Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Gradual written at Christ Church Cathedral Priory, Canterbury in the late 11th century, at Durham Priory by the early 12th century. In the hands of several Durham-based individuals after the dissolution, until donated to Bishop Cosin's Library.
16, 210, wants 2 after f.8, with 9 (f.16), its counterpart, misbound after 10 (f.15), 38 wants 6 after f.21, 4-610, 78, 8-1010, 118, 1210, 1310 (wants 1 before f.110 and 10 after f. 117), 142 (f.118-119), 156, 164 (f.126-7, coarser inserted bifolium). One quire of 8 or 10 lost before quire 9, another of at least 10 before quire 12 and one or more (10 and 8?) after it, to fit in the rest of the Sanctorale and probably the Commune Sanctorum etc.
No evidence of pricking. Frame 107 x 65 mm, with written space up to 115 mm high; ruled in sharp pale grey. 16 long lines, with first line of text immediately above top frame-line. Similar pencil ruling found at earliest in Canterbury books, according to N. R. Ker and R. A. B. Mynors.
Text written in small Caroline minuscule, expertly, with tailed e occasionally, by one hand, f 9-21, 22-113, 114-123, 128v. Additional 11th-13th century text hands: (I) 2r, (II) 2v-3r, (III) 3r-3v, (IV) 3v-4v; (V) 4r-5r; (VI) 5r-6v (VII) 6r-6v; (VIII) 6v; (IX) 7r-7v (X) 7v-8v, (XI) 21r, (XII) 99v, 123v-124r, 129v; (XIII) 124v-125r, 125v-126v, 127v-128r; (XIV) 126v-127v. There were possibly fewer hands involved than the changes of size, nib, and ink thus noted on f.2r-8v suggest, apart from the musical notation, in which Hartzell sees as many as fifteen extra hands.
Pieces in (1) all appear to be by different hands; (1b) by 2 12th century scribes.
Notation in very square Anglo-Norman neums in campo aperto, by one hand, f.9-21, 23r, 23v, 24v, 25v-75r, 76-113, 114-123.
Notation for (1a)-(1h) and (1j) is in campo aperto, (1i) and (1k) is on lines. (1h), (1i) and (1k) notation is incomplete, three-line red staves, added 13th century (?), for portions of (1i) and most of (1k).
A full summary of the pigments used is given in Pigments, p.193.
Initials:
Type (iv) major coloured initials, f.30 to Puer (Christmas), f.79 to Spiritus (Pentecost).
On f.85r 13th/14th century marginal pencil Latin notes on Sundays and ferias.
Brown grained morocco with red silk endbands, mid 19th century (Charles Tuckett, binder to the British Museum, rebound most of the Cosin Manuscripts in the 19th century). Yellowish leaf edges earlier.
Written in England, Christ Church Cathedral Priory, Canterbury, late 11th century and at Durham Priory by the early 12th century (possibly as part of Bishop William of St Calais' donation of books).
Written in England, for Christ Church Cathedral Priory, Canterbury to judge by item (4)'s lack of provision for a bishop or an abbot, as distinct from an archbishop, and its treatment of Dunstan's name; end 11th century type (iv) initials in a style very close to that of Christ Church Canterbury work. By the turn of the 11th/12th century the manuscript was in north-east England, see item (1a), (1c), (1f), so most probably at Durham Cathedral Priory, see also item (17b) and (17d) and the textual identity of item (7) with a Durham Priory missal. Possibly the “gradale” listed among Bishop William of St Carilef's gifts to the cathedral.
“Christoferus Skepper”, f.21v, subscribing item (6) in a fine italic hand may be the clerk of the bishop of Durham's halmote court 1594, died 1623, or his son (baptised 1597). Pen-trials and scribbles, some smeared, in many margins, 16th/17th century, e.g. “my troncons sere voupes my peper weenes(?)”, bracketed, f.94v; also a few sketches, e.g. f.59r a man “T H” in Tudor doublet and hose with sword, and a larger woman (mother?) in Elizabethan dress; “Thomas Horslye awe this booke ...”, f.21v, and similarly f.94v; “Thomas Horsley”, f.55v; “Isti liber pertinit bere it well in mynd ad me Thomas Horslye bothe curtis and kynd A uincula doloris Cryst him brynge ad vitam eternam to the ever lasting kyng amen <god saue the grace of god>”, f.56v; “Thomas horsley is a honest man”, f.112r, 16th century; his scribbles, f.90v, 107v, 109v, etc.; the name Thomas Horsley is found in two Durham Cathedral Priory manuscripts now elsewhere, Cambridge Trinity Coll. 1227 and London BL Royal 6 A.V, and Bodleian Laud misc.657 from Tynemouth Priory. One Thomas Horsley matriculated as a sizar at Peterhouse, Cambridge, in 1565, B.A. 1565/6. Thomas Horsley of Old Elvet, Durham, was a recusant in 1607; one described as B.A. died in 1612, p. 51. The name is also on printed books in the Cathedral Library, Cartmel Priory (now at Lancaster University Library) and Ushaw College. On f.98v “Margaret Horslye” bracketed with “Nycholas Whitferde” and the initials R.W. and T. H., upside-down; Margaret Horsley, widow of Ralph, of the North Bailey, Durham, and Nicholas Whitfield, yeoman of Sherburn (near Durham), occur as testators in 1601 (proved 1612) and 1631 respectively. “Henere Heghington”, f.59v (Heighington is a village between Durham and Darlington); “To my Lunge Frend Antony Chaytour is ... a Skotes knave ...”, f.60r, perhaps referring to Antony Chaytor of Croft on Tees (N. Yorks.) aged 48 in 1592 at the death of his father Christopher of Butterby (near Durham), the long-lived bishop's registrar; “Richard Jakloff(?)”, f.65r; “Rychard hedlye”, f.116r. “Thomas Broune”, f.69r; “Be it known ... That I William Tood do awe unto Antonie Watson ...”, f.22v; “Francis Perkeson”, f.93v; “Rogere clarke aw thes booke amen”, f.47v. One Francis Parkinson, gentleman, the younger, of Whessoe (near Darlington, made his will in 1572, proved 1573; and a Roger Clark, yeoman, of Newton Bewley (also S. Durham), 1609. 16th/17th century ink drawings: f.27r a monk(?) kneeling before a chalice and host and a scroll from his mouth lettered “Goria in Ex”; f.41v another chalice and host with IHC on it and “genitum non factum consubstancialem” (from the Credo) in different ink; f.102r St Peter (?) with sword and an ear (?), adjacent to feast of the apostles; f.123r Christ on cross and a man in Tudor dress with a lance. These, in the same pale ink as the musical notation added on f.22 and 125, could be by a recusant owner, not just recollections of monastic or Marian times. All these jottings resemble those of school-boys; the names are not amongst those recorded from Durham (Grammar) School, but could be of the Cathedral Choir School. “Jo. Heath”, f.2r, 17th century, cropped. possibly the fourth of that name of Old Durham, 1604-64, who also owned Cosin MS V.iii.17. “Liber Hymnorum”, f.1v, in the hand of George Davenport. Episcopal Library ex-libris and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud, f.1r.
Eleven proses added to the main manuscript in the 12th century by different scribes once the manuscript had reached Durham.
Also occurs as item (17e).
Laid out as separate verses on f.7r but not on 7v.
A leaf is missing before f.9, the surviving text starts at the end of the Kyrie prosula "Clemens rector".
Incomplete at top of folio. Two lines only “nunc tibi o beate consolator te precamur omnes assidue eleyson. Kyrrie eleyson”.
A sequence of 14 Kyrie and Christe eleisons without other text.
f.15 and 16 have been transposed and are referred to in the manuscript now as 15(16) and 16(15).
The words “vt supra” are notated, but presumably refer back to (2Bc).
Chant of royal acclamation which, to judge by the saints invoked, was composed at Christ Church, Canterbury. Invokes Peter, Clement, Sixtus, Edmund, Ermengild, Oswald, Augustine, Dunstan, Alphege, Mary, Felicitas, Perpetua, Maurice, George, Sebastian.
A later addition on an originally blank section. Square notation on a four line staff.
A later addition on an originally blank section. Writing exercises by Thomas Horsley and Christopher Skepper.
Signa te Signa temere me tangis et angis
Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor.
Veruex cum puero puer vnus sponsa maritus
Cultello, limpha, funo, dolore cadit.
Christoferus Skepper
Missing some text at start, would have begun “Dirige me”. Sung propers de tempore, Advent - 23rd Sunday after octave of Pentecost, beginning in Advent 1 offertory first versus, through loss of one leaf (stub) before f.22, and one quire between f.71 and 72 (Good Friday to Friday of the octave). The elements for Sundays 1-23 after the octave of Pentecost are as the Bec missal, including both alleluia-verses at Sunday 14, but with the differences in post-Pentecost alleluias as reported Bec, pp. xi-xiii, from MS D (Harley 5289), a 14th century missal from Durham Cathedral Priory (apart from Sunday 23 partly erased). The verses are to the alleluia on Sunday 8, “Replebimur in bonis domus tue ... mirabile in equitate”; and to the offertory on Sundays 7, “Et nunc sequimur in toto corde ... secundum multitudinem misericordie tue. Quia non”; 17, “Adhuc me loquente ... delicta populi mei Israel. V. Audiui uocem dicentem et Michael uenit in adiutorium meum. Super”. 18, “Sanctificauit Moyses altare ... in conspectu filiorum Israel. V. Locutus est dominus ad Moysen dicens Ascende ad me in montem ... faciam secundum uerbum. V. Orauit Moyses dominum et dixit Si inueni gratiam ... Moyses fecit sacrificium”; 20, “Vtinam appenderentur ... grauior appareret. V. Que est enim que est enim que est enim fortitudo mea ... ut patienter agam. V. Nunquid fortitudo lapidum ... caro mea enea est. V. Quoniam quoniam quoniam non reuertetur oculus meus ... ut uideat bona. Perdiditque.” 22, “Recordare quod steterim ... indignationem tuam ab eis. V. Qui regis Israel intende ... ut ouem Ioseph. Nos autem.”; 23, text erased. Music erased for almost all the pieces Advent 1 communion - Advent 3 Saturday gradual (f.22r-25v), also individual pieces on f.26v, 32v, 51v, 56v, 59v, 74v-76v, 84v, 93v. Red stave-lines inserted in spaces, f.22r, 51v, 56v, 75r-76v, 84v; music added, 12th century (?), Easter 4 - vigil of Ascension (f.75r-76v), also a little, 14th-15th century (?), f.22r.
Sung propers of Trinity, including sequence. Bec, 244-45, but here with four alleluias: “Benedictus es ... laudabilis in secula” , “Benedicamus patrem ... spiritu in secula”, “Libera nos salua nos ... trinitas” (Bec, 95), “Deus pater deus filius ... unus est deus”; “Alleluia. Benedicta sit beata trinitas ... iudice premia” (as Analecta hymnica liii, 143); and two offertory verses: “Benedicamus patrem et filium ... exaltemus eum in secula”, “Benedictus es qui intueris abyssos ... exaltatus in secula. Quia fe”.
Antiphon for dedication of a church, with propers of mass.
Antiphon for consecration of cemetery, with antiphon “Domine qui Moysi locutus es dicens solue calciamentum”
Antiphon for blessing a pavement
Antiphon for consecration of signs [of the cross].
Added by contemporary scribes, with well-drawn diastematic Anglo-Norman neums.
Sung propers de sanctis, from vigil of John the Baptist introit - octave of Assumption of B.V.M. alleluia, (23 June - 22 Aug., Bec, 155-185). Starting and ending imperfectly: the preceding portion must have occupied at least 10 leaves, and the following portion with the Commune Sanctorum etc. 8-10. Texts as Bec, except for John the Baptist “prima missa” the Alleluia is “Fuit homo” (cues only) and “maior [missa]” begins “De uentris matris mee ...”
f.113v is blank.
Starts imperfectly.
Analecta hymnica medii aevi 
, ed. Dreves, G. M. (Leipzig: R. Reisland, 1886-1920)
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]).
The Bec missal , ed. Hughes, A. Henry Bradshaw Society 94 (Leighton Buzzard: Faith Press, 1963)
Corpus antiphonalium officii , ed. Hesbert, R.-J. (Rome: Herder, 1963-1979)
Corpus troporum. VII, Tropes de l'ordinaire de la messe. Tropes du Sanctus ed. G. Iversen (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1990).
Cowdrey, H. E. J., "The Anglo-Norman Laudes regiae", Viator 12 (1981), 37-78
Frere, W. H., The Winchester troper, from mss. of the Xth and XIth centuries: with other documents illustrating the history of tropes in England and France Henry Bradshaw Society 8, (London: Harrison & Sons, 1894)
Gameson, Richard, "The divine service in the aftermath of the Norman conquest", in Gameson, Richard, ed., Treasures of Durham University Library , 34-35 (London: Third Millennium, 2007)
Hartzell, K. D., "An unknown English Benedictine gradual of the eleventh century", Anglo-Saxon England 4 (1975), 131-44
Hartzell, K. D., Catalogue of manuscripts written or owned in England up to 1200 containing music , (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006)
Mynors, R., 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)
Gameson, Richard, Andrew Beeby, Flavia Fiorillo, Catherine E. Nicholson, Suzanne Reynolds, and Paola Ricciardi, The pigments of British medieval illuminators: a scientific and cultural study (London: Archetype Publications Ltd., 2023)
Planchart, A. E., The repertory of tropes at Winchester , (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1977).
Chevalier, U., Repertorium hymnologicum: Catalogue de chants, hymnes, proses, sequences, tropes en usage dans l'église latine depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours, (Louvain: Imprimerie Lefever, 1892-1920)