. D. 1723/4' (f. i).
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.
According to Nigel Morgan, the most extensively decorated of the surviving university books (see Cambridge Illuminations 2005).
F. I and 1-3 are a parchment leaves.
Catchwords. Quire signatures consisting of a series of short lines.
Ff. ii-iii are parchment leaves after f. 235. |
| Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3487.
Eric. G. Millar, English Illuminated Manuscripts from the Xth to the XIIIth Century (Paris: Van Oest, 1926), p. 128.
Paul Lehmann, Mitteilungen aus Handschriften, 2, Sitzungsberichte der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-historische Abteilung, 2 (Munich: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften,1930), pp. 3-55 (p. 24).
George Lacombe, Aristoteles Latinus (Rome: Libreria dello Stato, 1939), no. 302.
Loren MacKinney and Thomas Herndon, Medical Illustrations in Medieval Manuscripts, Wellcome Historical Medical Library, New Series, 5 (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965), no. 86.44.
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, pp. xxxix-xl.
R. Haubst, 'Cod. Harl. 3487', Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellschaft, 12 (1977), 21-36.
Michael Camille, 'Illustrations in Harley MS 3487 and the Perception of Aristotle's Libri Naturales in Thirteenth-Century England', in England in the Thirteenth Century: Proceedings of the 1984 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. by W.M. Ormrod (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1985), pp. 31-44.
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, no. 145.
Jonathan J. G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), pp. 68, 185, figs 108-09.
Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (London: Reaktion, 1992), pp. 22-23, pl. 7.
Charles Burnett, The Introduction of Arabic Learning into England, The Panizzi Lectures, 1996 (London: British Library, 1997), n. 205, pl. 1.
Sophie Page, Astrology in Medieval Manuscripts (London: British Library, 2002), p. 37, pl. 27.
C. M. Kauffmann, Biblical Imagery in Medieval England 700-1500 (London: Harvey Miller, 2003), p. 312 n. 74.
Kathryn A. Smith, Art, Identity and Devotion in Fourteenth-Century England: Three Women and their Books of Hours, (London: British Library, 2003), p. 277.
The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West, ed. by Paul Binski and Stella Panayotova (London: Harvey Miller, 2005), pp. 371, 373
M. A. Michael, 'Urban production of manuscript books and the role of the university towns', in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain (Cambridge: University Press, 1999- ), II: 1100-1400, ed. by Nigel Morgan and Rodney M. Thomson (2008), pp. 168-94 (p. 179 n. 69).
Orietta da Rold, 'Codicology, Location and MS Laud. Misc. 108', in Makers and users of medieval books: essays in honour of A.S.G. Edwards, ed. by Carol M. Meale & Derek Pearsall, (Cambridge: Brewer, 2014), pp. 48-60 (pp. 57-58). |
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f. 4
Book burning |
f. 10
Man |
f. 16v
Crowned woman |
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f. 16v
Historiated initial |
f. 16v
Crowned woman |
f. 22v
Man reading |
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f. 34
Wrestlers |
f. 39v
Seated man |
f. 47v
Historiated initial |
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f. 52
God holding the world |
f. 65v
Christ |
f. 69
Diagrams |
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f. 103v
Moses |
f. 116
Teaching |
f. 121v
Couple |
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f. 121v
Couple |
f. 140v
Man |
f. 140v
Historiated initial |
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f. 142v
Dog |
f. 152
Historiated initial |
f. 161
Windmill |
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f. 161
Windmill |
f. 173
Soul being weighed |
f. 180
The Last Trumpet |
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f. 191
Christ blessing |
f. 197
Seated man |
f. 200
Corpse |
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f. 200
Historiated initial |
f. 202
Historiated initial |
f. 202
Christ |
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f. 202
Christ |
f. 202v
Man in bed |
f. 208
Sleep |
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f. 211v
Woman |
f. 214v
Porter |
f. 216
Trumpter |
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f. 224
Workers |
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