DCL MS. B.IV.39AJacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea
Held by: Durham Cathedral Library: Durham Cathedral Manuscripts

Manuscript codex written in Italy before 1377 containing Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea and shorter additions. DCL B.IV.39 appears to have been split into two volumes (A and B) in the 19th century when it was rebound.

Digitised: https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t1mhq37vn809.html

Physical description of manuscript
Support

Parchment: modest to low quality with glaring H/F contrast; H sides yellow to brown and follicle marked; deficient sheets made good prior to writing (e.g. f.141 & 142); flaws within text-block (e.g. f.49). Arranged FH, HF (except in quire II where HF, FH). A strip has been excised from the lower margin of f.139.

Extent: i+175+i f
Size: 263 mm x 178 mm

Foliation

Modern pencil foliation (70 duplicated).


Secundo folio: De sancto egidio
Collation

(medieval flyleaf) is a singleton now glued at the gutter to f.2, I12 (leaves 5 and 8 [f.6 and 9] are (now) singletons, glued at the gutter to leaves 6-7 [f.7-8]), II-III12, IV-X8, XI10, XII-XX8

Catchwords: Contemporary catchwords survive in whole or part on quires I, II, IV-V, VII, IX, XII-XIV, XVII and XIX.
Layout

Text-block: 196 x 144 mm. Two columns (width, 67 mm). Normally written below top line, occasionally (e.g. f.86v) above it. Lines: variable, 48-65 (space between lines, 3.5-4 mm; height of minims, 1.5-2 mm): predominantly 48 in quire XVII; 51 in quire XX (50-51 for item (b)); 52 in quires XVIII-XIX; 55 in quires I, IX and XVI; 56 in quires II and VII; 58-9 in quire X; 59 in quires III, VI, VIII and XV; 60 in quires IV and XI; 62 in quires V and XII; 64 in quire XIV; and 65 in quire XIII.
Pricking: awl. Prickings generally preserved in upper and lower margins, never in the outer one. Ruling: ink. Single verticals flank both columns (two in total in the intercolumnar space). First one or two and last one or two horizontals are generally extended. From f.3r-27r, an additional pair of horizontals was supplied in the lower margin. Some or the ruling (especially of the lines in the lower margins) was carelessly done and had to be reworked.

Script

f.2r-170v (a) Textualis rotunda, untidy and variable. Number of hands uncertain, possibly one. Change of ink tone at the junction of quires II and III: dark black to f.25v, light brown from 26r.
f.171r-174v, col. 1 (b) Anglicana, untidy.
f.174v, col. 2 (c) Anglicana, a little more formal than the previous and with a consistently different form of “d”.

Decoration

The Preface, the Capitula list, and the first reading in (a) are all headed by red and blue initials, flourished in red and purple, with red and blue extensions into the borders; the letters are 13, 6 and 12 lines high respectively. Each subsequent reading within (a) is headed by a 3-line-high initial, alternately blue flourished in red, then red flourished in purple. Subdivisions are marked by paraphs, alternately red then blue; sentence capitals are stroked in red. The space reserved for an initial, 3 lines high, at the start of (b) remains blank. The 1-line-high initials envisaged for the name of each king in (c) were not supplied.

Binding

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) reusing 2 older metal clasps (one partially, one fully preserved; decorated with holes and acorn motifs).

Manuscript history
Creation

Written in Italy, before 1377.

Provenance

Pressmark: “Q.”, 14th/15th century, f.2r, top right.
“Iste liber assignatur claustro Dunelm' per dominum Iohannem Wessyngton' Priorem eiusdem”, between 1416 and 1446, f.2r, top (John Wessington (Washington) prior of Durham 1416-46)
“Q. .4.” and contents list to both DCL B.IV.39A and DCL B.IV.39B, 15th/16th century, f.1v, by Thomas Swalwell, monk of Durham: “historia lumbardica siue legenda sanctorum. Augustinus de visitatione informorum cum eiusdem operis supplemento secundum augustinum. Vita sancti oswaldi Ebor' archiepiscopi. Libri duo de vita sancti Wulstani episcopi. Liber tercius de nonis miraculis eiusdem. Tractatus bonus et satis subtilis de eukaristia. Legenda siue vita sancte elizabeth. Liber viarum dei et revelationum ac visionum sancte elizabeth. Kalendarium cum festis quorundam sanctorum quolibet die anni”.

Manuscript contents
(a)     f.2r-170v
Original title: Legenda aurea
Author: Jacobus, de Voragine, approximately 1229-1298
Incipit: Uniuersum tempus presentis uite in quatuor distinguitur, scilicet in tempus deuiacionis, renouacionis, reconciliacionis et peregrinacionis
Explicit: Quod se nobis prestare dignetur qui viuit et regnat deus per omnia seculorum, amen.
Rubric: Incipit prologus super legenda sanctorum quas compilauit frater Jacobus nacione ianuensis et ordine fratrum predicatorum
Language: Latin

Original running headings give the title/subject of each item. Item numbers were subsequently (14th century) added to the upper margins of rectos, corresponding numbers (1-180) being inserted into the capitula list on f.1r-3r. A few early Nota marks.

Edited: Fleith, p.89, 104, 508.
(b)     f.171r-174v
Original title: De visitatione infirmorum
Author: Baudry, of Bourgueil, Archbishop of Dol, 1046-1130
Date: [added later 14th century]
Incipit: Visitacionis gratia nepoti meo karissimo morienti, extremum ualedicturus, hesterna die processi
Explicit: Dic iustificandus cum illo iam iustificato peccatore, Deus propicius esto mihi peccatori, ut ascendans iustus ad deum iustificatus ab ipso qui viuit et regnat per omnia secula seculorum. Amen.
Language: Latin

Attributed to Augustine. Added to originally blank pages at the end of quire XX. Numerous broadly contemporary Nota marks and lines added throughout, including in the upper margin of f.171v, “liber Augustini de visitatione infirmorum valde notabilis”.

(c)     f.174v
Modern title: List of the Kings of England from Alfred the Great to Edward III
Date: [added before 1377]
Incipit: Alwredus rex qui primus totum regnum possedit in anglia, regnauit annis xxxi
Explicit: Edwardus filius eius reg'
Language: Latin

The text occupies most of f.174v, column 2. The list terminates with Edward III and that the space where his year-count should have been entered remains blank, suggesting this was written during his reign. Initials for each entry, 1 line high, were supplied as guide letters only.

(d)     f.174v
Modern title: Notes and Verses
Date: [added end of 14th century]
Language: Latin

Four items, written by different hands, all informal.


Microfilm
Microfilmed in 1985/86 by the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, St John's Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota. Copies held by them and Durham Cathedral Library.

Digitised material for Durham Cathedral Library MS. B.IV.39A - Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda aurea
Digitised September 2019 as part of the Durham Priory Library Recreated project
https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t1mhq37vn809.html
Bibliography

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.   OCLC citation, Surtees Society 7, (London: J.B. Nichols and Son, [1838]).

Fleith, B., Studien zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der lateinischen Legenda Aurea   OCLC citation, Subsidia Hagiographica 72 (Brussels: Société des Bollandistes, 1991)

Index terms