Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex, written in France or England at the end of the 13th century, containing Aristotle, De sophisticis elenchis; Topica; Analytica priora; Analytica posterior. Created as two contemporary parts, produced separately (as is shown by the different sets of catchwords and signatures, along with the early leaf-total noted on f.162v which - allowance made for a slip - presumes that counting started on the present f.109) but to a matching format: (A) f.1-108, quires I-XIII; (B) f.109-200, quires XIV-XXIV. The contents list indicates that they had been brought together by the 14th century at the latest.
Parchment: low quality, pronounced H/F contrast, holes, flaws (some stitched up) and edgecuts, papery texture.
Modern pencil foliation.
(A): I-XII8, XIII12. (B): XIV-XXIII8, XXIV12.
Text-block: 115 x 75 mm. Planned for all-round glossing. Lines: 21 (space, 5.5; height of minims, 2 mm). Pricking: awl or knife. Ruling: ink and lead. Double verticals to either side of text-block; a further pair of verticals divides the outer margin into two zones. The first two and the last two horizontals are extended; another pair of horizontals and a further single horizontal divide the upper margin into three zones; a pair of horizontals (occasionally three) and a further single one (occasionally two) divide the lower margin into three zones. Extra horizontals were supplied in lead or ink on an ad hoc basis to guide some of the glossing.
Written in Textualis semi-quadrata. Number of scribes uncertain, possibly one. The script becomes slowly smaller, thinner and more compressed from around f.80, then more so again from around f.90. There is no obvious change of aspect between f.108v and 109r (end of (A) and start of (B)). Glossing hands: cursives of differing degrees of informality; generally highly compressed and heavily abbreviated; sometimes guided by ad hoc horizontal rulings, often not. The glossators contributed pointing hands in various styles, plus other motifs.
The incipits of texts and a few other major divisions are marked by red and blue initials, 6+ lines high, flourished in both colours, historiated in a rather naïve style; most are accompanied by red and blue flourished display capitals. The figural subject-matter is as follows:
f.1r (start of item (a)), a seated, tonsured figure addressing a company of five tonsured heads.
f.15r (item (a) De responsione), Nativity of Christ within the bowl of the letter; a dragon and a crowned grotesque forming its stem.
f.30r (start of item (b)), Annunciation; flourishing of the stem of the letter ends in a dragon head.
f.98v (item (b) Book 8, Christ (with cross-nimbed haloe) enthroned, blessing with his right hand, holding a book with his left; flourishing of the stem of the letter includes a dragon head.
f.109r (start of item (c)). The three Magi, standing before a seated Herod; flourishing at the bottom of the stem of the letter includes a beast head wearing a mitre.
f.163r (start of item (d), Adoration of the Magi (a long cut running down the upper margin beside this initial suggests that an abortive attempt was made to excise it).
f.187r, an initial of the same grade (presumably historiated) that marked item (d) has been excised.
f.133v, ‘sequentia-extranea’ diagram for item (c) § 28, zones coloured in red, yellow, blue and green. Sketches for, or rough copies from, the diagram appear in the margins of f.132v-134r.
Bicolour red and blue initials, 6 lines high, flourished in red and blue, head Books 2-7 in item (b). Some accompanied by line fillers, a couple of which take the form of a dragon. A later hand added beside the initial to Book 4 (f.56v) an ink sketch of a standing man holding a book in his left hand and a scroll in his right; one of his legs is raised, seemingly kicking the initial. A line of text to the right of the figure may have been added at the same time; very faint in parts, it seems to say: ‘-?- -?-by [or ‘--bet’] ?Rogerus [the first letter looking more like a ‘B’ than an ‘R’] est ep'[?episcopus] -?-de senex’.
In (a), (b), and (c) subdivisions are marked by red initials, 2-4 line high initials, flourished in blue (then vice versa); there are no such divisions in (d). Red and blue paraphs subdivide the text throughout.
A fine drawing of a head wearing chain mail was added to f.23v. Sketches of pointing hands, of three half-length figures (two male, one female, one certainly an ecclesiastic), and of two rather cruder bust-figures were all added to the bottom of f.200v.
The glosses sometimes include sketches (e.g. f.9v, bird; f.11v, face; f.14r, rampant lion; f.19v, hybrid with human head and trumpet; f.60v, female head; f.62r male head; f.139v, bizarre human head).
Bound in Durham by Waghorn, 18th century. Brown calf over pasteboard boards (simple panelled style with two rolled rectangles defining three zones, the innermost and the outermost of which are sprinkled darker; fleurons in the corners); 2 older metal clasps with circle and bell patterns. Two pairs of rust-stained holes towards the fore-edge of the unnumbered parchment flyleaf, from the metal fixtures for the clasps on an earlier binding; a third single rust stain at the fore-edge midway between them. Six round rust stains along the inner edge of the same leaf (60, 100, 135, 170, 210, and 245 mm from the top) possibly from metal pegs used to secured the cords into the lacing channels of a former front board.
Written in France or England, late 13th century.
The text erased from f.1r, lower margin, may have been an early ex libris (from location on page presumably not Durham).
Pressmark: “G” written three times, 14th-15th century, at top and bottom of f.1r, those at the top crossed through. “Duo libri elencorum cum iiijor librris topicorum”, early 15th century, f.1r, top centre.
Pressmark: “2'a 10i D”, 15th century, f.1r, top right. Listed in the 1392 and 1416 Spendement catalogues.
Extensive glossing, marginal and interlinear, by several hands,13th-14th century; pointing hands. A few blocks of marginal gloss have been erased. Two unfinished diagrams in the outer margin of f.10r. Further notes and pen-trials on the unfoliated flyleaf preceding the text.
Extensive glossing, marginal and interlinear, throughout, by several hands, 13th-14th century. Numbering (in Roman numerals) was added to the margins on f.37v-39v and f.41r-49v. A few glosses were subsequently erased.
Extensive glossing, marginal and interlinear, throughout, 13th-14th century; includes diagrams on f.129v and 130r. Below the end of the text a contemporary hand wrote (faintly): “fol′ sexagesima iiiior”, presumably a slip for ‘54’ - the number of leaves in (B) to this point.
Extensive glossing, marginal and interlinear, throughout, 13th-14th century, several hands; includes start of a diagram on f.172v; a few glosses erased; on f.163-4 the erasure of glosses seems to have extended to removing portions of the page. The end of text is followed by 14th century pen-trials.
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]).
Dod, B. G., ed., De sophisticis elenchis , (Leiden: Brill, 1975)
Minio-Paluello, L., ed., Analytica Posteriora , (Bruges ; Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1968)
Minio-Paluello, L., ed., Analytica Priora , (Bruges ; Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1962)
Minio-Paluello, L., ed., Topica , (Bruxelles ; Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1969)