Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing a copy of Bonaventure's Breviloquium, now lacking several leaves, written probably in England at the start of the 15th century. Donated to Durham University Library by Alice Edleston in 1953.
Parchment; some flaying edges and holes (three in f.33, the two in the written space circled in red), quires with hair-side outwards, all leaves cockled through the effect of damp, brownish yellow staining in most lower margins; outer quarter of f.1 and lower outer corner of f.2-5 eaten by vermin with some loss of text; lower margins of f.23 and 29 cut away.
18 wants 1, 28, 38 wants 5 after f.19, 4-88, 98 wants 4-5 after f.65 and 8 after f.67.
Pricking with round point, uneven, in outer margins. Written space 154 x 91 mm; ruling in sharp brownish grey ink. 41 lines.
Written in a squat textura , of uneven size, and rubrics, proficiently, with the “3” in the abbreviation for “sed” barely dropping below the line; possibly by more than one hand.
Text capitals lined or filled with red, one on f.20 with human head in left margin; simple paraphs and initials, to chapters and parts, 2-line, in same red.
Corrections by cancellation in red, e.g. f.28v, 44v. The catchwords not in the hand of the text are perhaps in an English hand, see f.30v (looped d). A marginal note in textura,15th century, f.26v. Many small + or x marks in margins, a few, e.g. f.10v and 57r, in red; most not near obvious corrections. Notes in pencil, 18th/19th century, in an English hand refer to “Aristot”, f.20r, 39r.
Medieval: sewn on five split white thongs, the upper three broken, drawn through the boards, across the inner face for c. 40 mm, in a VIV pattern, and pegged in holes through the board, with one peg now missing; head-bands, with white and blue thread, channeled across the outer face of the boards at 45º for 15 mm, and similarly pegged; wooden boards (oak ?) with cushion bevelling, almost flush with leaves; square recess cut into front board at the centre of outer edge, with four holes from pins fixing clasp; remains of metal catch in the corresponding position on the edge of the back board; covering of boards and spine gone, leaving traces of glue on the inner face of the boards, including clear marks of the tongues of the corner-mitres inside the back board; no trace of pastedowns. Kept in a modern box.
Written probably in England, start of 14th century.
“F”, c. 30 mm high, cut into the centre of the front board. Inscriptions “J”, f.6r, 61r, “J J J H”, f.65v, and “R J H J”, f.67r, in large thick capitals, 18th century (?). “Presented by Alice Edleston of Gainford from her family collection 1953”, on a printed label stuck inside the front board. Some of her books came from her father, Rev. Joseph Edleston (died 1895), formerly a fellow of Trinity College Cambridge; there is no trace in this book of the printed label that his children placed in many of his books. After donation to Durham University Library, it was for some time assigned the shelfmark MS. Add.189.4B7.
Defective at the beginning and the end. Text missing through the loss of leaves: one before f.1 (the opening of the preface); one after f.19 (II,11-12); two after f.65 (VII,5-60); and one after f. 67 (VII,7). Chapter-list to the seven parts follows the preface, f.5-6.
Medieval manuscripts in British libraries. II, Abbotsford-Keele 
, ed. Ker, N. R. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977)