Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing Lydgate's Siege of Thebes, Benedict Burgh's English translation of the Magnus and Parvus Cato, and English translations of lives of St Alexius, St Margaret and St Mary Magdelene, written in England in the mid 15th century. Owned by by George Davenport and given by him to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Parchment, some natural edges and flaws; flesh and hair sides distinct; quires with flesh-side outermost), lower outer corners of f.6-76 almost all cut off obliquely for c. 12 mm and all outer margin of f.111.
foliated, i-iii, 1-111.
One quire, “a”, missing, 1-138, 148 wants 8 after f.111.
Prickings remain in outer margins of quires 1-12, made with knife-point through whole folded quire, apparently from last verso. Written space 194 x 108 mm; ruled in ink, with top and last two lines full width of leaves; 32 long lines.
Written in textura quadrata, with hair lines, somewhat clumsily, by one hand, better at smaller size (f.92-111). Ink black/brown, rubbed on some pages.
Rubrics of item (1) and Latin of item (2) written in red. Paraphs in items (1), and (4)-(6), in blue or red alternately, also, in blue only, to running titles.
Initials: (i) to Latin versals f.69r only, one line, in blue; (ii) to lesser divisions of item 1, to item (2b) and item (5) prologue, 2 line, in blue, with red infilling and flourishing; (iii) to item (1) part III, item (4), item (5) “story”, and item (6), 3 line, as (ii); (iv) to item (1) part II and item (2a), 4 line, in blue and red, with red infilling and flourishing, on f.69r partly emphasised with black ink. Mistaken initial letter on f.92r. Running titles to item (1), in red, across openings, in Latin, “Prima (-Tercia) Pars”, by the main hand.
Original corrections over erasures. Some contemporary interlinear insertions of single words. The top 10 lines of f.2r and the top 12 lines of f.2v are on a separate piece of parchment carefully scarfed on and partly covering an interlinear insertion to f.2r line 11; likewise, on another piece of parchment, the top 12 lines of f.7r and the top 10 lines of f.7v. It seems that this is to be explained either by two serious errors, perhaps connected by displacement in the text, or by a physical defect in the bifolium forming f.2 and 7, possibly causing the ink to smudge or flake, which was regarded as unacceptable. Heavy line on outer and lower margins of f.73r of uncertain date. 16th century Latin annotations to item (1) in yellow ink, in secretary hand. English sidenotes in an italic hand and large trefoils in grey-black ink throughout item (1), perhaps by William Browne. Many 16th/17th century pen-trials, e.g. “Jhesys fore thy holye name” on f.8r. 16th century ink-sketch of five wounds of Christ, f.96v.
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). Stains from previous turn-ins on f.1r and 113v.
Written in England, mid 15th century.
Inscriptions: “James elwod of Canterberye servant with master Railton Jhesys fore thy holye name” (cf. NIMEV, no. 1703), f.8r, earlier 16th century. “For thomas payton was never”, “Rychard gent(?) For mem(?) Sonne(?)”, f.69r, mid 16th century; and by the same hand (?), “Thomas pay payton Socius Ricardi manti(?) ...” f.78r. “per me Ricardum massy In dei nomine Amen”, f. 83r, later 16th century; also in the same hand and ink, a drawing of the five wounds of Christ, f.96v, and possibly “1558 pees shalbe the wyche shalbe great hurtto this Realme of england as ever vise(?)”, f.1r.
The hand of the title, f.1r, occurs again in a sidenote on f.10r, and is in similar ink to other 16th/17th century italic sidenotes of a more elegant character and trefoils throughout item (1), e.g. f.41r-v; these may be the work of William Browne, who owned Cosin MSS V.ii.13, V.ii.15, V.ii.16 and V.iii.9 before George Davenport (who dated all of them 1664) and a number of others, chiefly in Middle English, elsewhere (see Edwards 1997). In Leiden Univ. Voss.Q.9 there is an early seventeenth century reference (before Vossius) to “A folio MS. of John Lidgate's concerning the Destruction of Thebes penes Dom. W.B.” Since Browne died around 1645, there must have been at least one intervening owner of this group of books before Davenport.
“Geo. Davenport. 1664”, f.iiv; his list of contents, f.iiir; and a note from Pits on Lydgate and item (1) on f.iiiv.
The usual library inscription and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud on f.1r. “In Stow's list” (referring to Chaucer ed. Speght, 1598, f. 394?), added in R. Harrison's hand re item (5) in Davenport's list of contents.
Title "Distruction of thebs" added 16th/17th century. Defective at start, beginning at I, line 483. Written in decasyllabic couplets. Not collated by the editors: the text apparently shares the faults of edition $9, but not those peculiar to any one of them. The rubrics inserted as lines within the text here, possibly from marginal notes in the exemplar, as in other copies, are not always correctly placed, e.g. the side note of l.4277 follows 4289-90 in this copy. Wording of rubrics initially entered in anglicana in the margins, two or three lines up from the spaces left in the text; subsequently mostly erased, visible but not easily legible.
English stanzaic renderings made, according to Caxton, for William Lord Bourchier, probably c. 1433-40. The Latin is rubricated in full before each stanza; the final stanza is omitted.
English stanzaic renderings made, according to Caxton, for William Lord Bourchier, probably c. 1433-40. A two line flourished initial indicates thetransition from (2a) to (2b). There is no indication of the beginnings or ends of parts (books in Caxton) except the Envoys, three of which omit their final stanzas. At the end of part I the first two lines of the final stanza of the Envoy occur in reverse order at the end of what is here the last stanza; the last two stanzas are omitted from part II; the penultimate stanza of part III is here the final stanza of part IV. Variants in this copy (e.g. lines 1 “For thy”, 630 “Lo”, 820 “Now I haue”) suggest a stemma putting this copy on a branch by itself, anterior to that of the copy (BL MS. Royal 18.D.II) of selected stanzas painted on a wall in Wressle Castle (E. Yorks.) for the 5th Earl of Northumberland in the early 16th century.
Couplet
In 103 6-line stanzas, here written as continuous prose, but with coloured paraphs to stanzas.
Translated from Jean de Vignay's French version of Jacobus de Voragine's Golden Legend. Incomplete, suggesting loss of a following leaf.
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]).
Edwards, A. S. G., "Medieval manuscripts owned by William Brown of Tavistock (1590/1?-1643/5)", in Carley, James P. & Tite, Colin G. C., ed., Books and Collectors 1200-1700: Essays presented to Andrew Watson (London: British Library, 1997), 441-449
Förster, M., "Die Burghsche Cato-paraphrase", Archiv für das studium der neueren sprachen und literaturen 115 (1905), 298-323; 116 (1906) 25-40.
Gilte legende , ed. Hamer, R., Early English Text Society os 327, 328, 339, (Oxford: OUP, 2006-12)
Lydgate's Siege of Thebes. Edited from all the known manuscripts and the two oldest editions, with introduction, notes, and a glossary , ed. Erdmann, A. & Ekwall, E., Early English Text Society, es 108, (London: Trench; Trübner, 1911, 1930)
The minor poems of John Lydgate : edited from all available mss. with an attempt to establish the Lydgate canon , ed. MacCracken, H. N. Early English Text Society, es 107 (London: Trench; Trübner, 1911)
A new index of middle English verse , ed. J. Boffey & A. S. G. Edwards (London: British Library, 2005)
Stegmüller, Friedrich, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi , (Madrid: 1950-1980)
Walther, H., Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi. Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischer Anordnung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963-86)
"Das Leben der heiligen Maria Magdalena", Archiv für das studium der neueren sprachen und literaturen, 91 (1893), 207-224