Composite volume made up of four parts: (A) Isidore, De summo bono, written in England (?Durham), start of 12th century (f.1-58); (B) Peter Damian, Liber dominus uobiscum, written in France or England, early 12th century (f.59-64). (C) Anon., In apocalypsin, written in France, early 12th century (f.65-122). (D) John Chrysostom, De muliere Chananaea; etc. written in France, early 12th century (f.124-160). The parts had clearly been brought together by 1395, when they are recorded in the Cloister catalogue.
Early modern ink foliation of main book runs: 1, [1*], 2-43, 45-130, 130*-144, 144*-154, [155a], 155-[161] (the 1*, 155a, 161 plus the *s on the original duplicate numbers being supplied subsequently in pencil). A parchment tab inscribed 16, attached to f.89.
Standard Tuckett binding, mid 19th century full brown calf over thick wooden boards (Charles Tuckett, binder to the British Museum, rebound many Durham manuscripts in the 19th century)
Parchment. A reused sheet, cut down, one edge turned in, and the remainder folded down the middle to make a bifolium; bound in upside down; modern paper attached to the damaged f.iir as a strengthener.
Written in documentary cursive.
In the hand of Thomas Rud.
A liberated paste-down of smaller dimensions (262 x 172 mmm) than the rest of the book, the verso covered in glue stains. Contents of recto. Pen trials, 14th/15th century. Icare fati memores estote parati / Iussa paterna pati medium tenuere beati / Icare nati bibis sed sine patre peribus / Iam dixi tibi bis medio tutissimus ibis [written twice]; partial alphabet.
Parchment: low quality, heavily follicle marked, noticeable H/F contrast; slight differences in size from sheet to sheet. Arranged HF, FH. Generally weathered; a thin strip cut from the bottom of f.24 and f.49. f.57 and 58 torn and repaired (the former on at least two occasions – first by sewing, then by the application of a transparent tape).
I-II10, III12, IV10, V16
Written area: 220 x 122 mm. Lines: 39 (space, 6 mm; height of minims, 2 mm). Pricking: awl (often preserved in all three outer margins). Ruling: hard point applied directly to all or most hair sides. Double vertical bounding lines to both sides; first, third, last and antepenultimate horizontal extended.
Written in Protogothic. Mainly written by three protean scribes (1, 3, and 7), with shorter contributions by two others (4 and 8) and very brief interventions by three further hands (2, 5, 6) which write a few lines within the stints of 1, and 4; the changes in hand occur mid page and do not correspond with quire or textual divisions.
1. f.1r-1v/line 26; 1v/line 30-24r/line 25.
2. f.1v/lines 27-29.
3. f.24r/line 26-34v/line 21, word 2. ?Plus corrections throughout.
4. f.34v/line 21, word 3- 35r/line 9, word 6; 35r/lines 17-34, word 5; 35v-37r/line 23, word 8.
5. f.35r/line 9, word 7-line 16.
6. f.35r/line 34, word 6-line 39.
7. f.37r/line 23, word 9-53v/line 31, word 4; 54r/lines 1-11, word 4; 54r/line 22-55v/line 24; 57r/line 5, word 8-58v.
8. f.53v/line 31, word 5-line 39; 54r/line 11, word 5-line 21; 55v/line 25-57r/line 5, word 5.
Book I is headed by a red initial, 14 lines high, embellished with simple foliate curls; Books II and III by plain red initials, 5+ lines high; chapters by plain red initials, 3+ lines high; entries on the capitula lists by plain red initials, 1 line high.
Written in England, Durham?, start of 12th century.
Books I and II (f.14r) are preceded by Capitula lists (the first with numbering, the second without); Book III (f.32r) is not. The name, “Robertus” added to f.3r, margin, 15th-16th century.
Parchment: low quality; H and F sides both yellow.
I6
Written area: 243 x 143 mm. Lines: 44 (space, 6 mm; height of minims, 2 mm). Pricking: awl (survives in outer and upper margins). Ruling: lead. Double vertical bounding lines; first two and bottom one horizontals extended.
Written in Transitional late Caroline Minuscule to Protogothic; erratic and variable; probably one hand, also responsible for rubrics and corrections.
Plain or slightly embellished red initials, 2+ lines high, head each chapter.
Written in France or England, early 12th century.
This copy is subdivided and numbered as follows: Prefatory letter; Patrologia Latina’s ch. 1 (unnumbered); ‘Age igitur pater nodum’ (within PL’s ch. 1: col. 233B; here numbered ‘iii’); then PL’s ch. 2 (numbered ‘iiii’); PL’s chs. 3-5 (all unnumbered); PL’s 6 (numbered ‘vi’), 7 (unnumbered, the text here beginning, ‘Faveo illis qui dicunt lapidibus aut celle tabulis ...), PL’s 8 (numbered ‘viii’), 9 (‘ix’),10 (unnumbered), 11 (numbered ‘viiii’), 12 (‘xi’), 13 (unnumbered), 14 (‘xiii’) (15 (‘xiii’), 16 (unnumbered), 17 (unnumbered), and 18 (unnumbered but entitled ‘epilogus opusculi’). f. 64v, blank.
Parchment: low quality; sheets of variable thickness, with pronounced H/F contrast, and prominent flaws, including a large hole within the text-block of f.68.
I-II12, III-IV10, V8, VI6 (8 with leaves 7-8, blank, cancelled)
Written area: 226 x 124 mm. Lines: 49 (space, 5 mm; height of minims, 2 mm). Pricking: awl (survives in all three outer margins). The sheets in quire II bear two sets of prickings to guide horizontals ruling at quite different spacings, implying that these sheets were first prepared for use in a different context. Ruling: hard point, directly applied to each hair side. Double verticals flank text on both sides; first, third, last and antepenultimate horizontals extended.
Written in Protogothic; two hands, the first neater than the second. 1. f.65r-76v (quire I). 2. f.77r-122r, becoming steadily less formal and untidier.
Text headed (f.65r) by decorated initial ‘A’ , 8 lines high, the uprights formed from dragons and foliate tubes, the cross-stroke from a beast mask, a human head filling the space at the bottom; rendered in ordinary ink, it is qualitatively crude. Both eyes of the human head and one of those of the beast mask have been scratched out. The stint of scribe 2 includes sketches faced in the margins of 87r, 90v and 101v, an incomplete sketched beast in the upper margin of 105r, and beast or human heads isolating overruns on 93v, 106r, 107v, 109v, 110v, 114v, all of crude quality.
Written in France, early 12th century.
Anonymous. The Proem alone is akin to Stegmüller 1363 (Anselm of Laon). In quire I (the stint of scribe 1), subdivisions are defined are by paraphs in ordinary ink, plus ‘Cont[inuatio]’ or ‘Al[iter]’ in the margin, all by the original scribe. Also flagged similarly is ‘Ephesi’ (f.71r). Red initials, 1+ line high, then mark ‘Smirne id est smirnensium’ (f.72r), ‘Pergami id est cornnum diuisionis’ (f.73r), ‘Tyatire id est illuminacionis’ (f.74r), ‘Sardis id est pulchritudinis’ (f.75v), ‘Piladelphie id est dilectionis’ (f.76v). Immediately after the end of the text was added by an informal ?12th century hand a note on the etymology of the title: ‘Apocalipsis dicitur ab apos quod Re et Calypsos quod est Reuelo id est apocalypsis qui liber reuelationis’.
Parchment. Low quality, variable. The sheets of quire I thinner and with a more pronounced H/F contrast than the rest; those of quire III include leaves of a smaller size (258 x 178 mm). Arranged HF, FH throughout.
Written area. quire I: 208 x 126 mm. quire II: 210 x 136 mm. quires III-IV: 218 x 156 mm. Lines. quire I: 34 (space, 6 mm; height of minims, 2 mm). quire II: 39 (space, 5 mm; height of minims, 1.5 mm). quires III-IV: 40 (space, 5-6 mm; height of minims, 2 mm). Pricking: awl. Only preserved in upper and lower margins except on the smaller sheets of quire III (which display multiple sets of prickings for horizontal rulings, implying initial preparation for a different context). Ruling. quire I: lead and ink. Double verticals flank text-block; first, third, last and antepenultimate horizontal extended. quire II: hard point, applied directly to each H side; pattern as quire I. quires III-IV: hard point, lead and ink. Single verticals flank text-block; first and last horizontals extended.
Written in Protogothic hands of disparate aspect.
1.f.124r-125v.
2. f.126r.
3. f.126v-130v; marginal rubric on 137v.
4. f.130*r-131v/line 26, word 7.
5. f.131v/line 26, word 8 – 135v.
6. f.136r-160v (subsequently interrupted by 7).
7. f.155a r-v (inserted slip).
Red initial ‘P’, slightly embellished, 10 lines high, its bowl coloured yellow heads (d)1. Embellished red initials, 3+ lines high, head (d)2, (e), (f), and (g). The incipit of (f) alone is prefaced by rubric in Rustic Capitals, crudely stroked in green.
Written in France, early 12th century.
Translator unknown. No rubrics. Two sermons
Translator unknown. Latin version I (according to the classification of Persiani 1998). A 12th century hand has flagged the quotation ‘Et egressus inde iesus, uenit in partes tyri et sydonis, et ecce mulier …’ [Mt 15.21] on f.137v, added in the margin beside it: ‘Incipit de muliere cananea’.
As originally copied, the text omitted the final lines (from ‘Peribit enim si persistas in peccatis, exacerbas …’); these were supplied by a different contemporary hand on the inserted slip f.155a.
Catalogi veteres librorum Ecclesiae cathedralis dunelm. Catalogues of the library of Durham cathedral, at various periods, from the conquest to the dissolution, including catalogues of the library of the abbey of Hulne, and of the mss. , Surtees Society 7, (London: J.B. Nichols and Son, [1838]).
Geerard, M., et al., ed., Clavis Patrum Graecorum (Turnhout: Brepols, 1980-)
Mynors, R.A.B., Durham Cathedral manuscripts to the end of the twelfth century. Ten plates in colour and forty-seven in monochrome. With an introduction [including a list of all known Durham manuscripts before 1200] , (Durham: 1939)
Persiani, G., "Notes sur les deux antiques versions latines de l’homélie chrysostomienne de Chananaea", Classica et Mediaevalia 40 (1998), 69-93
Stegmüller, Friedrich, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi (Madrid: 1950-1980)