Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing works of monastic interest, a compound version of Ephraem Syrus's Ad monachos, sermons and homilies on monasticism by Caesarius of Arles and Eusebius of Emesa and an extract from Hugh of Fouilloy's De claustro animae, with two short pieces in Middle English possibly added on blank space. The manuscript is English, possibly written in Norfolk, in the mid 15th century.
Parchment; quires with flesh-side outermost. Flaying edges, creases and dog-ears on lower corners. Top edges cropped. Untrimmed uneven lower edge and corner in quire 9. Tears to f.29 and 37.
Foliated in pencil, 20th century.
1-88, 94 (wants 2 except stub). Hanna suggests this could be three booklets, dividing after f.49 and 65.
Pricking in outer margin, but line-ruling in ink visible on f.11r-v, where there are two rows of pricks; also f.16r-v and elsewhere. Written space 214-6 x 212-7 mm; 39 long lines.
Written in current anglicana, with some secretary forms (g, sometimes single compartment a, mostly as first or last letter of words), expertly. Rubrics by the same hand and red marginalia.
Text capitals splashed with red, f.1r-10v, 50r-57v and 68v; with yellow, f.11r-49v and 58r-68r. Paraphs and line fillers in red. Initials, 2 line, red, up to f.57v with flourishing and sometimes infilling in black and sometimes red, including human (f.28r, 40r, 41v, 46v) or animal (f. 36r, 49r) profiles, and a quatrefoil (f.25v).
Many marginal notas and subject indications by main hand in red. In the upper margin of f.41v four lines in red by the main hand, on quiet, starting “Osee. Diues effectus sum & requiem non inueni ... ”. Corrections and subject notes by two italic hands, 16th/17th century. A slip from a 17th century printed English sermon or treatise on Christ's Passion, was found in the volume as a place marker, now tipped on to the front paper flyleaf. Running titles on rectos of item (1) only, in red, giving book number.
Bound in Durham by Hutchinson, plain calf, 17th century, with double blind fillets for frame and a pair of verticals c. 45 mm from spine. Hutchinson's roll B gilt on board edges. Rebacked in 19th and 21st century; 1 clasp.
Written in England, Norfolk?, mid 15th century.
Inscription: “Iste liber constat <W>ilhelmo crosse Iste liber pertinett
Wilhelmo crosse. Deus est optima rerum & Rosa est pulcherimus florum”, f.1r, with pen trials, later 15th century.Hanna notes a man of this name in Rockland (SW Norfolk) in 1479.
Inscription: “A peece of St Ephreem his workes”, f.1r, by a hand, 16th/17th century, found in other Cosin MSS, not yet identified.
“Geo. Davenport. 1664”, on previous pastedown, visible through window cut into present; his list of contents, f.1v. ex-libris and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud on f.2r.
Of the various forms in which a part of Ephrem's corpus circulated in Latin translation from the eighth century onwards, this version, in six books, differs from that printed several times. Here the last part of Bk i (f. 4/16 seq.) is the latter part of the Cento ex S. Gregorii homiliis in Evangelia attributed to Ephrem in Berlin MS Theol. Lat. 355 f.31-35; Bk vi cap 2 line 8 is followed (f.11v/7-21v/27) by Bk i cap 10 part - end and all Bk ii, the first part of the Cento ex S. Gregorii ... (f.16r/18-16v/10), and Bk i cap 4 part -10 part. In consequence the six books in this copy correspond to the seven printed, with Bk iii forming Bk ii in this copy.
Presented as book vii of (1a). Ascribed to Adalgerus or Albuinus. Found in Hereford Cathedral O.VI.7, where it follows Cosin item (1a), of only six books, and includes (1c) and is further followed by item (2)
Digest of Isidore, Synonyma, books I and II. (1a)-(2) occur without attribution and differently arranged in Avignon MS 341, a fifteenth century book from the Avignon Dominicans and in Hereford O.VI.7.
Other versions, in twelfth century copies, both following the same text as here: Paris, B.N. MS lat. 3007 f.40-42 (lacks the passage here f.34v/11-35v/31) and lat. 3454 f.3r-4r; also Avignon MS 341 (15th century); Hereford Cathedral O.VI.7 (end of 14th century) art. 17 (a-c) has only the first three homilies of this manuscript, then others, of which Hereford art.17(h) is Cosin item (4a).
The omission of the final few sentences occurs in other English copies, e.g. London British Library MSS Royal 5.E.ix f.65v, 5.F.x f.7v, 8.D.viii f.84r.
Homilies i-vi, viii, vii (part), ix. Other copies of these homilies, e.g. Hereford O.VI.7 art. 21 occur together with item (4).
This copy is not mentioned in Gwynn's edition; from the readings listed (p. 24) it can be assigned to the earlier recension (p. 47). Several other copies, e.g. BL Royal 5.E.ix, 5.F.x and Hereford O.I.6, contain homilies attributed to Caesarius and Eusebius, including the same eleven as item (3), with the same attributions.
Book 2 cap. xi-xxiii; here, as commonly, attributed to Hugh of St Victor. In this copy chapters 8 & 9 (i.e. xix & xx in full work) divide at “ructus ingurgitati ventris Miserabilior inter alias abusiones”.
Written in red. For another version, see Cosin MS V.v.19, f.72v-73r
The only other known copy, one in a sequence entitled "Moralia Ricardi heremite" is in Lincoln Cathedral 91 (by Robert Thornton, E.R.Yorks, mid 15th century). The Cosin spellings (ar, arn, mekel, whilke) suggest S.Lincs. or NW Norfolk. Hanna infers SCentral or SE Norfolk from the linguistic evidence.
A collection of short extracts on sins and their remedies
domorum corrected to donorum, 17th century
Leaf lost between 66 and 67, possibly affecting text.
contemplando corrected to contemplandi, 17th century
English writings of Richard Rolle 
, ed. Allen, H. E. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1931)
Bloomfield, Morton W., Guyot, Bertrand-Georges, Howard, Donald R. and Kabealo, Thyra B., Incipits of Latin works on the virtues and vices, 1100-1500 A.D. Including a section of incipits of works on the Pater noster (Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1979)
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]).
Eusebius Gallicanus. Collectio homiliarum , ed. Leroy, J., Corpus Christianorum., Series Latina, 101A, (Turnhout: Brepols, 1971)
Eusebius Gallicanus. Sermones extravagantes , ed. Glorie, F., Corpus Christianorum., Series Latina, 101B, (Turnhout: Brepols, 1971)
Gwynn, A., Patrick Bishop og Dublin. The writings of Bishop Patrick 1074-1084 , v.1 (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1955)
Newhauser, R. and Bejzcy, I., A supplement to Morton W. Bloomfield et al. Incipits of Latin works on the virtues and vices, 1100-1500 A.D. (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008)
A new index of middle English verse , ed. J. Boffey & A. S. G. Edwards (London: British Library, 2005)
Richard Rolle Uncollected prose and verse with related northern texts , ed. Hanna, R., EETS OS 329 (Oxford: OUP, 2007)
Sancti Caesarii Arelatensis sermones: nunc primum in unum collecti et ad leges artis criticae ex innumeris mss. recogniti , ed. Morin, G., Corpus Christianorum., Series Latina, 103-104, (Turnhout: Brepols, 1953)