Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex copy of an English translation of the Doctrine of the Hert, with the two works known as the Tree and Fruits of the Holy Ghost. Written in East Anglia (Norfolk) probably for a nunnery, by four scribes. Item (2) was copied by two scribes (I and III) working simultaneously to some extent at least, possibly from an exemplar divided into quires or bifolia: scribe III's stint begins at the top of f.44r, the first of two leaves inserted in place of four leaves in quire 3, and the text runs on directly from the end of scribe I's stint, which ends only 5 lines down f.43v, so leaving the rest of that page blank. Scribe II, the corrector, apparently took the blank on f.43v to have been left for a missing passage of the text, such as that he had supplied on f.30r, and so filled it, with the same text as that at the start of scribe III's stint, f.44r lines 1-23, which were cancelled subsequently. There are some variants in spelling between the two copies of these lines. Item (4) last chapter (f.125r-150v) appears to have been copied at a different stage from chapters 1-6, to the page format that scribe III used in completing item (2); his distich at the end of the text on f.124v may indicate that he initially believed this to be the end of item (4). Items (2)-(4) are also found in Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS McClean 132, but that is not clearly either the source nor a derivative of the copies here. The manuscript was subsequently owned by George Davenport, by whom it was presented to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Partly parchment: quire 6 (scribe IV) in toto (all hair-sides outwards); outermost and innermost bifolia of quires 1-3 (very largely scribe I); outermost bifolia of quires 4-5 and 7-12 (scribe III), also adjoining bifolium of quire 7. Otherwise paper (quarto), with deckle outer and lower edges of some leaves; watermarks in quire 1 of Agneau Pascal, cf. Heawood, no. 56 (c. 1483-85), Briquet nos 23-25 (c. 1481-95), Piccard XV.x.1637-8 (1455, 1478), 1640-1 (1481-2), 1643-6 (1483-9); in quires 2-3 and with variants in quires 7-9 of Bonnet, cf. Heawood no. 20 (c. 1444-59), Briquet no. 2825 (c. 1448-74, incl. London 1453); in quires 4-5 and 10-12 of 3 Monts in a circle with cross above, Briquet no. 11851-94 (1391-1430).
foliated i-ii, 1-151, with f.i-ii and 1 also numbered 1-3; f.92-140 and 142-150 have a pencil foliation (1-20, 22-29, 31, 30, 32-59) by George Davenport that takes into account (as f.20) the leaf lost after f.111 but skips the singleton leaf (f.141) containing supplied text.
(A) f.1-70: 1-216, 316 wants 12-15 after f.43 replaced by 2 leaves (f.44 and 45), 414, 514 wants 10 (blank ?) after f.69 and 12-13 (blank?) after f.70; (B) f.72-91: 68, 712; (C): f.92-150) 814, 914 wants 7 after f.111, 106 (2nd and 3rd bifolia, f.120-123, transposed), 1114, 1214 + 1 leaf (f.141) after 2 and wants 12-14 (blank?).
f.1-43: No evidence of pricking. Written space
150-160 x 110 mm; blind or framed faintly in grey. 22-31 long lines.
f.44-69: Frame ruled in ink 146-160 x 105-110 mm. 32-35 long lines
f.72-91: Wavy pricking for horizontal lines, first
and last pair across margins, 127-130 x 90 mm, ruled in ink, 24-26 lines.
f.92-150: 163 x 100 mm, 30-35 lines.
Scribe I: f.1-43v line 5, except passages by scribe II: a mixed cursive, more secretary than anglicana, proficiently, with top-line ascenders decorated with strap-work, and elements of some capitals on left margin elaborated with leaves and human faces. Latin and English quotations underlined. Spellings East Anglian (xalt, xuldyst but also schulde in places; qu- or qw- for wh-).
Scribe II: f.17r-v and 32r-v (outer bifolium of quire 2), 30r/8-15, 39r/5-foot, 43v/6-foot (duplicating f.44r/1-23 by scribe III), and f.141r-v (inserted leaf); also marginal corrections throughout. A smaller neat cursive with simple a.
Scribe III: a set anglicana formata, leftwards leaning. Latin quotations underlined, f.44r-69v, 92r-140v, 142r-150v. Named on f.124v in a distich as William. On f.92r-150v, see LALME I,87, 240, II,490: CP 8480, Bury St Edmunds.
Scribe IV, anglicana formata of more cursive character, with Secretary final s, Latin quotations Anglicana formata, expertly. Named on f.91v as Robert Baile. Spellings East Anglian (xall, xalt); LALME I,87, 240, II,482: LP 8310, south of Bury St Edmunds. Chapter-headings underlined (in red on f.92v and 95v). Copying inattentive and uncomprehending, to judge by the number of corrections made by scribe II.
Not executed; unfilled spaces for initials to items (3) (3-line) and (4) (4-line).
Brown marginal + signs occur throughout the volume, particularly in scribe III's stint, wherever a correction was thought necessary. By no means all were carried out; where they have, a black dot near the + indicates that correction had been done. This was effected within the text, in the margins, or as a supply leaf (f.141), neatly, by scribe II, evidently from exemplars, rather than independent judgement.
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). Originally bound up early, to judge by scribe II's notes to guide the reader over the transposition of bifolia (f.120- 123) in quire 10, but not before that scribe's corrections in quire 4, see that across the gutter of f.53v-54r; marks of 4 bands (IIII), f.i (raised 15th century pastedown); offsets, illegible, of manuscript strengthening strips, now missing, at the centres of quires 4, 11 and 12 (f.53v-54r, 131v-132r and 146v-147r).
Written in England, East Anglia, mid 15th century.
Written probably for an East Anglian nunnery, in part by two named and experienced scribes (III and IV), possibly commercial copyists, though their prayers may indicate a charitable enterprise; the dialect features of their work have been diagnosed as characteristic of Bury St Edmunds and its southern hinterland. Completed and corrected (scribe II) in the same hand as Cambridge UL MS Hh.I.11, f.45r-53v, 55r-60r, another mid 15th century volume, which from its contents was made for a nunnery, and from its language in East Anglia, see LALME I,67-8 and III,326, which places the common hand, and four others in that manuscript, in Norfolk. Probably prepared as an exemplar for further and fairer copies, to judge by the amount and care of correction. A Robert Bale, a notable mid 15th century London scrivener, was brought up in Bury St Edmunds but his usual script was a fluent Secretary quite unlike the Anglicana here. At the head of the original first flyleaf, f.iir, “amen quod Iohannes Waynfleett”, in spindly textura in red, later 15th century, perhaps the brother of Bishop William Waynfleet of Winchester, who was dean of Chichester and died by November 1479, BRUO iii, 2001. “Welles” (cf. item (1)), f.151v, twice, 15th century, amongst numerous pen-trials in similar ink and script-styles. It has been suggested that this manuscript may be the copy of the Doctrine of the Heart bequeathed by Margaret Purdans of Norwich, bequeathed in 1481 to Margaret Yaxle, nun of Bruisyard (Suffolk) and after her death to the convent. she also gave a preference in selling property to John wellys of Norwich. A note in CUL Hh.i.11 possibly refers to Bruisyard. Duplicated passage, f.43v, crossed out in ink, perhaps by the same 16th/17th century hand as supplied a catchword there. “Geo. Davenport. 1664.”, f.iv; his list of contents and notes from [Thomas] James and Pits on the Doctrina Cordis, f.iiv; he also foliated items (2)-(4) separately in pencil, noting on f.90r the reference to Stimulus Amoris “made by Bonaventur”, on f.111v the loss of the following leaf, and he wrote “Finis” in ink and “G.D. 1664” in pencil, f.69v, 91v and 150v, in the last case with “Perlegi”. Pencil numbers, trefoils and other signs by him in the margins of items (2) and (4). Ex-libris and (altered) shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud on f.1r.
Repeated on the same page, in a similar hand, with slightly variant spellings (e.g.“myht”), “day” omitted and ending “he be et cetera”. There are medieval pen-trials and scribbles on this page and also f.70v-71r and 151r-v, chiefly in Latin and including phrases of the Vulgate and liturgy, epistolary formulae, etc.
Adapted translation of De doctrina sive praeparatione cordis. Latin text attributed to Hugh of S. Cher; for attribution of the original Latin to other authors, see Hendrix 1980. The text in English edited Candon 1963, from four manuscripts including this; Cosin (which is the only copy with initial x regularly for s(c)h), and Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, MS McClean 132, fall into one group, but, although they are closely related, it is not clear that either is derived from the other. The main text begins on f.2r, after a preface and list of seven chapters. Also edited by Whitehead et al. 2010, where preference for authorship of the Latin original is Gerard of Liège, following Nigel Palmer. f.70v-71v blank, frames ruled; pen-trials, Latin and English.
Closer to McClean 132 than BL MS Add. 24192 or the printing of 1534/5, but neither is derived from the other. Name in colophon erased but visible in ultra-violet light.
In the space below the end of chapter 6, f.124v, the scribe (III) wrote “Wyth mercy and pyte Prey for þe wryhtere of thys dyhte William”. A passage omitted on f.140v near the beginning of the “twelfth frute” (edition p.139/19 “as it is ...” - 140/21 “virginite”, was supplied by the contemporary corrector (scribe II) on an inserted leaf, f.141r-v. The bifolia comprising f.120-123 were transposed very early, and notes by scribe II, supplemented by catchwords, guide the reader to the correct order: f.121, 120, 123, 122.
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Candon, M. P. The doctrine of the hert , (Ph.D. dissertation), (New York: Fordham Univ., 1963)
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]).
A deuout treatyse called the tree & XII frutes of the Holy Goost , ed. Vaissier, J. J., (Groningen: Wolters, 1960).
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Hendrix, G., "Hugh of St Cher O.P., author of two texts attributed to the 13th-century Cistercian Gerard of Liège", in Studia Cisterciensia Reverendo Patri Edmundo Mikkers O.C.S.O. septuagesimum aetatis annum agenti ab amicis oblata , (Achel: Abdij, 1980), 343-356
A linguistic atlas of late mediaeval English , ed. Macintosh et al. (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1986)
A new index of Middle English verse , ed. J. Boffey & A. S. G. Edwards (London: British Library, 2005)
Piccard, G., Die Wasserzeichenkartei Piccard im Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart: Findbuch (Stuttgart : Kohlhammer, 1961-97)