DCL MS. B.II.7Ps.-Jerome, Breviarium in psalmos
Held by: Durham Cathedral Library: Durham Cathedral Manuscripts

Ps.-Jerome, Breviarium in psalmos

Digitised: https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2mpc289j07x.html

Physical description of manuscript
Support

Parchment

Extent: i+187+i f
Size: 330 mm x 235 mm

Foliation

Modern pencil foliation; also an ink pagination 1-17 on f.2-10.


Secundo folio: orandi cum omnes
Collation

I-XVIII10, XIX7 (= 8with leaf 8, blank, cancelled)

Signatures: Contemporary signatures, final verso, lower margin, centre: Roman numerals
Layout

Written area: 255 x 176 mm. Two columns, 37 lines.

Script

Written in Romanesque Caroline minuscule by three scribes: (1) wrote 2r-10; 94v, col. i, line 3-187v; (2) wrote 11v-94v, col. i, line 2 and is also scribe 1 of DCL MS B.II.8 (with which this manuscript also shares a rubricator); (3) Symeon of Durham corrected f.3r-16v.

Decoration

Decorated initials, 37+ and 14+ lines high, head the Preface (f.11v) and Incipit (f.12r) of (d). Texts within (a)-(c), and the start of each psalm commentary within (d) are all headed by a coloured penwork initial, 4+ lines high.

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)

Manuscript history
Creation

Written in Durham, early 12th century.

Provenance

Inscriptions: “Liber sancti Cuthberti de Dunelmo”, late 12th century, f.2r, upper margin.
Note of contents, earlier 14th century, f.1v, top: “In ista uolumine continentur quidam tractatus de lectionibus et responsoriis dominicarum tocius anni et Breuiuarium beati Ieronimi in Psalterio” (cf. DCL MS B.II.34).
“F Breuiarium Ieronimi super psalterium de communi libraria monachorum dunelm”, start of 14th century, f.2r, top.
Pressmarks: “.F.”, later 14th century, f.2r, top. “Pi V”, 15th century, f.2r, top right.

In Cloister catalogue.

Manuscript contents
(a)     f.2r
Modern title: Schedule of Lections and Responses for Sundays throughout the year
Incipit: In septuagesima cantatur et legitur in principio .i. pentateucum moysi usque ad passionem domini
Explicit: Ab octauis domini usque ad septuagesimam leguntur epistole pauli cum responsorio, Domine ne mira
Rubric: De lectionibus et responsoriis dominicarum per totius anni circuitum, et ordine eorum
Language: Latin
(b)     f.2r-4r
Original title: De ecclesiasticis officiis
Author: Isidore, of Seville, Saint, -636
Incipit: Psallere usum esse primum post Moysen dauid prophetam
Explicit: et ideo per uniuersum orbem mos iste seruatur
Rubric: De cantu
Language: Latin

Extracts on ecclesiastical observances: sections De cantu and De offertoriis.

(c)     f.4r-10r
Modern title: Prefatory Texts for the Psalms
Language: Latin
(d)     f.11v-187v
Original title: Breviarium in psalmos
Author: Pseudo Jerome
Incipit: Proxime cum origenis psalterium
Explicit: his mereamur adiungi concinentibus. Ipsi gloria et imperium in secula seculorum. Amen.
Rubric: Incipit breviarium beati ieronimi presbiteri in psalterio
Language: Latin

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.II.7 - Ps.-Jerome, Breuiarium in psalmos
Digitised April 2016 as part of the Durham Priory Library Recreated project
https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2mpc289j07x.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]).

Mynors, R.A.B., Durham Cathedral manuscripts to the end of the twelfth century. Ten plates in colour and forty-seven in monochrome. With an introduction [including a list of all known Durham manuscripts before 1200]   OCLC citation, (Durham: 1939)

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