Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing Constantinus Africanus, Viaticum, De coitu etc. written in England in the earlier 12th century.
Parchment: moderate quality with perceptible H/F distinction; occasional edgecuts. Arranged HF, FH.
Modern pencil foliation, replacing a highly erratic 15th century? foliation.
I13 (=12 with an early supply part-leaf (f.2) inserted between the original leaves 1 and 2), II-X12, XI3 (structure uncertain)
Written area: 170 x 86 mm. Lines: 32 (space, 5.5 mm; height of minims, 2 mm). Pricking: knife or awl. Ruling: ink, lead and hard point (ink and lead more prominent in quires I-V, hard point in quires VI-XI). Single vertical bounding lines; number of horizontals extended at top and bottom varies (not always symmetrically) between 1 and 3.
Written in Romanesque Caroline Minuscule with proto-Gothic elementsby three hands: 1. f.1v-2v, 16r, 26r ((a) Preface and Capitula lists for Books I, II, III). This hand worked after the other two.
2. f.3r-19r/line 13 (a).
3. f.19r/line 14-124v (a)-(g).
Subsequently, late medieval annotating hands, one of which also drew pointing hands and a couple of hares’ heads (f. 22r, 62v0
Homily fragments: late standard English Caroline Minuscule. Bold ink sentence capitals. The same scribe wrote DCL MS A.III.29, f.88v-160r, which these fragments match in size and aspect.
The space (4 lines high) that was reserved at the start of the main text of item (a), f.3r, remained unfilled. All other texts and subdivisions are headed by a plain red initial, 2+ lines high (slightly larger for item (a) Book II, and for the incipits of items (b) and (d)).
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)
Written in England, earlier 12th century.
Inscription: liber Roberti de brakenbery, later 14th century, f.1v, top (Robert of Brackenbury, monk of Durham approximately 1342-1391.
Pressmark: .H, later 14th century; f.3r, top. liber viatici De communi libraria Monachorum dunelmie, beginning of 15th century, f.3r, top, fitted around the “H”.
h | 95 and content list with folio references, 15th/16th century by Thomas Swalwell, monk of Durham approximately 1483-1539, f.1v, bottom.
Possibly included in the mid 12th century catalogue; included in Cloister Catalogue.
No original rubrics. Title, "Viaticus" written on f.1r, 12th century. The Preface and the Capitula list for Books I-III (f.1v-2v, 16r, 26r) were added by a different 12th century hand. Capitula list, on inserted part-leaf (f.2). The entries for Chapters I-XIII (all on the recto) were numbered with a Roman numeral as part of the original rubrication; Chapters 14-25 (all on the verso) were original unnumbered, Arabic numerals being inserted by the hand that added the erratic foliation. Chapter numbering, capitula list numbering, some rubrics, Nota marks, and pointing hands were added, 13th - 14th centuries, by several hands; annotations on f.1v and f.3r by Thomas Swalwell.
No rubrics. Nota marks and pointing hands added 13th - 14th centuries by two hands.
37 entries, some ascribed to Oribasius, some with first-person comments (e.g. the final sentence of the third entry on f.112v: Ego enim dedi ieiuno et ad mansionem …). Marginalia and Nota marks, 13th - 14th centuries, on f.114v-115v.
Follows (c) after a gap of 5 lines; no title or rubric; comprises 7 sections headed by red capitals, plus subsections on f.119v-120r marked by paraphs.
Separated from the end of (d) by one blank line; no rubric; no annotation.
Separated from the end of (e) by four blank lines; no rubric. Three annotations and a little underlining by Thomas Swalwell.
Starts on the very next line after the end of (f); no rubric; two or three words immediately following the end of the text have been erased. Similar content to Viaticum IV.17-18 (f.51v-55r above).
Content of first strip, recto: //die protulit duos den[arios et dedit stabulario et ait curam] illius habe. [Luke 10.35] Altera die … umbra mortis sedeba//. First strip, verso: //feria deficit, mortuus […] Accidit autem ut sa[cerdos] … uideret eum, pertransiit [Luke 10.31-2]//. Fourth strip, recto: //Et quod cumque super … [supe]rogat stabularius [?quod in duobus denariis non accepit cum dicit apostolus] De uirginibus aute[m]//. Fourth strip, verso: //rere supplicauit … nostrum salute//.
Presumably recovered by Tucketts from the previous binding. Size: up to 30 x 80 mm. Each preserves parts of 3 or 4 lines of writing (typically 3-5 words remain per line). Space between lines: 9 mm. Height of minims: 3 mm.
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]).
Wack, M. F., Lovesickness in the Middle Ages: The "Viaticum" and its commentaries (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1990)
Thorndike, Lynn and Kibre, P., A catalogue of incipits of mediaeval scientific writings in Latin (Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1963)