GEMMS: Gateway to Early Modern Manuscript Sermons
GEMMS IDGEMMS-MANUSCRIPT-001282
TitleFive sermons by John Donne
ShelfmarkHarley MS 6946
Creation Dateca. 1620 - 1629
RepositoryBritish Library
Contents NoteThis manuscript was discovered by Jeanne Shami in 1992. It is a gathering of several separates, bound together in the late seventeenth century, and each sermon in the collection has been written by a different scribe.
Material FeaturesQuarto. Mottled calf skin with gold-tooled border. See also British Library, Harley MSS 976, 977, 1753, 1784, 5068, 5258, 6028, 6208, 6535, 6536, 6538, 6539, 6559, 6568, and 6572.
Associated Peoplemanuscript owner - Harley, Robert
Provenance
AcquisitionThe Harleian Library was founded by Robert Harley, First Earl of Oxford (1661-1724). According to Cyril Ernest Wright, Robert Harley ‘was primarily interested in English historical and political material and in volumes of sermons and theological controversy, sharing in the latter the taste of his Harley ancestors’. See Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972), p. xxxiv.
Source of DataA Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum (1808), Vol. III, p. 451; Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972); CELM; Hannah Yip.
Other NoteFor a detailed description of the manuscript, see Jeanne Shami, 'New Manuscript Texts of Sermons by John Donne', in Peter Beal, ed. English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, Volume 13: New Texts and Discoveries in Early Modern English Manuscripts (London: The British Library, 2007), pp. 77-119.
Sermon Reports Contained
Attached URLs:
URLNotes
donnesermons.web.ox.ac.uk/british-library-ms-harley-6946Information about British Library, Harley MS 6946 (Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne web page).
hviewer.bl.uk/IamsHViewer/Default.aspx?mdark=ark:/81055/vdc_100000000195.0x00001cBritish Library, Harley Manuscripts Finding Aid.
GEMMS record createdFebruary 15, 2020
GEMMS record last editedDecember 18, 2021