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Detailed record for Harley 4664
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Part 1 |
ff. 9-125v |
| Title |
Breviary (the 'Coldingham Breviary'), including the Temporale |
| Origin |
England, N. (Durham or Coldingham?) |
| Date |
between 1270 and 1280 |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic, written below top line |
| Decoration |
Very large miniature in colours and gold of the Virgin and Child (f. 125v). Large initials in gold and colours (ff. 9, 21v). Initials in blue with red and often blue pen-flourishing, or in red with blue and often red pen-flourishing, some with faces extending into the margins. Versicals in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
245 x 170 (162 x 125) in two columns |
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Part 2 |
ff. 2-8v |
| Title |
Readings |
| Origin |
England |
| Date |
14th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic |
| Decoration |
Initials in red with blue and purple pen-flourishing, or in blue with red pen-flourishing. Small initials in red. |
| Dimensions in mm |
245 x 170 (180 x 140) in two columns |
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Part 3 |
ff. 126-319v |
| Title |
Calendar and Psalter, with litany and prayers, and Sanctorale |
| Origin |
England |
| Date |
2nd half of the 13th century |
| Language |
Latin |
| Script |
Gothic, written below top line |
| Decoration |
Large historiated or decorated initials (some with hybrids or dragons) at the beginning of Psalms 1, 26, 38, 51, 68, 80, 97, 101, 109 and other divisions in colours and gold (ff. 133, 138, 142, 145, 149, 153v, 157v, 158, 162 and numerous other folios). Large puzzle initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in red and blue. Large 'KL' letters and other initials in gold and blue, red, and white in the calendar and at the beginning of the other Psalms. Small initials in gold with penwork decoration in blue. Small initials in blue, with pen-flourishing in red and blue. Small initials in red or blue, some with penwork decoration in the opposite colour. Text in gold. Line-fillers in red and blue. |
| Dimensions in mm |
245 x 170 |
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Official foliation |
ff. 333 ( + an unfoliated parchment leaf after ff. 126, 200, 333 + 1 at the beginning + an unfoliated paper flyleaf at the beginning and at the end) |
Form |
Parchment codex |
Binding |
Post-1600. Brown diced leather with gold tooling. |
Provenance |
The Coldingham Priory, about 10 miles north of Berwick-on-Tweed, in Scotland, perhaps made at Durham: the abbey was a cell of Durham Cathedral Priory. Owned by a monk of Durham in the 16th century: inscribed 'Liber dominus Richardi Crosby monarchi Dun[ls]i' (f. 9). An inscription on an end flyleaf states that it was given to him by Hugh Whitehede, last prior of Durham, in 1521 (f. 333). The Benedictine cathedral priory of St Cuthbert, Durham. f. 200 is a 14th century replacement page. ff. 320-332v are later 15th-century additions with coloured or decorated initials. Thomas Tempest (d. 1743), 4th baronet, county Durham: inscribed 'Sr Thomas Tempest Baronet' (f. 2). 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. Musical notation on red 4-line staves (ff. 181-197). One of five surviving English breviaries, according to Tolhurst 1932. |
Select bibliography |
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 4664.
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. 8.
Georg Graf Vitzthum, Die Pariser Miniaturmalerei von der Zeit des hl. Ludwig bis zu Philipp von Valois und ihr Verhältnis zur Malerei in Nordwesteuropa (Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1907), p. 95.
English Benedictine Kalendars after A. D. 1100, ed. by Francis Wormald, 2 vols, Henry Bradshaw Society, 77, 81 (London: Harrison and Sons, 1934-1939), I, 162.
Durham Cathedral Manuscripts to the end of the Twelfth Century, intro. by R. A. B. Mynors (Oxford: University Press, 1939), p. 52.
The Monastic Breviary of Hyde Abbey, Winchester: MSS. Rawlinson Liturg. e. 1*, and Gough Liturg. 8, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, ed. by J. B. L. Tolhurst, Henry Bradshaw Society, LXV-LXXX, 6 vols (London: Henry Bradshaw Society, 1932-42), 1, pp. v-vi; 6, pp. 20-27, 43-44, 86-90, 96-99, 238.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books, ed. by N. R. Ker, 2nd edn, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 3 (London: Royal Historical Society, 1964), p. 73.
Manuscripts of Polyphonic Music: 11th - Early 14th Century, ed. by Gilbert Reaney, Répertoire international des sources musicales, BIV 1 (Munich: Henle, 1966), p. 508.
Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books ed. by N. R. Ker, Supplement to the Second Edition, ed. by Andrew G. Watson, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, 15 (London: The Royal Historical Society, 1987), p. 30.
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. 176.
Carl P. E. Springer, The Manuscripts of Sedulius: A Provisional Handlist, Transaction of the American Philosophical Society, 85 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1995), p. 148.
'The Breviary of the Priory of Coldingham, Berwickshire: An electronic copy of London, British Library MS Harley 4664', in CURSUS An Online Resource of Medieval Liturgical Texts, [http://www.cursus.org.uk/ms/coldingham], accessed 5 February 2019.
Richard W. Pfaff, The Liturgy in Medieval England: A History (Cambridge: University Press, 2009), pp. 223-24.
Stephen Mark Holmes, ‘Catalogue of Liturgical Books and Fragments in Scotland before 1650’, The Innes Review, 62 (2011), 127-212 (no. 32). |
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Part 1
ff. 9-125v |
Breviary (the 'Coldingham Breviary'), including the Temporale |
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f. 9 Illuminated initial |

f. 125v Virgin and Child |

f. 125v Virgin and Child |
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f. 145v Fool |
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Part 3
ff. 126-319v |
Calendar and Psalter, with litany and prayers, and Sanctorale |
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f. 127v April |

ff. 127v-128 Calendar |

f. 128 May |
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ff. 128v-129 Calendar |

f. 129v August |

ff. 130v-131 Calendar |
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f. 133 David |

f. 133 David |

f. 138 Illuminated initial |
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f. 145v Fool |

f. 145v Fool |

f. 157v Singing Monks |
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f. 157v Monks |

f. 162 Christ blessing |

f. 175v Litany |
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f. 180 Puzzle initials |

f. 181 Illuminated initial |

f. 187 Illuminated initial |
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f. 191v Dragon |

f. 198 Illuminated initial |

f. 278v Illuminated initial |
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