DCL MS. B.II.30Cassiodorus, Expositio Psalmorum
Held by: Durham Cathedral Library: Durham Cathedral Manuscripts

Cassiodorus, Commentary on the Psalms, in an abbreviated form. The earliest surviving manuscript of this work, written in Northumbria in the second quarter of the 8th century. The monks of Durham Priory regarded it as having been written by Bede.

Digitised: https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2mrn3011371.html

Physical description of manuscript
Support

Parchment

Extent: 268 f
Size: 420 mm x 290 mm

Foliation

Foliation repeats 16 and 156.


Secundo folio: modulationes
Collation

i-x8, a-b10, c8, d-i10, k9, l-t8, u11, v4.

Layout

Written in 2 columns of 36 to 39 lines.

Script

Written in Insular minuscule, by about six scribes.

Decoration

Full page illustrations survive as frontispieces to two of the three sections, the first lost along with the start of the manuscript.

Corrections and annotation

A 12th century scribe transcribed a damaged leaf (no longer present) from the start of the manuscript on to f.3v-4.

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 England, Northumbria (possibly York), second quarter, 8th century.

Manuscript contents
(a)     f.5-264
Modern title: Commentary on the Psalms
Original title: Expositio Psalmorum
Author: Cassiodorus, Senator, approximately 487-approximately 580
Date: second quarter, 8th century
Language: Latin

Edited: Patrologia Latina 70
(b)     f.266
Modern title: Fragment from legal text
Date: 14th century
Language: Latin

Leaf added by binder. In an Italian hand (Mynors).


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 University Library.

Digitised material for Durham Cathedral Library MS. B.II.30 Cassiodorus on the Psalms
https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2mrn3011371.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., 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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