Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing Augustine, In Evangelium Iohannis tractatus and Pseudo-Methodius' Apokalypsis, written in England in the late 14th century, to which a shorter older section containing Pseudo-Augustine, Meditaciones de spiritu sancto was added by 1670 (see list of contents, f.1v), perhaps by the 16th century (see notes, perhaps in the same hand, f.36r and 325v).
Foliated 1-326, with 188, 206 and 290 repeated.
Corrections in item (1) in the main hand by supplies in the margin keyed by ad hoc signs touched with red (e.g. f.35r, 44r-v, 83r, 84r, 141r, 167v, 235v, 236r, 277r-v, 287r), and one by a slightly later hand, f.227v; also by expunctuation (e.g. f.136r, 298r). Pointing hand and “Sabellianum”, 15th century, f.146v; 15th century note, f.306r; pen trials, f.155v, 236v, 269v, 325v. Notes and signs, later 16th century, f.17r, 34r, 36r-37r (in Greek, on Adam, etc.), 113v (“o ceci papiste ...”), 325v (Matth.13 In natis mulierum nemo existit Johanne baptista).
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, late 14th century.
Names written in book in 16th or 17th century, perhaps in one hand, “Thomas Graye”, f.9r, 197r, and “John Forster”, f.146v, 163v. “Sainte George”, f.1r and 2r top, 16th or 17th century, possibly Sir Richard Saint-George (d. 1635), herald and antiquary, or his eldest son, Sir Henry (1581-1644), also a herald. “Geo Davenport | 1670.” on slip from previous endpaper stuck to front pastedown; f. 1v his note of contents. Ex-libris and shelf number by Rud on f.2.
Parchment, good, matt, hair and flesh sides difficult to distinguish, some flaying edges and flaws.
1-398, 404
Written space 221-226 x 138-142 mm; ruling in sharp grey brown, but no line-pricking visible except on f.311. Two columns; 40 lines, with ruling for every tenth line through margins in quires 1-36. Added item (3): Written space 222x140 mm; verticals only, in sharp brown. Two columns; 48-49 lines, no line-ruling visible but pricking on f.314.
(1)-(2): written in a rounded uprightsecretary that employs 8 shaped g and 6 shaped final s, with rubrics, well executed, the black ink inclined to rub away (e.g. f.88r), earlier 15th century, signed by the scribe JB or BJ. Marginal index letters for each chapter by the main hand and ink. Item (3) written in secretary of documentary aspect.
(1) and (2): lemmata underlined in red in (1). Line fillers, in (2) only, in red and/or blue. Initials: (i) to (2) each new second letter, 1 line, in alternating red and blue; (ii) to (1) homelies and (2) each new first letter, 3 line (up to f.70v, f. 295, and in item (2), 4, 5 (f.121v, 179r, 200r, 207r, 212v 214v, 218r-220r, 245v), or 6 line (f.205v), in blue, with red flourishing sometimes with distinctive flower head terminals (e.g. f.68v, 129v). Running titles. In item (1) only, original, “Capitulum” on versos and arabic numeral on rectos in red above inter-column, “Omelia” and arabic numeral in black at top outer corner of rectos. No decoration of item (3), apart from penwork elaboration of initials and spaced majuscule final Amen.
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)
Lacks beginning, starts at Tract iii: 3.12. Tract lv starts "Pascha fratres" (f.207r), omitting "Cena domini ... dilexit eos". The tracts are numbered in the headings and running titles in a single sequence, ending “Omelia 124”; sub divisions are indicated by marginal letters. Calculation suggests that a little over 9 folios of text is missing at the start, but to judge from signatures a single quire [“a”]. Scribal monogram in colophon may be JB or BJ.
Tabula super Augustinum In Iohannem. The key words are arranged in strict alphabetical order, with a major coloured capital at the point where the first letter changes and a minor coloured capital where the second letter changes; under each key word the individual entries are numbered in arabic. Sampling indicates that the lettered subsections of the homilies referred to here correspond to the lettered subsections in item (1).
Added in remaining space of quire 40. Closest to the “short text” version. This copy includes a substantial passage (f.313vb-314rb) largely concerned with the Saracens, which is not found in the longer version, but does occur in a longer and divergent version in an “interpolated copy”: B.L. MS Additional 34018 f.94.
Parchment, mediocre, flesh-side outermost, some flaying edges.
Written space c. 225 x c. 135 mm; ruling in soft brown. 42-43 long lines.
Written in an angular Anglicana, of a documentary type, and rubrics, rarely employing long r, and some final Secretary s's by a scribe most likely called Eastwode, whose name is partly erased in the final rubric (f.325v), beside which was added “gloria patri | laus sit christo”, now erased.
Not executed: blank spaces, with guide-letters, for initials to (i) chapters, 2 line; (ii) opening, 4 line.
Normal division into 23 sections, probably composed in the later 13th century, more likely in England than France.
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]).
Stegmüller, Friedrich, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi , (Madrid: 1950-1980)
Wilmart, A., Auteurs spirituels et textes dévots du moyen age latin: études d'histoire littéraire , (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1971)