Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing Middle English translation of Jan van Wackerzele's Life of St Barbara, possibly produced for Syon Abbey, written in England in the mid 15th century. Owned by George Davenport and presented by hin to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Parchment, quires 7- 10 less matt and with flesh-side outermost save for quire 10.
foliated i-ii, 1-80
1-98, 108 wants 5 (blank ?) after f.76 and 7-8 (blank ?) after f.77.
f.1-48: no evidence of pricking or line-ruling.
Written space c. 160 x 103 mm; framed in sharp grey. 24-26 lines, the first on top frame-line.
f.49-77: Written space 150-155 x 106-112 mm; framed in sharpish brown. 26-28 lines, the first on top frame-line.
f.1-48: written in anglicanaof common law type, expertly by one hand, with variations in size, but most notably a spreading on f.48v suggesting that work had already started on the following quires. Rubrics from f.28r onwards by second hand.
f.49-77: written in anglicana, expertly, by one hand, with more secretary features (e.g. unlooped w) than the first hand and generally smaller.
Latin names and quotations underlined in red. Text-capitals lined with red. Principal ink punctuation-marks in quires 1-3 touched over with red. Paraphs in red in quire 1. Line-fillers in red by second hand. Initials, two, f.1r, 2- and 3-line, in washed-out blue, with infilling and flourishing in red.
Bound in Durham by Hutchinson, later 17th century, sprinkled brown calf with pairs of blind fillets along three sides and vertically 20 mm from spine, blind roll along hinge-lines; Hutchinson's roll G gilt on edges of boards. Spine replaced, mid 19th century; one clasp. Stains on f.79v from the mitred turn-in of a previous binding.
Written in England, mid 15th century.
Special mention of SS Brigit and Augustine in item (1a) points to the origin of the text at Syon Abbey, but there is no direct evidence for this copy. Description of contents, in the hand of George Davenport, f.iir; ex-libris and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud on f.1r.
Anonymous translation of Jan van Wackerzele, Life of St Barbara (BHL 920 and 926, without 918 the author's prologue), with a new preface. 16 chapters; unfilled blank spaces for the rubrics to chapters 2 and 9. The top half of f.4r is void, as if for a final portion of chapter 1 or a long rubric to chapter 2, but there is nothing more at this point in London Lambeth Palace MS 72. This version is much longer than the life in Caxton's Golden Legend. Without the prefatory lines, it is one of the items incorporated only in the copy of the Gilte Legende (of the prose translation dated elsewhere 1438) in Lambeth 72, see Görlach 1972, p.19-20; another additional life in Lambeth MS 72 is that of Jerome by Simon Wynter, brother of Syon abbey, also without its prologue. The mention of SS Brigit and Augustine indicates that the translation, and possibly this copy, were made for Syon Abbey, which followed both their rules. Bodleian Library Douce frag. e.47 has the end of chapter 8 and most of 9, sig.D2-4 of an early printed edition of this version (ESTC S508507: Pynson c.1520?).
Anonymous translation from Latin of Jan van Wackerzele (BHL 933-55, without 933 the author's preface). 23 stories; here miracle xiii precedes xii, as in Lambeth 72.
Unique to this manuscript.
Introductory stanza to a verse-life of St Barbara, added in an italic hand, possibly by “J Fullwell”, to judge by added underlining and numbering of the words “full(2) well I(1)”.
Most of one leaf on optics, bound in upside-down. 200 x 140 mm. 2 columns, each 60 mm wide, of 45+ lines; written in academic leftwards-leaning textura, brown ink; unfilled spaces for diagrams.
Part of a bifolium of Latin rhyming couplets, bound in along foot. Parts of the concluding portion of the set of Latin poems (1363) on William de Valence and his son Aymer, earls of Pembroke, including the prose heading referring to the latter's death in 1324, by Jacobus Nicholai de Dacia, scholar of Marie de St Pol, Aymer's widow and foundress of Pembroke College Cambridge. The text here (f.79r-v foot and 79v-r top) corresponds to BL MS Cotton Claudius A.xiv f.32v-33v and 37r-38r; Paris, B.N. lat. 10323, is another copy, from the Cologne Charterhouse: see Lehmann 1930, p.43-44. Over 34 lines, up to 80 mm long, each leaf more than 140 x 120 mm; written in English secretary; possible sewing-hole in former centre-fold.
Bibliotheca hagiographica Latina antiquae et medii 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]).
de Gaiffier,B., "La légende latine de Sainte Barbe par Jean de Wackerzeele", Analecta Bollandiana lxxvii (1959), 5-41
Görlach, M., The South English Legendary, Gilte Legende and Golden Legend , Braunschweiger Anglistische Arbeiten 3 (Braunschweig: Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina zu Braunschweig, 1972)
A new index of Middle English verse , ed. J. Boffey & A. S. G. Edwards (London: British Library, 2005)
Hamer, R. & Russell, V., ed., Supplementary Lives in Some Manuscripts of the Gilte Legende , Early English Text Society os 315 (Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Jenkinson, H., "Mary de Sancto Paulo, foundress of Pembroke College, Cambridge" Archaeologia 66 (1914-15) 401-446
Lehmann, P., Mitteilungen aus Handschriften II (München: Verlag der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1930)