Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Composite volume of four coeval parts: (A) Nicholas de Breckendale, Deponentiale (f.1-8); (B) Eberhard of Béthune, Graecismus (f.9-78); Alexander de Villa Dei, Doctrinale (f.79-124); (B) John de Garland, Unum omnium (f.125-174) plus flyleaf, all brought together at an early date.
Parchment
Modern pencil foliation starting on first leaf of main text.
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), 2 metal clasps; possibly reusing older wooden boards. Rust stains from clasp fixture of former binding at fore-edge of f.2 and 3.
Written in England, latter part of 13th century.
Held by Robert Constable, monk of Durham c.1362-1379 x 80, erased inscription f.1r, inner margin (visible under uv). Second erased inscription in outer margin, beginning “Iste liber”. “Alexandri Gramatica cum aliis”, in a 15th-16th century hand, f.1r, upper margin. “Liber grecismus ad doct-?- alexandri et aliis gramatibus notabilibus”, f.9r, lower margin, in a 15th-16th century hand.
Parchment
Lines preserved: 30 (out of 35) (space between lines, 9 mm; height of minims, 3 mm). Pricking: lost. Ruling: now imperceptible; originally hard point.
Written in Late English Caroline Minuscule, neat and spacious. The one hand represented is identical to one of those in DCL MS A.III.29. It is very similar to that responsible for the strips that were reused in, and then recovered from, an earlier binding of DCL MS C.IV.12 - possibly also from the same book.
Incipit(s) marked by plain red capitals, 3+ lines high, plus two words in ink capitals, 1 line high. Rubrics in red rustic capitals.
This is one of the three leaves missing from between the current f.128 and 129 of DCL MS A.III.29, as is evident from the late medieval foliation of that book which moves directly from ‘129’ to ‘133’. The loss evidently occurred between the addition of the foliation and 15th/16th century, when “hic deficit membra tria -?-” was noted on 129r
Detached leaf from DCL MS A.III.29. Verso includes: Dominica xv post pentecosten. Lectio sancti evangelii secundum Matheum. [I]n illo tempore. Dixit dominus iesus discipulus suis. Nemo potest duobus domini [sic] seruire, et reliqua [Mt 6.24]. Om’ Lec’ eiusdem. Exposita a venerabili Beda presbitero. Nemo potest duobus dominis seruire, quia non ualet simul transitoria et eterna seruire. Si enim … exponit dicens// [Bede, In Lucae euangelium expositio, ch. 16.
Parchment: modest quality with noticeable H/F contrast. Arranged FH, HF.
I8
Text-block: 187-8 x 50 mm. Written below top line. Lines 39 (space, 5 mm; height of minims, 1.5-2 mm). Pricking: knife. Outer margin only for horizontals. Ruling: ink. Designed for main text and gloss. Four pairs of verticals define a relatively narrow central text-block, flanked on both sides by columns for glossing, flanked in turn by a narrow inner margin and a wide outer margin. First two and last two horizontals extended. Every horizontal used for main text.
Main text: sub-Textura text-book script ; a single scribe. Principal glossing hand: cursive documentary script - very close to, possibly same hand as glossed other parts.
None. Spaces (2 lines high) reserved for initials at start of each stanza (with guide-letter in margin) remained unfilled.
As the scribe reached the bottom of the final page of the quire (f.8v) with only eight verses remaining, he slotted these into the outer margin of that page. Heavy glossing at the start of the text – top half of f.1r only, plus a single gloss on f.5v, top. Apothegms added by different 14th-15th century hands on f.2r (“Si quis amat christum mundum non diligit istum”: Walter, Sentenzen, no. 28959), f.4v (faint, rubbed and largely illegible, but includes “fidelium sancti spiritus” in the middle), and f.5r (“Est mea mens mota pro te s”: Walter, Sentenzen, no.7607, incomplete.)
Parchment: modest quality with noticeable H/F contrast. Original patch (f.78). Arranged FH, FH in quires III-VI; irregular in quires I-II.
I10, II-VI12
Main text-block: 165 x 52 mm. Written below top line. Lines: 31-32 (space between lines, 5.5 mm; height of minims, 1.5-2 mm). Pricking: none preserved. Ruling: Plummet and ink. Design for main text and gloss, as in Part A but with three vertical lines on the inside of the main text block.
Written in Textualis libraria , compact. One hand. Glossed in Gothic documentary cursive, compressed. Apparently for the most part in one hand - possibly the main text scribe.
Main incipit initial ('Q', f.9r), red and blue, 4+ lines high, with flourishing and waterfalls in both colours. Initials for metrical preface ('h' f.9r) and section divisions throughout are blue flourished in red, 2+ lines high. Numerous paraphs, alternately red then blue, throughout. Additional rubrication - underlining certain lemmata that are the subject of marginal glosses, adding chapter rubrics, correcting initial (f.18v), rubricating a few sections of gloss (f.20v, 25v, etc.) - done by a different, less tidy hand.
With metrical and prose prefaces; here ending with scribal colophon. Hunt, Teaching and Learning, I, p. 94-98. Extensive contemporary glossing in all marginal zones, and between the lines. Glosses at the top of the upper margin (many now lost through cropping) were often accompanied by pointing hand(s). Long note at bottom of first folio (“Stilum ac uere. Intelligendum est quod stilus est equiuocum … et est grauis siue grandilocus quo vtitur Virgilius in Eneide”).
Parchment. Modest quality. Arranged FH, HF.
I-III12, IV10
Main text block: 166 x 68-70 mm. Lines: 32 (space, 5-6 mm; height of minims, 2 mm). Pricking: none survives. Ruling: ink/crayon. Designed for main text and gloss. Main text-block defined by three verticals at its inner and two at its outer side respectively. Another single vertical defines space for glosses in the inner margin; a further pair of verticals divides the outer margin into two columns for glossing. 64 horizontals, all extended; main text written every other line. Extra pairs of horizontals in top of upper and bottom of lower margin.
f.79r-123v Main text of item (c) plus item (d):Written in Textualis libraria, compact; one hand – very similar, possibly identical to that of Part (B). Addition of five omitted lines (plus gloss) on f.117r possibly a different contemporary hand.
f.124 (e1-2) Written in Textualis libraria (e3-4, in a similar script, may or may not be by the same hand). Glossing throughout, plus item (e)5: documentary cursive, compressed – very similar, possibly identical to that of Part (B) (and to main hand).
In item (c) the Preface, the Incipit (both f.79r), and the start of Ch. 5 (“De generibus”) are marked by bi-colour (red and blue) initials 3+ lines high, with red and blue flourishing. All other chapters and section initials are 2 lines high, red with blue flourishing, then vice versa. Red paraphs and underlining in both text and gloss from f.79r-86r and on 90v. No articulation in (d) or (e).
Later notes, titles (“De mediis sillabis”, etc.) and keys to item (c) e.g. f.105v, 108r ff.
As revised by John of Garland. Extensive marginal and interlinear glosses throughout. The first line of the first gloss has been cropped off. The gloss immediately above start of Preface (f.79r) declares: “Ego Johannes vel magister Alexander”. The ends of the lines of many glosses in outer margin cropped. Two lines added in a bold hand, 13th-14th century, to upper margin of f.105v: “Mundus sit hostis … noctibus atque diebus”. From f.108r, marginal titles in a different 13th-14th century hand, flagging the syllables and letter combinations (“A ante B”, etc.) being treated.
\Oratio dominicalis in lingua greca [- heading added in upper margin]. Transliterated Greek with interlinear Latin gloss on every word, including ‘art[icilus]’ for the articles. Most words are followed by a point.
Transliterated Greek with interlinear Latin gloss on every word, including ‘art[icilus]’ for the articles. Most words are followed by a point.
Transliterated Greek with interlinear Latin gloss on every word, including ‘art[icilus]’ for the articles. Most words are followed by a point.
Transliterated Greek with interlinear Latin gloss on every word, including ‘art[icilus]’ for the articles. Most words are followed by a point.. The bottom half of the page is blank.
56 lines of educational apothegms, including several mentions of Oxford (“Oxonie sedes ?inuita relinquet amenas”, “Oxonie rector pie cancellarie uosque”). Extensive interlinear glossing (NB: in the line “Vestis erit fracta si sit dissensio eterna”, “dissensio” is glossed “id est discordia inter magistros” and flagged with a sketched face).
Diagrammatic classification of learning, added in lower margin
Main text: Textualis libraria, compressed – same hand as Parts (B)-(C). Gloss: Gothic cursive – same hand as Parts (B)-(C).
First initial (f.125r) red and blue, 7 lines high, with flourishing and waterfalls in both colours. Subsections headed by blue initials, 4 lines high, flourished in red. f.125r-132r, red paraphs for subsections within text, red boxes around the corresponding key words copied in the margins, red underlining for lemmata cited in gloss. From f.132v-174v, paraphs in red and blue. No other use of colour until f.172v when key words in margin start to be boxed in red again. f.162v sketch of profile head as part of marginal gloss.
With an Accessus at end of text: “Comoda dicemus et cetera. Quoniam ut dicitur, scientia est nobilis animi possession que distribute suscepit incrementum et avarm dedignata possessionem … Unde sciendum quod alphabeetum est ordinate collection litterarum ad initialem doctrinam totius scientia”. Marginal and interlinear gloss throughout the work, beginning: “Hic excusat se auctor a perfectis uersibus .i. a ueris uersibus quo ad metrum dicens quod non uult tenere metrum … ”
Bursill-Hall, R.L., A census of medieval latin grammatical manuscripts 
, (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1981)
Hunt, T., Teaching and learning Latin in thirteenth-century England (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 1991)