This 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.
Quarto. 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.
The 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.
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum (1808), Vol. III, p. 451; Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972); CELM; Hannah Yip.
For 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 on Proverbs 8:17 -- ff. 1r-11r
Sermon on Genesis 2:18 -- ff. 12r-22v
Sermon on Hosea 2:19 -- ff. 23r-34v
Sermon on John 11:35 -- ff. 35r-48v
Sermon on 1 Thessalonians 5:16 -- ff. 49r-60r