Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex written in England at the end of the 14th century containing Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae accompanied by the commentary of Nicholas Trivet, with an incomplete copy of Pseudo-Boethius De disciplina scolarium. The exact association between the two texts is unclear, but they are now bound together. The origins of the manuscript are not known before it was given to Bishop Cosin's Library by George Davenport in about 1670.
Parchment, some flaying edges, corners and flaws; quires with flesh-side outermost. Top quarter of f.45v left blank, probably because of its poor surface. f.69-72 (i.e. middle bifolia of quire) short leaves with flaying edges at feet, so evidence of a folded sheet? Stain on outer upper edges of f.1-24. Vertical cut across most of final flyleaf.
foliated i, 1-136, by R. A. B. Mynors, in the 1940s.
110, 2-168, 178 wants 7-8 after f.136. The inner front and back flyleaves are medieval pastedowns.
No visible pricks for line-ruling, only for verticals. (1) Written space 190-195 x 120-125 mm; framed in soft brown. 39 or, f.3v-130, 47-53 unruled long lines, or, two columns, the left for the metra, the right for the start of the commentary. (2) Written space 170 x 105 mm; framed in sharp grey. 35-36 long lines, but originally framed for 2 columns, 39-45 mm wide, probably on larger pages.
(1) written in a rightwards-leaning anglicana, proficiently, using occasional simple a, smaller from f.3v onwards, but possibly all the same hand, with descenders of bottom line elaborated in quires 5-13; the first portion of the exemplar appears to have been unavailable when copying started, for quire 2 onwards appear to have been written before quire 1, which is longer than those that follow, with the lower third of f.10v blank save for a note “Nichil deficit” in the scribe's hand and ink and the last two words of text repeated as the catchword below.
(2) written in bastard anglicana, proficiently, with textura conventions apart from looped d and v and long r.
Lemmata of (1) underlined in ink or, f.3v-5r and 6v-7r, in red. Virgules in red, f.6v-7r. Text capitals of some metra touched with red, also f.5r-v, 9r-v, 50r, 57r, 115r, 124r-125r, 126r. Paraphs in blue, or occasionally red, in quire 1, f.44r-51r and 58v, 75v, 77v, 81r, 89v, 100v, 105r, 110v, 115r, 118v 119r, 121r, 122v-124r, 126r, 128v, 130r, and (2). Line fillers in blue, and occasionally red, in quire 1 and (2).
Initials: (i) to divisions, 2 or 3 line, in blue, with red infilling and flourishing, embellished f.6v and 45r with blue; (ii) to books of (1) and chapter 5 of (2), 6 or 7 line, or book 5 and (2) 4 line, in blue decorated with red, with red infilling and flourishing; (iii) to opening of (1), 6 line, rather crude, in blue shaded with white, filled with gold ground and two large trilobe flowers springing from a green shoot, and surrounded by deep pink ground patterned with white and framed with gold, extended in upper margin as a green shoot with trilobe flowers and gold balls. The style of the red flourishing of the initials in both portions of the volume is uniform and distinctive, with various human faces in (1), e.g. f.2r, 3r, 11v, 23v, 45v). Initials and flourishing not executed in quire 5. Running titles through most of (1), in ink; none in (2).
Some sidenotes in (1) by the copyist. Numerous marginal corrections and supplies to text in quire 1 by a secretary hand of earlier 15th century; a few on later leaves.
Bound in Durham by Hutchinson, 17th century, sprinkled calf with blind double fillets, and gilt dot and dash roll B of Hugh Hutchinson on edges of boards rebacked mid 19th century, one clasp. Marks on back former pastedown (raised) of 5 (?) bands and stains of turn-ins; rust marks on the front former pastedown from two fastenings.
Written in Englad, end 14th century.
Inscription: “Geo. Davenport. 1664.”, visible on earlier pastedown through a window cut in 19th century pastedown; his note on Trivet from Bale and Pits, f.iv, below a title in a 16th/17th century hand (which occurs also in MSS Cosin V.ii.2, etc.), and “Freculphus” in margin of f.1r. Ex-libris and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud at head of f.1r.
Circular spaces for diagrams left blank, f.94v, 95v. f.130v framed but blank.
Defective, beginning in the middle of chapter iv and ending a few lines from the end in chapter vi. Out of a total of 863 lines, the first 396 are missing, the equivalent of 4.3 folios; the last 5 lines are also missing. The beginning of a chapter at the foot of f.132v is abandoned for a fresh start at the head of f.133r. Written on a separate quire in a different hand, the relationship of this piece to (1) is unclear.
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]).
O. Weijers, Pseudo-Boece de disciplina scolarium: edition critique, introduction et notes , (Leiden: Brill, 1976)