Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing material on Thomas Becket, as found in at least seventeen other manuscripts, see Duggan 1980, p.205-206 and 164. Among the eleven medieval copies in England there is one which matches this copy in all the particulars noted below save for the omission in the Constitutions of Clarendon clause 9 (f.41r): B.L. MS Arundel 15, a late thirteenth century manuscript, in which the medieval indications of ownership have been cut away. Although the manuscript may have been in Durham before, it was owned by George Davenport and presented by him to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Parchment, some flaying edges and flaws; quires with flesh-side outermost
foliated, i-vi (iv-vi were i iii before present binding), 1-48.
1-28, 312, 410, 54. 2 outer paper flyleaves front and back, 20th century; 4 inner paper flyleaves, front and back, 17th century, the outermost with Dutch marbled overlay an earlier binding.
Knife-point slits for frame; no evidence of pricking for ruling. Written space 218-228 x 140-150 mm; framed in sharp brownish grey; approximately 42 long lines.
Written in anglicana, of documentary type, mid 14th century, proficiently, by one variable main hand, with f.39r lower half by a second hand.
Some text capitals touched with red, sometimes preceded by a vertical stroke in red. Chapter headings and names of sources underlined in red, also, except f.4v-8r, 12v-16r, 21v-29r, and 33v-38r, lined through in red. Paraphs to chapter headings, etc., in red. Initials: to chapters, 2 line, in red.
Corrections, end of 14th century, by interlineation or erasure, e.g. f.3v, 5r, 12r, 15v, perhaps in the hand of item (7). Chapter numbers added in margins and to chapter lists, mid 14th century. Title to item (1) added in a 16th century italic hand, f.9r top, partly trimmed away. A note, “Mattheus Paris. Fol. 134”, f.40v, refers to the edition by M. Parker (London 1571).
Plain brown morocco with gilt spine lettering, early 20th century, by Bramhall & Menzies of Manchester, encasing 17th century Dutch marbled paper wrappers.
Written in England, earlier 14th century.
Markings, indications of contents, etc., later 16th century, by a distinctive sprawling hand with a distinctive form of B, see f.1r, 36r, 39r-41r, also found in Bodleian Library, MS Laud misc. 491, which belonged to Durham Cathedral Priory but contains binding fragments suggesting that it passed to St Albans Abbey or its cell at Tynemouth, although it later belonged to Leonard Pilkington, canon of Durham. Inscription “Geo. Davenport. 1670”, f.iiiv and his notes of content, f.ivv and 9r. Ex-libris and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud, f.1r.
Lacks Book I, 1-15 at start. The earlier recension, known as Quadrilogus II; three main versions of this recension have been identified, with three other copies of the second found here, see Duggan 1994, p.112, n.30. The amount of text missing at the beginning corresponds to the amount of text on the first 7.5 folios, suggesting the loss of a quire of eight leaves. The lists of capitula to Books II and III are placed at the beginning of each book (f.9v-10r, 23r-v), with those for the Gesta post martyrium included in Book III, as envisaged in the prefatory letter. There are no chapter divisions in the text between I,15/16 or III,6/7, and the list of capitula also omits III,7; III,14 is divided in two at p.390/22, while III,13 heading has “Milites” for “carnifices”, but the list of capitula does not match in either case. There are marginal chapter numbers within each book in lighter ink. Sources are identified in a few chapter-headings and in the text: Alan [of Tewkesbury], Bened[ict of Peterborough], H[erbert of Bosham], John [of Salisbury], William [of Canterbury]. On f.27v is the English warning by the mother of Hugh de Morville, one of Becket's murderers, to her husband (see Dahood 1993).
This copy is closer to Lupus than Robertson, e.g. in omitting 20, dividing 21/22 later, and replacing 23 and 24 with a short final section; this copy follows neither in its opening of 9 “Post hunc Radulfus cognomento de Serra ...”, and of 19 “Erat adhuc de martiris societate vnus. quem quidem ...”.
With a preamble to the Constitutions of Clarendon in a version consistently closest to MS Ag in Councils & Synods, ii, 877-878. The text of the Constitutions themselves has no clear affinity with any of the MSS collated in Councils & Synods, ii,878-883; the papal responses are indicated at the beginning of each clause as in MSS Ab and Ac, rather than the end as in Lupus, but the verb forms in Clause 11 are as MSS Ag and Aw.corr and Lupus, and in Clause 9 there is an omission by homoeoteleuton “erit placitum ... advocaverit”.
This copy is closer to Lupus than any of the MSS collated for Councils & Synods, e.g. in Clause viii it only differs from Lupus' divergent wording with “redire] remanere”, “praescriptum] prefixum”, “Regis] domini Regis”; but in Clause ii “alicuius conversionis]” where Lupus has “Laicus professionis homo”, this copy has “alicuius professionis homo”.
Ep. 598.
Ep. 784
Ep. 785. Largely torn away.
Ep. 786
Fragment only, largely torn away.
Bibliotheca hagiographica Latina antiquae et medii aetatis 
(Brussels, 1898-1901); Supplements (Brussels, 1911, 1986)
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]).
Councils & synods with other documents relating to the English church, I: A.D. 871-1204 , ed. Whitelock, D., Brett, M., & Brooke, C. N. L. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1981)
Dahood, R., "Variants of the Middle English warning in William of Canterbury's Life of Becket", Parergon, n.s. 11.1 (1993), 21-33
Duggan, A. J., Thomas Becket: a textual history of his letters , (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980)
Duggan, A. J., "The Lyell version of the Quadrilogus Life of St Thomas of Canterbury", Analecta Bollandiana 112 (1994), 105-38
Lupus, C., Epistolae et vita divi Thomas martyris et archiepiscopi Cantuariensis ... , (Brussels: H. Fricx, 1682).
Robertson, J. C., Materials for the history of Thomas Becket Rolls Series 67, (London: Longman & Co., 1875-85)