Harleian Library


The Harleian Library, Harley Collection, Harleian Collection and other variants is one of the main "closed" collections of the British Library in London, formerly the library of the British Museum.
The collection comprises 7,660 manuscripts, including 2,200 illuminated manuscripts, more than 14,000 original legal documents; and more than 500 rolls. It was assembled by Robert Harley and his son Edward. In 1753, it was purchased for £10,000 by the British government. Together with the collections of Sir Robert Cotton and Hans Sloane it formed the basis of the British Museum's collection of manuscripts, which were transferred to the new British Library in 1973.
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

Among the most significant manuscripts are:
  • Lacnunga
  • Harley Psalter
  • Kildare Poems
  • Annales Cambriae, in Harley MS 3859; including medieval Welsh genealogies and other items
  • Sumer Is Icumen In, in Harley MS 978
  • Inventory of Henry VIII of England
  • Gospels of Mael Brigte
  • Harley 1775, an illuminated Gospel Book produced in Italy during the last quarter of the 6th century
  • Minuscule 113 - and many others, see the category at bottom of the page
  • Harley Lyrics
  • Harley Golden Gospels
  • Ramsey Psalter
  • Book of Nunnaminster
  • Minuscule 3686
  • Harleian Genealogies
  • Book of the Queen
  • Minuscule 104
  • Minuscule 505
  • Uncial 0121a
  • Ptolemy's Geography
  • Harley MS 7334
  • Harleian prayerbook
  • The Harley Glossary

    Catalogue

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