DCL MS. A.II.5Pentateuch, glossed
Held by: Durham Cathedral Library: Durham Cathedral Manuscripts

Glossed copy of the first five books of the Old Testament, written in France in the early 13th century.

Digitised: https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2mgx41mh864.html

Physical description of manuscript
Support

Parchment

Extent: i+320+i f.
Size: 388 mm x 255 mm

Foliation

Post-medieval ink foliation runs 1-42, 42*-319; 320 was added in modern pencil.


Secundo folio: ta sine principio
Collation

I-XXXII10

Catchwords: Contemporary catchwords.
Signatures: Contemporary quire signatures (Roman numeral flanked by dots, final verso, lower margin, centre) on every quire except the last. Leaf marking of various forms on the first five or six leaves of quires.
Layout

Up to three columns, up to 31 lines of text and up to 61 lines of previous hitgloss

Script

Written in Textualis, possibly by a single scribe.

Decoration

Illuminated initials (all excised) evidently headed each biblical text, plus the first preface.

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). Rust stain in the centre of the first leaves from metal furniture on an earlier binding

Manuscript history
Creation

Written in France, early 13th century.

Significant fire and liquid damage to the upper edge of all leaves, with occasional bleeding into the text area.

Provenance

Pressmark: “P′. A”, added separately, 14th/15th century, f.1r, top right.

Manuscript contents
(a)     f.1r-80r
Modern title: Genesis, with gloss
Language: Latin
(b)     f.80r-154v
Modern title: Exodus, with gloss
Language: Latin
(c)     f.155r-208v
Modern title: Leviticus, with gloss
Language: Latin
(d)     f.208v-278v
Modern title: Numbers, with gloss
Language: Latin
(e)     f.278v-319v
Modern title: Deuteronomy, with gloss
Language: Latin

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. A.II.5 - Pentateuch, glossed
Digitised August 2016 as part of the Durham Priory Library Recreated project
https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2mgx41mh864.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]).

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