Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing John Walton's English translation of Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae, written in England in the mid 15th century and owned by Henry Parker, Lord Morley, William Browne of Tavistock and George Davenport, by whom it was given to Bishop Cosin's Library in about 1670.
Paper (most chainlines horizontal, i.e. quarto of royal sheets (which must have been c. 580 x 400 mm), with “Huchet” watermark (in a form not found in Briquet) in mid gutter, or, f.26+35, 28+33, 30+31, 77+80, 78+79, 87+94, 89+92, 90+91, 98+111, a thinner (chancery) paper in folio format, with variants of a “Char à deux roues” (cf. B3547, occurring 1467), and “Pomme de pin” (cf. B12436, c.1454-78)
foliated 1, 1*-113
112 wants 1 before f.2, 2-812, 916 (inner 2 front flyleaves coarse and conjoint, the second a third only of full width; inner back flyleaf similar)
No evidence of pricking remaining. Written space c. 205 x 125 mm; framed in soft brown; 34-35 unruled long lines plus spaces between stanzas; top and bottom lines commonly written on or outside frame line; stanzas run over from one page to the next.
Written in a set hand with mixed secretary and anglicana forms (8-like g), somewhat unevenly, by one hand, with all its top line ascenders elaborated. The same hand wrote Bodley MS.283 (Scott 1980, p.60-65 and Doyle 2006).
Line-initials red-stroked f.2-18, and then first of stanzas only to f.20. Red tittle (tremolo-like) to each stanza, in margin. Bracket to rhyme ties, f.2r only, in red; subsequently brace, or more commonly rounded bracket in 3 form, to each stanza, in red. Selected initials: 2 , 3 or 4 line, plain red lombards.
Early side notes in red, f.9v-10r. Side notes, perhaps by William Browne and another.
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). Quire centres strengthened with paper strips, 19th century.
Written in England, mid 15th century.
Part of a medieval merchant's mark, by a similar pen and ink to those of the text, f.82r outer margin, which has been mostly torn away with the beginnings of other 15th/16th century inscriptions or pen trials. “1554” at head of f.15r. “[...] secundum Harry Morley”, f.112v, early 16th century, after mostly obliterated English words and above a Latin couplet in the same pale ink; this is apparently Henry Parker, Lord Morley (1476-1556); James Carley confirms that it is the same hand as in BL Harley 4775, the mid 15th century Gilte Legend,and in two letters of 1523, Cotton Vitellius B.XX, f.285v, 286v. See also Axton & Carley, p. 40, 71, 74.
“This is Edmund Mariet booke and h”, f.103v upside down in lower margin, by a mid-late 16th century childish hand; the same name on f.98v in the same position and ink; “Edmund” repeated on f.56r, 91v. “Richardson R Rychardson”, “Rychard Buckley Buckley”, f.112v, each 16th/17th century, with other pen trials. “Pleasure peryshethe lightelye but honnor is immortall. Quothe J. Thornehull”, “T.Perkyns”, f.113r, 16th/17th century, among other pen trials.
“Willelmus Browne 1612”, f.2r; English side notes on f.5v, 6r, 7v and one in Greek on f.10v are apparently by his hand; English side notes on f.60v and 67v-8r in a 16th/17th century small legal anglicana may also be his, since the same hand occurs in B.L. MS Harley 4196 which also belonged to him, see also Edwards 1997.
“Geo: Davenport 1664.”, f.1v. Ex-libris and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud on f.2r.
Boethius, rendered in English stanzas (ababbcc) by John Walton, Canon of Osney in 1410, according to other copies, beginning imperfectly at Prefacio translatoris stanza 9. The 1927 edition states that this copy of book I is very closely related to Oxford Bodleian Lib. MS E Mus.53, but not in subsequent books. Several dislocations of blocks of stanzas between books II and III, probably derived from misbinding or loose sheets in an antecedent. The 17th century added title, "Boetius his 5 Bookes of Philosophicall Comfort. Translated into English by John Lydgate", f.iv, probably taken from an unrelated prose translation published in 1609 (ESTC S102854).
Axton, M. & Carley, J. P., “Triumphs of English”: Henry Parker, Lord Morley, translator to the Tudor court 
(London: British Library, 2000)
Boethius: De consolatione philosophiae translated by John Walton , ed. Science, M. Early English Text Society os 170 (London: OUP, 1927)
C.-M. Briquet, Les filigranes: dictionnaire historique des marques du papier dès leur apparition vers 1282 jusqu'en 1600 (Amsterdam: Paper Publications Society, 1968)
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]).
Doyle, A. I., "The copyist of MSS Bodley 283 and Durham Cosin V.ii.15", Journal of the Early Book Society 9 (2006), 125-9
Edwards, A. S. G., "Medieval manuscripts owned by William Brown of Tavistock (1590/1?-1643/5)", in Carley, J. P. & Tite, C. G. C., ed., Books and Collectors 1200-1700: Essays presented to Andrew Watson (London: British Library, 1997), 441-449
A new index of middle English verse , ed. J. Boffey & A. S. G. Edwards (London: British Library, 2005)
The mirroure of the worlde : MS. Bodley 283 (England c. 1470-1480) , ed. Scott, K.L. (Oxford: Roxburghe Club, 1980)