Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Third volume of Augustine, Enarrationes in Psalmos (CI-CL). If the text was indeed copied from that of DCL MS B.II.14 by the team responsible for DCL MS B.II.20 etc., then the volume would seem to have been made in Oxford following an exemplar from Durham.
Parchment
Foliated in modern pencil.
I-XVI12, XVII10 (=12 with leaves 10-11, doubtless blank, cancelled)
Text-block: 282 x 170 mm. Two columns (width: 78 mm). Lines: 47 (space, 6 mm; height of minims, 3+ mm). Pricking: awl. Ruling: lead. Single bounding lines flank both columns; a further pair bisecting the outer margin. Top horizontal extended. A pair of horizontals bisects both the upper and lower margins (the former used for the running heading.
Written in Textualis semi-quadrata. Possibly a single scribe, very close to that of DCL MS B.II.20, etc. Rubrics in the same hand and script; some corrections by also by the same hand, both via interlinear insertion (e.g. f.34v, f.61v, f.173v) and via re-working or retracing of letters (most noticeably on f.193r). Certain major corrections in rasura in a bolder Textualis semi-quadrata with a squarer matrix (e.g. f.84v, f.85r, f.88v, f.93r, f.119v), apparently by a different but contemporary hand.
Decorated initials, 5+ lines high, plus border bars for the incipits to the Commentaries on Psalms 101 (f.1r) and 109 (f.45v), and for the Preface and Incipit to that on Ps. 118 (both f.61v). The letter-forms and the bars (adorned with spiky leaves and occasional dragonesque forms), are predominantly pink and blue, with occasional details in orange and highlights in white, punctuated with zones and little balls of gold and silver. The style is akin to that of DCL MS B.II.20 etc. Other Commentary incipits marked by blue initials flourished in red, 2+ lines high, then vice versa. Initials in the same style and continuing the sequence of colour alternation, albeit often smaller in scale (1+ lines high), mark the start of the discussion on the first verse of a psalm. Sentence capitals stroked in red.
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)
Written in England (?Oxford), early 14th century.
It has been suggested that DCL MS B.II.14 might have been the exemplar for the text. Pointing in this direction are parity of rubrics, identical or closely similar transliterated Greek - e.g. ‘cathartas/catharcas’ at Ps. 118 (B.II.14, f.92r: B.II.15, f.87r); ‘anabathinon’ at Ps. 119 (B.II.14, f.94v: B.II.15, f.89r) and ‘istoneona stoneon’ at Ps. 130 (B.II.14, f.127v: B.II.15, f.125r - and certain other details. (Thus the major error on f.84v of the present MS that required 8 lines of rewriting in rasura corresponds exactly with the disjunction from the bottom of column 1 to the top of column 2 in the text of B.II.14 (f.90r) – an obvious place for a copyist’s eye to skip). There are some minor differences in spelling (e.g. B.II.14, hymnus: B.II.15 hympnus) and in the forms of certain numbers (e.g. B.II.14 ‘xxviiii’: B.II.15 ‘xxix’), though these might be explained as reflecting personal preference.
Annotated earlier 14th century by Thomas Lund, monk of Durham (d. 1349/50), e.g. f.2v, f.26v.
Inscription: “.M.”, later 14th century, f.1r, outer margin. “M. Augustinus super terciam partem Psalterij De communi libraria monachorum dunelm”, start 15th century, f.1r, top.
Listed in cloister catalogue and DCD Misc.Ch.7144.
Diples mark quotations. Running heading gives the incipit of the Psalm in question. Occasional broadly contemporary marginal notes in lead and ink (e.g. both on f.26v).
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]).