Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing John of Hildesheim's account of the Three Kings of Cologne and a short piece on St Hilda, written in the mid 15th century. The manuscript was owned or written in by people in London and then Cumbria. It was owned by George Davenport who gave it to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Parchment, quires with flesh-side outermost; some flayed edges; lower edges cropped.
foliated, i-iii, 1-116
1-138, 144
Pricking in outer margins of quire 1. Written space 95 x 63-68 mm; framed in sharpish brown, with ruling generally invisible. 19 lines.
Written in a rounded anglican formata with simple a, expertly, by one hand, J frequently decorated in text, as an ascender and in left-hand margin.
Paraph, blue, to run-over, f.108r. Initials: (i) lombards to each couplet, f.106r-106v, 1-line, alternately red and blue; (ii) to chapters of item (1) and cf. initial I to item (2), 2- line, blue, with infilling and flourishing in red; (iii) to item (1), 7-line, blue and red, with infilling in red and flourishing in red and a little blue.
Marginal correction, mid 15th century, f.35v.
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). Red staining round edges of f.iir and 115v, as from former cover; holes, half-way down outer edge of f.ii and at centre of f.96-115, as from fixings of former strap-and-pin fastening; offsets of turn-ins and sewing supports. Unbound for a period, to judge by soiling of outermost pages of quires.
Written in England ?, earlier 15th century.
Inscriptions: “Nomen scriptoris Iohannes plenus amoris forte sic”, mid 15th century, f.114v, in a different style from the main text. “Henricus Percy Alianora Percy Chaundos Miser”, later 15th century, f.115r. Eleanor was the name of the wife of Henry Percy 3rd earl of Northumberland, also of his daughter, and of the 4th earl's daughter. There was a Chandos herald at the end of the 14th century. “Memorandum quod codex iste ... Armigeri” erased, and “Peto vt liber iste restituatur predicto <domino Ricardo (?)>” erased, later 15th century, f.1r. “Here by the powre and auctorite off my Lorde of London and off his Iuge of the pencystary (?) I do chare Io hu”, 15th/16th century, f.2r. “Iohanni ponde de Chelmersford”, start of 16th century, f.2r; “Noveritis me fratrem Wyllm ponde ordinis minorum london”, start of 16th century, f.2v: for William Ponde's ordination as subdeacon, March 1522, see Register of William Warham (Lambeth Palace Library) f.296r (information from J. R. H. Moorman). “anno domini 1526”, added to explicit of item (2), f.111v; also “1526 .f.”, f.52r. “Rychard Myche” erased, earlier 16th century, f.iir. “Codex presens attinet Iohanni Grethed notario publico Carlij Registrario teste manu Io sign Gr notarius”, mid 16th century, f.114v (reproduced in Doyle 1966). “Rychart Harison vt my hand Bernardus aglionby (twice) Regsterer”, mid 16th century, f.1v, is not in the hand of the latter, who was registrar of Carlisle from at least 1561 until 1576, see image in Wilson 1895. “Rychard Herryson of Edmonde Bridge parochie de Penrythe Carliolen dioc. Script Anno domini 1564”, f.81v, and, in the same hand, “Thomas Tutins Carliolen <Episcopatus del.> Offic. Curie ... 1564 Vnum mandatum execut”. “Quisquis in hunc librum sua lumina proferet vnquam: Nomen subscriptum perlegat ille meum. Thomas Foster: July 16. 1640.” (repeated in Greek and Hebrew characters) f.83r margin; and, in the same hand, “Thomas Foster 1640”, f.48r. “Geo. Davenport. Donum Johannis Tempest Armigeri. 1668”, with Davenport's note of contents, f.2v (see Cosin MS V.iv.2 and V.iv.5 for other gifts from Tempest to Davenport. Not included among manuscripts in Cosin's library catalogued by Thomas Rud, c. 1720, and it lacks the usual ex-libris and press-mark in his hand on the first page, implying that it was missing from cosin's Library at this time. “Amissum reperit restituit R. Harrison 1778”, f.2v; Harrison appears to have acted as Cosin librarian at the end of the 18th century.
The longer version of the text (not mentioned by Horstman). Fairly similar to that in Cambridge Corpus Christi College MS 275, which, with London BL MS Cotton Cleopatra D.vii, were the only British copies used by him. A number of passages are omitted, including 281/10-285/20, 287/15-289/ult., 303/25 “Hij Nestorini ...”-304/2; 296 note 31 is shorter; 311 note 5 “Nota quod ...” lines 4-31 are replaced by the distich “Hee quicumque secum portat tria nomina regum. Soluitur a morbo domini pietate caduco”. The text is divided by the coloured initials into 101 sections, subdividing those of the edition: into two, iv, vi, ix, xi, xiv, xxii, xxiv, xxix - xxxiii, xxxvi, xxxvii, xl; into three, v, xxxiv, xxxviii; into four, xxvii, xlii, xlvi; into five, xliii; into eleven, xlv; into twelve, xli. London BL Royal 8.F.xii, art. 6 does not have the variant p.311 note 5; the others the Royal catalogue cites do, but not the couplet substituted for part of it in the Cosin copy. Schaer gives a parallel Latin text reconstructed from the genetically related sub-group of manuscripts, see p.39-42, 46-47 and 180-184. It lacks the distich and the three concluding miracles attributed to Germanus Historiographus on f.106r and 106v. The last words are as in the former Mendham MS 4.
See Horstman 1901, ii, 30 (line 26)-31 (line 18) for a shorter version by John of Tynemouth, which is not found in Bede, nor in the Breviarium Eboracense. Two lines left blank at the beginning, for rubric ?
Note that a charm was found in a linen purse on the body of William Jackson, “a Roman catholic and proscribed smugler”, attainted at Chichester 16 January 1748/9 for the murder of “Gallez and Chater”, invoking the Three Kings “Ces billets ont touche aux trois testes”; “Consule Spanheimii Dubia Evangelica, t.2; p.289”. Probably added by R. Harrison. The reference is to F. Spanheim, Dubiorum Evangelicorum pars secunda (Geneva 1639), 288-90. where the names and attributes of the Magi are discussed and the verses (3b) quoted.
In the same hand as (3a), added below the explicit of item (1)
Bibliotheca hagiographica Latina antiquae etmedii aetatis 
(Brussels, 1898-1901); Supplements (Brussels, 1911, 1986)
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]).
Catalogue of western manuscripts in the Old Royal and King's collections , Warner, G. F. and Gilson, J. P.
([London]: Printed for the Trustees, 1921)
Doyle, A. I., "A Durham manuscript and its inscriptions", Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological and Antiquarian Society, n.s. 66 (1966), 468-70
Ker, N. R., Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, II. Abbotsford - Keele , (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1977)
Horstman, C., The three kings of Cologne: an early English translation of the "Historia trium regum" by John of Hildesheim, edited from the MSS., together with the Latin text , Early English Text Society os 85 (London: N. Trübner, 1886)
Horstman, C., Nova legenda Anglie: as collected by John of Tynemouth, John Capgrave, and others, and first printed, with New Lives by Wynkyn de Worde A.D. MDXVI. , (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1901)
Schaer, F., The Three Kings of Cologne, from London, Lambeth Palace MS 491 Middle English Texts 31, (Heidelberg: C. Winter, 2000)
Walther, H., Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina 1. Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris latinorum: alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Versanfänge mittellateinischer Dichtungen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959-69)
Wilson, J. "Some signatures of Carlisle notaries", Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Archaeological and Antiquarian Society, old series xiii, (1895), 156-157