The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants ( la, Bibliotheca Harleiana) is one of the main "closed" collections (namely, historic collections to which new material is no longer added) of the British Library in London, formerly the library of the British Museum. The collection comprises 7,660 manuscripts, including 2,200

illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...

s, more than 14,000 original legal documents; and more than 500 rolls. It was assembled by Robert Harley (1661–1724) and his son

Edward Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sa ...

(1689–1741). In 1753, it was purchased for £10,000 by the British government. Together with the collections of Sir Robert Cotton (the Cotton library) and Hans Sloane (the

Sloane library The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It documen ...

) it formed the basis of the British Museum's collection of manuscripts, which were transferred to the new British Library in 1973.British Library.
History of the Harley Library
. The collection contains illuminated manuscripts spanning the early Middle Ages to the Renaissance. There are important early British manuscripts, many from Western Europe, and several Byzantine manuscripts in Greek and other languages.

Manuscripts

The Ramsey Psalter, BL Harley Ms 2904, Initial B, folio 4

Among the most significant manuscripts are: * Lacnunga (Harley MS 585) * Harley Psalter (Harley MS 603) * Kildare Poems (Harley MS 913) *'' Annales Cambriae'', in Harley MS 3859; including mediæval Welsh genealogies et al *'' Sumer Is Icumen In'', in Harley MS 978 *

Inventory of Henry VIII of England The Inventory of Henry VIII compiled in 1547 is a list of the possessions of the crown, now in the British Library as Harley MS 1419. The inventory was made following a commission of 14 September 1547 during the first year of the reign of Edward ...

(Harley MS 1419) * Gospels of Mael Brigte (Harley MS 1602) * Harley 1775, an illuminated Gospel Book produced in Italy during the last quarter of the 6th century * Minuscule 113 (Harley MS 1810) - and many others, see the category at bottom of the page * Harley Lyrics (Harley MS 2253) * Harley Golden Gospels (Harley MS 2788) *

Ramsey Psalter The Psalter of Oswald also called the Ramsey Psalter (British Library, Harley MS 2904) is an Anglo-Saxon illuminated psalter of the last quarter of the tenth century. Its script and decoration suggest that it was made at Winchester, but certain ...

(Harley MS 2904) *

Book of Nunnaminster The Book of Nunnaminster (London, British Library, Harley MS 2965) is a 9th-century Anglo-Saxon prayerbook. It was written in the kingdom of Mercia, using an " insular" hand (as used in the British Isles), related to Carolingian minuscule. It was ...

(Harley MS 2965) * Minuscule 3686 *

Harleian Genealogies __NOTOC__ The Harleian genealogies are a collection of Old Welsh genealogies preserved in British Library, Harley MS 3859. Part of the Harleian Library, the manuscript, which also contains the ''Annales Cambriae'' (Recension A) and a version of th ...

(Harley MS 3859) * Minuscule 104 (Harley MS 5537) * Minuscule 505 (Harley MS 5538) *

Uncial 0121a Uncial 0121a (in the Biblical manuscript#Gregory-Aland, Gregory-Aland numbering), α 1031 (Biblical manuscript#Von Soden, Soden), is a Greek language, Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated Palaeography, paleographically to the 10th-c ...

(Harley MS 5613) * Ptolemy's ''Geography'' (Harley MS 7182 & 7195) *

Harley MS 7334 Harley MS 7334, sometimes known as the Harley Manuscript, is a mediaeval manuscript of Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales'' held in the Harleian Collection of the British Library. It was formerly used as a base text for modern editions of the ''Tales'', ...

Harleian prayerbook The Harley Prayer Book (British Library, Harley MS 7653) is one of a group of four early Anglo-Saxon prayer books produced in Mercia, likely around Worcester. The others are the Royal Prayer Book, the Book of Cerne, and the Book of Nunnaminster. ...

(Harley MS 7653)

References

External links

The foundation collections
at the Catalogue of Illuminated manuscripts
List of medicine and alchemist manuscripts
PDF, 192 KB
The Book of Nunnaminster (Harley 2965)
{{coord, 51.530, -0.128, type:edu_region:GB-CMD, display=title 1753 establishments in England Archives in the London Borough of Camden

Manuscripts

References

Further reading

External links