Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex made up of eight separate sections, all produced at about the same date, and to very similar patterns, particularly in the case of (A-C) and (G); brought together very soon afterwards, probably with a further section now missing from the end. Theological treatises written in England in the first half of the 14th century, owned by Durham Priory and subsequently by George Davenport, by whom it was given to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Parchment
Foliated i-ii, 1-198, by A I Doyle in 1952. Foliation (14th century) on f. 21-60 (21-32 in ink, 36-60 in soft brown); 12 separate 17th century paginations in pencil, by George Davenport, starting afresh at items 1, 3-8, 11-14 and 16.
(f.i-ii); (A: f.1-14) 114; (B: f.15-40) 212, 314; (C: f.41-58) 48, 510; (D: f.59-100) 6-812, 96; (E: f.101-132) 10-1112, 128; (F: f.133-166) 13-1412, 1510; (G: f.167-184) 168, 1710; (H: f.185-196) 1812; 192 (2, f.198, only a broad stub).
Written space 188 or (D)-(E) 192-195 or (F) 197 or (G) 190 or (H) 200 x 115 120 or (H) 136 mm; ruling in brown, generally fainter in (D), and sharper in (G). 41 or (D, F) 42 or (E) 43-44 long lines, or (H) 50, two columns.
Written in excellent round anglicana, by at least two hands, (A)-(C), (E)-(H), and (D); perhaps (E) and (F) by a third and a fourth. Wording for rubrics in (B)-(C) entered in margins in ink, very fine and small, and similar to corrections and marginal notes. Rubrics not provided in (D), (E) and (G).
Scriptural quotations in (F) underlined in red. Text capitals touched with red in (F), (H). Paraphs, red or blue, generally alternating. Initials: (i) to item (10) propositions and item (11) nights 1-2, 1 line, blue with red flourishing; (ii) to (A)-(G) chapters, etc., 2 , or most in (D), 3 line, blue with red foliate infilling and flourishing, or (A)-(C), (G) alternately red with mauve foliate infilling and flourishing; (iii) to openings of items (1)-(6), 12-14 and 16, 3 (items (4), (12)), 4 (item (16)), or 5 line, bipartite red and blue, with red foliate infilling and extension, and flourishing, and, except item (12), a "J-border" or (items (2), (4), (6), (13)-(14) and (16) part of it, the inner plain blue and the outer composed of alternately red and blue sections c. 15 mm high with brace bracket or (item (1) saw edge forms. Running titles in (A) only, perhaps in the same hand and ink as contents-list on f.iv.
Bound in Durham: covers of 17th century calf bear the Durham binder Hugh Hutchinson's rolls A and D, and his tool no. 2. Spine replaced late 20th century, 1 clasp. Rusty holes in first few leaves, as from nails of clasps, at two points on fore-edge and also at centre of top and foot.
Written in England, mid 14th century.
Inscription: “.Iohannes. de Insula”, earlier 14th century, f.39r, otherwise blank. Durham Cathedral MS A.II.9, a glossed psalter, was “ex dono Johannis de Insula militis” and MSS C.I.4 and 9, of a set of civil law, were “trium puerorum de Insula scilicet Henrici, Ricardi et Johannis fratrum”, in each case earlier 14th century; the family may have been the De Lisles, but Insula can refer to Holy Island or a part of County Durham.
The top of f.i cut away, presumably to remove ex libris, perhaps of Durham Cathedral Priory.
Inscription: “Liber dompni Thome lawson monachi Ecclesie Cathedralis dunelm ex dono venerabilis patris Magistri Thome Castell Prioris eiusdem”, early 16th century, f.iiv
“Geo. Davenport. | 1663” in window of front pastedown; notes by him, f.iiv, 82r, 184v; also continuation of list of contents started by another early 17th century hand, f.iiv. Ex-libris and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud on f.1r.
Blank former pastedown, with adhering fragment of Latin 7+ lines, approximately 25 x 80 mm in cursive, 14th century, (upside-down). On verso, mid 14th century list of contents, by same or similar hand to the following texts, with 20-25 mm cut off top no doubt with ex-libris inscription (1½ lines); originally no entry for items [7-9], but [8 and 9] inserted marginally in smaller similar hand and [7] added late 14th century; last entry, “Quidam tractatus de Scaccario”, cancelled by (post-medieval graphite) pencil, not now in the volume, though Cosin MS V.iii.15 is a mid 14th century copy of J. de Cessolis, but in a different hand and decoration and of somewhat smaller dimensions, separately bound since mid 17th century.
Recto blank. On verso ex-libris of Thomas Lawson, monk of Durham, early 16th century above 17th century list of contents with no entry for final item deleted in list f.iv above; entries numbered 1-5 with ascription of 5 and list of 6-13 by Davenport, who appended a reference to T. James' catalogue of Cambridge manuscripts for item 1.
Compilation from Aelred of Rievaulx.
The same pair of texts occurs in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 424 (13th century), Lambeth MS 431 (from Llanthony, 13th century) and Seville, Bibl. Colombiana 7.2.1 (13th/14th century). f.14v ruled but blank.
Ending at xviii, line 29 in edition this copy (miscited as V.II.4) belongs in Class I, probably I(a), but has no clear affiliation to any copies collated for the apparatus. The text did not have a very wide English or Norman circulation. f 21-32 (only) have arabic folio numbers added, 21-32, and marginal letters, a-d, in the same ink on each leaf, 14th century, for indexing items 3 and 4.
Chapters i-xxxiii; in this copy some chapters are amalgamated, and xviii and xxii are divided in two. f.39-40 ruled, but originally blank; f.40v reference to Pitsaeus concerning next item, added by George Davenport.
Divided into sixteen chapters, of which cap xi is here (f.48v) divided in two, so producing seventeen chapters; there are substantial divergences in this copy, e.g. cap xi/xii ends “Cycada est auicula que quodammodo est pennata. anglice greshopper” (f.51r-v). f.57v-58v originally blank, with only f.58v ruled; note on Hugh of St Victor “floruit anno 1130”, by Davenport, f.58v.
The closest parallel seems to be Aberdeen University MS 241, from St Paul's, London.
Differs from other texts of this work leading the cataloguers to question this identification. “Tractatus compendiosus de anima et eius potenciis”, added end of 14th century to list of contents, f.iv. “Burlaeus de potentiis animae”, added by George Davenport, f.82r.
A space left for words “si divisibilis”, presumably on account of defect in exemplar, f.86v line 21. Bodleian MS Auct.F.5.28 contains this work and the next one.
Book i,1-4
The final sentence is substantially different to the edition, as it is in one other English copy (Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS McClean 169 f.262v-263v), written by Robert Emylton, 15th century monk of Durham. Hudry lists 26 manuscripts, of which six, grouped by common descent, have commentary I (p.lxxiii) and only those two this sentence (p.xxxii).
The only other copy traced is in the mid 14th century Ramsey abbey library catalogue, (CBMLC 4, B67.80), followed by a long list of anonymous texts, possibly in the same volume. The incipit alone is in Bodleain e mus.222, (a 13th century manuscript located at Darley Augustinian abbey, Derbyshire in the 14th century), f.139v, lines 6-10, the following lines being apparently another item. f.99-100 originally blank, with 99r and 100r ruled; citation of T. James' catalogue of Oxford and Cambridge manuscripts, concerning the next item, added by George Davenport, f.100v.
Bestiary, without illustrations. The much enlarged Physiologus that circulated in England from the twelfth century, from the second family in McCulloch's categorisation (p.34-38). The arrangement is as in James' edition, ), with the end of the penultimate chapter on Supplementary pl. 16, the last chapter on Supp. pl. 10 (recte 1); as usual, it has sections beginning “Quocienscumque” and “Omnibus animantibus” (f.107v) after canis, and reads “aspido delone” (f.121r) for Aspidochelone. f.132v blank.
This copy, in two books (35 and 34 chapters respectively), lacks the opening sentences of the prologue, “Humilis ille propheta ...”, and the last words of the epilogue with a following capitulum impertinens; these are found in a mid 14th century English copy, B.L. MS Add. 36984, and also in the editio princeps (Nuremberg 1471), in both of which the ascription is to Hugh de Novo Castro, often taken to be Newcastle-upon-Tyne or Neufchâtel in Lorraine, although there is also some evidence pointing to a Germanic background. The dating of the work in ii, 26 is A.D. 1315 in the copy here and B.L. MS Add. 36984, but 1319 in the editio princeps and other continental copies. f.166v ruled but blank.
Entered as "Libellus de 4 uirtutibus cardinalibus" in list of contents, f.iv. f.183v-184v originally blank; f.184v is ruled, with a note, added by George Davenport, of entry by T. James [Ecloga ... p.96] for a copy of the next item in “S. Benedicti num. 371”, [i.e. Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 217].
Added, upside-down, in lower margin.
Attributed to Adam of Dore or sometimes Bernard of Morlaas. The Prologue is absent, the Tabula of subjects (f.185-189) is as printed, p.151-166, except that the rubrics to ix and lxxxiv are omitted, and sections cxxix and cxxx are reversed, though not in the text, while in both list and text the first part of rubric xxxiv is lacking, and there is no error in rubric lx. This copy is an abbreviation without annotation, consisting of the rubric for each NT antitype followed by the first couplet of each OT type; an older abbreviation in Cambridge UL MS Kk.5.10 (Kk.5.16: James 1951, p.143), which belonged to Durham Cathedral Priory by the sixteenth century, is different and appears to consist of each NT antitype followed by the rubric and one couplet, rarely the first, of each OT type. This manuscript shares very closely variants with Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 217 (from Worcester Cathedral Priory), possibly derived from a common witness. f.195v-197v blank, with f.196v ruled.
Alfarabi, Über den Ursprung der Wissenschaften (De ortu scientiarum) : Eine mittelalterliche Einleitungsschrift in die Philosophie Wissenschaften 
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James, M. R., "Pictor in carmine", Archaeologia 94, (1951), 141-166
Liber viginti quattuor philosophorum , ed. Hudry, F., Corpus Christianorum. Continuatio mediaevalis 143a (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997)
Catalogus Translationum et Commentariorum i , ed. Kristeller, P. O. (Washington, 1960)
McCulloch, F., Mediaeval Latin and French Bestiaries , (Chapel Hill, NC: 1962)
Newhauser, R. and Bejzcy, I., A supplement to Morton W. Bloomfield et al. Incipits of Latin works on the virtues and vices, 1100-1500 A.D. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008)
Römer, F., Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des heiligen Augustinus. 2.2, Grossbritannien und Irland. Verzeichnis nach Bibliotheken (Wien: Böhlaus, 1972)
Sharpe, Richard, A handlist of the Latin writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540 , (Turnhout: Brepols, 1997)
Swanson, J., John of Wales. A study of the works and ideas of a thirteenth-century friar (Cambridge: CUP, 1989)
Talbot, C. H., "The Speculum humilitatis attributed to Ailred of Rievaulx", Studia Monastica 1 (1959), 121-136
Walther, H., Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina 1. Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris latinorum: alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Versanfänge mittellateinischer Dichtungen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959-69)