FEATURES – Codex on parchment, 285 x 195, 32 pp., red leather binding post-1600.
ORIGIN – Italy: Florence.
CHRONOLOGY – Second quarter of the 15th century.
FORMER OWNERS – The manuscript was part of the collection of Robert Harley (1661-1724) and Edward Harley (1689-1741), earls of Oxford and Mortimer and passionate bibliophiles. Henrietta Cavendish and Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (Edward Harley’s wife and daughter respectively) in 1753 sold the entire collection to the United Kingdom: the Harley collection constituted one of the first funds of the British Library.
GENRE – Christianity; Mythology / Prophecies.
CONTENTS – Prophetic book containing 30 prophecies on the future of the papacy and the Church. The attribution is to Joachim of Fiore (1130 ca.-1202), Italian abbot and theologian.
LANGUAGE – Latin.
SCRIPT – Gothic.
DECORATION – 30 large miniatures in colours and gold, with decorative surrounds and gold captions on white scrolls; 30 initials in colours and gold from which leaf decorations spread; titles in red. The miniatures of Ms. Harley 1340 probably inspired the drawings of the later Vaticinia Michaelis Nostradami De Futuris Christi Vicarijs ad Cesarem filium, which dates from 1751 to 1850 ca. and is today preserved at the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Rome (Ms. Vitt. Em. 307).
ARTIST – Circle of Benozzo Gozzoli (attributed); Master of San Miniato (attributed).
STYLE – Renaissance.

Data sheet: Illuminated Facsimiles

Profezie dei Papi; Profezie sui Papi; Prophecy of the Popes; Predictions of the Popes; Prophecies regarding the Popes; Prophecies concerning the Popes; Prophecies about the Popes; Prophétie des papes; Prophéties sur les Papes; Vaticinia Pontificum von Benozzo Gozzoli; Weissagungen über die Päpste; Profecías sobre los Papas; Nostradamus; Michel de Nostredame