DCL MS. B.IV.22Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons
Held by: Durham Cathedral Library: Durham Cathedral Manuscripts

Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons on the Song of Songs, at the front of which a brief chronicle of early 12th century has been added by Simeon of Durham, and to which a table of contents was added in the 14th century. A fragment of Hyginus' Astronomica is at the end.

Digitised: https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2m6682x400h.html

Physical description of manuscript
Support

Parchment

Extent: 210 f
Size: 270 mm x 155 mm

Foliation
Secundo folio: hanc intellegendam (f.7)
Collation

I5, II-X10, XI-XXIV8, XXV4

Layout

Written space: 215 x 135 mm. 31-36 lines.

Script

Written in transitional Caroline minuscule by several hands, including Symeon of Durham

Decoration

Capitals in red and green. f.206v has pencil drawing of a kneeling monk.

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)

Manuscript history
Creation

Written in England, Durham, early 12th century.

Provenance

Inscription: ““Liber Sancti CVTHBERTJ dunelmi.”, mid 12th century possibly in the hand of (c), f.6r
List of contents, 14th/15th century with an entry for (d), “tractatus quidam incompletus de spera”, added 15th/16th century by Thomas Swalwell, f.5v
Pressmark “B”.

In early lists of books.

Manuscript contents
(a)     f.1-2
Modern title: Tabula for (c)
Date: 14th century
Language: Latin

A later addition

(b)     f.3-5v
Modern title: Annales breves, to 1125
Author: Simeon, of Durham, -approximately 1130
Date: [1125]
Language: Latin
Cited: Gullick 1998, no. 30
(c)     f.5v-206v
Original title: Sermones in Cantica canticorum
Author: Bernard, of Clairvaux, Saint, 1090 or 1091-1153
Language: Latin
(d)     f.207-209
Original title: Astronomica
Author: Hyginus, Gromaticus
Language: Latin

Fragment


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 Cathedral Library.

Digitised material for Durham Cathedral Library MS B.IV.22 - Bernard of Clairvaux, Sermons
Digitised August 2018 as part of the Durham Priory Library Recreated project. Pages with marginalia not visible in the image because they are too far into the gutter: f.4r, f.52r, f.63r, f.129v, f.134v There are three images with layers: f.i r on light sheet to show watermark f.i v on light sheet to show watermark f.208v colour and light adjusted to show characters scratched onto parchment
https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2m6682x400h.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]).

Gullick, Michael, "The hand of Symeon of Durham: further observations on the Durham Martyrology scribe", in Rollason, David, ed., Symeon of Durham: historian of Durham and the North (Stamford: Shaun Tyas, 1998), 14-31

Mynors, R.A.B., Durham Cathedral manuscripts to the end of the twelfth century. Ten plates in colour and forty-seven in monochrome. With an introduction [including a list of all known Durham manuscripts before 1200]   OCLC citation, (Durham: 1939)

Index terms