Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing two French chanson de geste Anseis de Carthage and Ogier le Danois written in Northern France in the later 13th century. A difference in the system of quire signing may indicate separate compositions. Owned by George Davenport and given by him to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Parchment, smooth, many large natural flaws, a large hole in f.76 avoided by the scribe, also smaller ones on f.101 and 139, some slits repaired by early stitching (lost on f.54, 96); quires with flesh-side outermost), lower outside corner of f.18 and 51 cut off, triangle cut out of bottom edge of f.41, 50, 82, 102, outer edges cropped. Thick coarse front flyleaves.
pencil foliation, 1-141, with 73 repeated; a superseded 19th/20th century ink foliation, disregarding the flyleaves, on every tenth leaf from f.42 (numbered 40) to 134 (numbered 133).
[Opening quire8 missing], 1-68, 74; 8-178, [one short final quire missing]; 188 [belongs before quire 1; misplaced before ink foliation, but not before f.133v (178) had been exposed to staining].
Line pricking in outer margins only, probably through folded quires, from front to back. Written space 200 x 146 mm; ruling in brown plummet, 2 columns of 40 lines, with horizontal rules 0, 1, 19, 20, 39, 40 extending across margins, and vertical rules at 6, 66, 5, 5, 65 mm. Double prickings for right-hand margins either not ruled or only for second.
Written in smallgothic minuscule of the type customary for vernacular poetry in the later thirteenth century in northern France, by one hand (two according to P. Meyer), with separated initials to lines, some of more cursive form or features, e.g. S.
Initials (i) 251 in item (1) and 224 in item (2), 2 line, in red; one on f.83v missed; one on f.5r smeared and red smears also on f.34v, 68r, 73r and 136r; (ii) to item (2), 8 line, rubbed and damaged by tear (repaired), in pink shaded with white enclosing three figures (a seated man dressed in orange and blue with a green coronet making a gesture of rejection to a standing man in blue with orange stockings, being held back by a third in pink) on a gold ground, surrounded by a square of blue decorated with white, extending across upper margin and a little down inner margin. Miniature, f.73*r, to item (2), replacing an initial O(jes), to illustrate the fatal quarrel over a game of chess, rectangular, 29 (6 line) x 40 mm, showing two seated figures, one in deep pink with orange stockings, the other, on the left, in orange with pink stocking, holding up a chequer board of 2 x 3 orange and green alternate squares, both on a floor of small green squares, against an azure background decorated with groups of three white dots and framed with a white line. Human head in profile pricked through the outer bottom corner of f.55, facing towards the bottom edge.
Marginal notes by a small mid/late 14th century anglicana hand (with long r), picking out names in the text, f.44v, 45v, 46v, 47r, 129r.
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). Marks on f.1 of 5 sewing supports of a previous (medieval or 17th-century) binding.
Written in North East France, later 13th century.
Handwriting of annotations suggests in English ownership by mid/late 14th century. Inscription: “Geo. Davenport. 1664”, on cutting from former binding now stuck to pastedown; his title to item (1), f.2v. Title to item (2), f.2v, by R. Harrison (18th/19th century). Pencil notes “manquent ici deux tirades”, f.79r lower margin, and “Berous” f.85v outer margin (against “Nerouro” in text, of which the last two letters are subpuncted, presumably by P. Meyer.
Chanson de geste, wanting lines 1-1426 of the text established from four other manuscripts by Alton; this copy omits a considerable number of lines and adds others, see Voretzsch 1896), who prints lines 1426-1838 from this copy, with collation of the others. Picard dialect features in the spelling of this copy are thought by Mr A. F. Kerr to survive from an earlier stage of transmission, Francien characteristics being uppermost here, but Mr P. E. Bennett thinks that a mistake “entendus/estendus” points the other way.
Chanson de geste, lacking the last 400 lines, i.e. 5 pages. This recension, which states Raimbert's claim in lines 4-7, is found only in one other copy, Paris B.N. ms. anc.fr. 24403, written at the end of the 13th century (see Cerf for classification of the manuscripts).
Alton, J, ed.,Anseis von Carthago 
Bibliothek des Literarischen Vereins in Stuttgart, 194 (Tübingen: Litterarischer Verein in Stuttgart, 1892)
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]).
Cerf, B., "A classification of the manuscripts of "Ogier Le Danois"." PMLA 23, no. 3 (1908), 545-55
Meyer, P., Documents manuscrits de l'ancienne litérature de la France conservés dans les bibliothèques de la Grande-Bretagne. Première partie ... Durham (Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1871)
Voretzsch, C., "Sur Anseïs de Cartage. Supplément à l'édition de M. Alton", Romania 25 (1896), 562-584; 27 (1898) 241-269