Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
A composite volume of nine parts, including a significant collection of theological works by Robert Grosseteste: (A) f.2-37; (B) f.38-48; (C) f.50-57; (D) f.59-69 with 49+58; (E) f.70-77; (F) f.78-144; (G) f.145-184; (H) f.185-193, 220-223; (I) f.194-219. That all the parts were together by about 1300 is demonstrated by the contents list on f.1v.
Parchment
Modern foliation in ink and pencil: 1-138, 138*-223
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)
Notes added informally to (F) show that, no later than February 1232, this section belonged to a person connected with London and South Wales.
Inscription: Liber Sancti Cuthberti ex dono Bertrami de Midiltona prioris Dunelm' (Prior of Durham 1244-58) plus contents list, 13th/14th century, f.1v
Pressmarks: G - deleted, later 14th century, f.2r, top right. De le Spendment Dunelm G. ijo fo ponunt, early 14th century, f.2r, top left. 2a 6ti F, 15th century, f.2r, top right.
Parchment
Foliation in red Arabic numerals 2-32 on 2-37 (omitting the small leaves 29-30 and 35-6)
I-III8, IV12 (f.26-37, a quaternion, after leaves 3 and 7 of which four smaller leaves were inserted [now f.29-30 and 35-36], the first pair certainly, the second pair probably a bifolium)
Written in Textualis libraria by two scribes and marginalia by a third hand (the main annotating hand).
Written in England, early 13th century.
Incorporates nearly 40 Dicta
Dicta 95, 96 (with three diagrams showing the irradiation of virtues, the first centred on ‘Bona voluntas’, the second on ‘Amor ordinatus’, the third ‘Textura irradiacionis uirtutum cuius pulchritudo hac figura describitur’), 36
Items 1-5: sermones 88-92; item 6: etymological note; item 7 an incomplete version of the text found in full on f.78r.
Incomplete text at start and end. No correspondences with Grosseteste’s psalm commentary.
Incomplete text at start and end. No correspondences with Grosseteste’s psalm commentary.
Parchment
Foliation in Arabic numerals, 1-11 (the start of a series that continues to 105 on f.144)
Collation: I8, II3 (= 6 with leaves 4-6 [blank] cancelled)
65-67 lines in two columns
Written in Textualis libraria by one scribe with marginalia by a second hand (the main annotating hand).
Written in England, early 13th century.
Sometimes attributed to but probably not by Grosseteste.
Break off incomplete. Sometimes attributed to but probably not by Grosseteste.
Parchment
Numbered 12-19 in an earlier foliation
I8
Two columns, up to 90 lines
Written in Textualis librariaSection 1 comprises entries by scribe 1. These were augmented in the margins, and then continued (Section 2) by scribe 2 (the main annotating hand), scribe 1 making a brief reappearance on f.54r.
Written in England, early 13th century.
Incomplete version of the second recension of this text.
Parchment
Four distinct elements: (1) an 18th century paper slip (unfoliated) bearing notes on content, 138 x 60 mm; (2) a parchment part-leaf (f.58), the lower half of which is now bound in separately (and sideways) as f.49, (in the early 18th century f.49 and 58 were still one single, long thin leaf 345 x 130 mm (described in the medieval contents list as Quedam questio in quodam rotulo) preceding f.59, and were presumably bound thus by Tucketts. (1) and (2) are both prefixed to (3) a parchment singleton and a bifolium (f.58, 59+69 – probably originally two bifolia, the final leaf [probably blank, conjoint with 58] cancelled), within which is (4) a parchment quaternion (f.61-68); f.59-69 bear an older foliation 20-29.
Written in textualis libraria documentary cursive hands
Written in England, early 13th century.
Inserted slip with notes on contents of this section.
Four pieces, the first three from Fécamp, chapters 4 and 6, the fourth a Middle English version of (3). f.49v blank.
Remainder of f.60v and all of f.69 are blank.
On f64r-v, 66v and 67r, the relevant Biblical Books are named in the margins. Most of f.67r and all of 67v-69v are blank
Parchment
I8
59 lines in two columns
Written in protogothic
Written in England or France, later 12th century.
Breaks off incomplete
Parchment
Modern foliation in ink: 38-105
Composed of at least three coeval, matching sections: (1) f.78-87 (quire I); (2) f.88-103 (quires II-III); (3) f.104-127 (quires IV-VI); and (4) f.128-144 (quires VII-VIII). The first quire of section (1) breaks off incomplete, indicating that a further quire (or more) has been lost after f.87. Section (3) is itself subdivisible by quire.
I10, II-VI8, VII10, VIII8
65-6 lines in two columns
Written in Textualis libraria by six hands and the main annotating hand.
Written in England, early 13th century.
Notes added to margins of f.121r, 122r, 130r and 137v record expenses for journeying between London and South Wales, loans, purchases by the Chapter of Llandaff, and a major penance imposed on 27 Feb 1231/2. These are transcribed in Hunt 1955, p.138-40.
34 sermons/dicta
25 sermons, mostly attributed to Jordan of Saxony
44 sermons
Notes on Gospel texts, inserted between sermons 10 (43) and 11 (44) in (s)
Preface and 71 sections
Parchment
I-III8, IV12 (= an original 8 (now 169-173, 178-180), with a 4 (f.174-177) inserted after leaf 5), V4
Written in Textualis libraria
Written in early 13th century.
Parchment
Modern foliation in ink: 106-114, 140-143
I(185-189)5 (= 8 with leaves 6-8 [blank], cancelled), II(190-193)4, III(220-223)4 (=8 lacks leaves 5-8)
66 lines in two columns
Written in Textualis libraria by 3 or 4 hands
Written in early 13th century.
Incomplete, covers 1.1-11.4.
Incomplete, on 16.23-21.24 only.
Incomplete, on 9.16-10.1 only.
Incomplete, on 1.1-4.2 only.
Parchment
I10, II12, III4 (= 6 with leaves 5-6 [blank] cancelled)
52 lines in two columns
Written in Textualis semi-quadrata by one scribe
Space left for section initials, but not used.
Written in early 13th century.
Incomplete: Book III, titulus 17 to end of Book III
Brown, C., ed., Religious lyrics of the 14th century 
(Oxford: OUP, 1924)
Hunt, R.W., "The library of Robert Grosseteste", in Callus, D.A., Robert Grosseteste, Scholar and Bishop. Essays in commemoration of the seventh centenary of his death (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1955), 121-145
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]).
Thomson, S.H., The writings of Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln 1235-1253 (Cambridge: CUP, 1940)
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] ,
(Durham: 1939)