Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing Roger of Waltham's Compendium morale, written in England in the mid 15th century. It was owned by George Davenport, by whom it was given to Bishop Cosin's Library ca. 1670.
Parchment; smooth; natural edge, f. 185; quires with flesh-side outermost)
foliated i, 1-93, 93*, 94-106, 106*, 107-248.
18 wants 1-3 before f.2, 28, 310, 4 two (f.25-26), 58 wants 1-2 before f. 27, 6-278, 288 wants 1 before f.207, 29 308, 318 wants 2 before f. 231, 328, 332, 34 two (ff. 247 248).
No evidence of pricking visible. Written space 239-244 x 175-177 (83.13.80) mm, or, f.27-248, 232-235 x 158-168 (71.17.70 75.18.74) mm; ruled in ink. Double columns. 41-42, or, f.27-248, 34-35 lines.
Written in a set, tall angular anglicana, with both looped and unlooped d, and a frequently single compartment; and for rubrics, bastard anglicana , expertly. Ink varying from black to brown, faded or flaked away on some leaves.
Text capitals of items (2)-(5) inconspicuously filled with yellow. Most head words in item (1), and sources of citations in item (2), underlined in red. Paraphs red or blue, alternating in item (1) and list of rubrics concluding item (2), the latter having red line fillers. Divisions of text of item (2) entered in margins, in red. Initials: (i) to item (4) and to divisions of items (4) and (6) and subdivisions of item (2), 2 line, blue, with infilling and flourishing in red; (ii) to item (5), 3 line, as (i); (iii) to each new letter of item (1), 4 line, as (i); (iv) to divisions of item (2), 2 line, gold, on a ground of deep pink or blue and filled with the other colour, patterned with white, with marginal sprays in ink touched with pale green; (v) to item (7), 3 line, as (iv) with pink infilling shaded with white; (vi) to item (6), 4 line, as (iv); (vii) to item (3), 6 line, blue and pink shaded with white, on a ground of gold decorated with foliage and strawberry pistil in orange, green, blue and pink shaded with white, and with marginal sprays as (iv) also with foliage as on ground and gold ivy leaves; (viii) to items (1) and (2), on missing leaves. Running titles. In item (2) only, Rubric number in red, by the hand of the text and the marginal numbering.
Item (2) has original sidenotes: Narracio, Exemplum, Parabola, Prosa latina et gallica, Versus; also a few brief supplies, including, in Rubric 7.D.6, the couplet “Cum pare pungnare ... super omnia pax tibi prodest”, cf. Walther, no. 4293. In item (3) original supplies in the margins of f.219v-220r, also some original or contemporary marginal notes, including hand pointers. Rough bird or animal head in soft brown, f.112r lower margin. “Nota” and “Nota bene” repeatedly on f.171r-177r, 15th century. “Hystoria notanda” in soft brown, f.171v foot; “notanda sequencia”, in ink with a thick pen, f.195v, early 16th century, accompanies much underlining and systematic marginal markings in grey brown ink, which earlier in item (2) are accompanied by a secretary hand of mid 16th century (some passages are marked with an ink trefoil by the same hand). Italic marginalia, 16th/17th century, in brown ink, e.g. on f.81v-82r, 104r-106r.
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, mid 15th century.
Inscription: “Geo. Davenport. 1670.” on paper slip from previous binding stuck on pastedown; his list of contents, f.1v.
Start missing. Alphabetical subject index to item (2). For the authorship and opening words see Oxford Bodleian Library MS Laud misc. 616; Bodl. MS Fairfax 4 contains the same index, but other copies of item (2) have differing indexes. f.25v-26v ruled but blank.
Start missing. The text is divided into 12 rubrics; red letters and numbers in the margins indicate these divisions and subsections, which correspond to those used in item (1). List of rubrics at end (f.216r-v) - Prologue is numbered 1 and in consequence Rubric 1-9 are numbered 2-10, but, since Rubric 10 is unnumbered, Rubrics 11 and 12 are numbered as in the text. Each of Rubrics 7 and 8 in the list is divided into two, at “De .jj. [recte 12] Abusionibus” and “De quadriplici paciencia”, but in neither case is this second part numbered and the sub divisions of the text are continuous. Other copies have 13 Rubrics (B.L. MS Royal 7.E vii) or 14 Capita (Oxford, Merton College MS. 265). The text includes French quotations: “iuxta illud quod gallice dicitur Fous est qe fere ne voet. ceo qe a force fere le estuet”, f.112v; “Et ideo a tali amore cauendum est. sicut inde alius. sic gallice refert. Damour qe de pecche vien se doit chescun bien garder. keplins la croit pur fol se tient qant vient a desseuerer. Nul ne se ydoit affier qe damage et honte crient. Nest pas amour einz est amer qe meynt homme ad mys a nyent”, f.181v. Original marginal gloss re Ciconia, “anglice a stork”, f.61. f.216vb ruled but blank.
Lacking text by the loss of one leaf between f. 230 and 231. The text has no divisions.
A compilation, here attributed to Augustine, mainly comprising extracts from Gregory, Moralia in Job, xxiv, 11. Another mid 15th century copy is Cambridge Trinity College MS B.5.18 (164) f.67-71, in which there is also a copy (f.47v-48r, of item (5).
Here attributed to Augustine; two copies at Hereford Cathedral Library, MSS O.III.11 and O.VI.7 attribute it to St Bernard.
Single subdivision (f.237r), where the text diverges noticeably. Attributed to Augustine. Cavallera argues for 14th century authorship of (6) and (7) (p.144-145)
Attributed to Cyril. Cavallera argues for 14th century authorship of (6) and (7) (p.144-145). The bottom third of f. 247 is torn away; f.248v ruled but blank.
Bibliotheca hagiographica Latina antiquae et medii aetatis 
(Brussels, 1898-1901);Supplements (Brussels, 1911, 1986)
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]).
Cavallera, F., Saint Jérôme: sa vie et son oeuvre (Louvain: Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 1922.)
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)
Römer, F., Die handschriftliche Überlieferung der Werke des heiligen Augustinus. 2.2, Grossbritannien und Irland. Verzeichnis nach Bibliotheken (Wien: Böhlaus, 1972)
Walther, H., Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi. Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischer Anordnung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963-86)