Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex apparently made up of at least twelve separate sections, fragmentary quires probably brought together by Davenport, who numbered the main items and gave the manuscript to Bishop Cosin's Library about 1670.
Parchment; or, f.110, 112-119 and 121, octavo paper, 15th century (watermarks not sufficiently distinct to identify). Some flayed edges in (D) and (H), original uneven holes with defective surface in f.18-20, and 42; all portions cropped, worn or faded, or stained (?rust f.120-1); parts of f.14* and 21 torn away.
foliated in ink (18th/19th century) 1-150, with 14 and 88 repeated.
Besides a few marginal corrections to the main items (e.g. f. 30r, 50r, 58r), and some items probably added in blank spaces, there are the following: f.103r “domine dominus noster quam admirabile est nomen”, Ps. 8:2,10, pen-trial (13th/14th century); f.108r arabic numerals 1-10; f.108v “Dominus dominus noster quam” in red, twice (14th century); f.117v “Clerus”, “Clare Voce”; f.121v “Ego nolo” repeated (15th century), Latin grammatical verses, “Extopo”, “Johannes ... quod iohannes”, “Portant sepe sarsinas scapile gemelle ... 0148, by the hand of item 25 ?; f.124v pentrials upside-down; f.137v minuscule alphabet with letters repeated (15th century); f.148r minuscule alphabet with each letter separated by three minims; f.148v minuscule alphabet; f.149r “Qui bene wlt fari bene debet” repeated, and various letters; f.150r, single letters and groups and names (Adam, Bernardus, Clemens, Dionysius, Fenix, Galfridus, Lucas, Matheus, Thome, Welous) (early 15th century); f.55v “A lyinge tunge dothe bred muche evell & crafte dothe”, (earlier 16th century); f.120r phrases in English and Latin, (later 16th century); black ink crosses on f.36v, 39r, 52v, 54r, and trefoils, 17th century?) f.38v, 43v, 50v, 54r.
Brown morocco Tuckett binding, mid 19th century (Charles Tuckett, binder to the British Museum, rebound many Durham manuscripts in the 19th century). Spine-title “Hortus Delitiarvm etc.”. Endleaves parchment, 19th century; f.1-2 octavo paper, late 17th century, from previous binding.
Written partly in England, partly in Europe. Item (30) most probably written at Rufford (Notts.); section (J) in northern East Anglia or thereabouts, see the linguistic features of items (19) and (25c), and the scribe signing item (27), John Salysbery of Soham. "Iste liber constat fratri Johanni artowre", also "Fuit homo missus a deo cui nomen erat Johannes Artowre", 15th century, f.122v, the last leaf of section (J). Contents-list by George Davenport, f.2v; ex libris in the hand of T. Rud, f.1r, also additions to contents-list, f.2v.
112
No pricking or ruling visible, written space approximately 125 x 90 mm, 23-24 long lines.
Written in anglicana of a documentary type, proficiently, mid 14th century.
Written in England, mid 14th century.
A treatise on human reproduction: a dialogue between D[iscipulus] and P[hilosophus]; also found in Cambridge Trinity Coll. O.2.5 (1109) f.75r-85v and Paris, BN, MS lat. 14809 f.298v-312v, Disputatio de generatione humana. This copy ends imperfectly, apparently in the section "De forma capitis". The first and last surviving pages are so faded, soiled and worn as to be largely illegible.
Parchment; hair-side outermost.
28
No pricking or ruling visible, written space approx. 112 x 80 mm, 29 long lines.
Written in a smallproto-gothic bookhand, unevenly, 12th/13th century. Enlarged scribal capitals in ink, set out in margin, to sections on f.15-16.
Written in England, 12th/13th century.
A sermon (?), possibly on Cant. 7:13 “Omnia poma nova et vetera”. Defective: the top outer third of the leaf torn off.
A treatise (or part of one) on priesthood and sin.
Parts of f.21 torn away, with loss of text.
The beginning of a moral or miracle story, lacking all but the first line through loss of following leaves.
36
A few pricks and traces of outer frame-line visible, written space 102-110 x 72-75 mm, 28-31 long lines.
Written in asmall northern European bookhand of academic type, a little unevenly, mid 13th century.
Executed only on f.22r: red paraphs; rubric to chapter-list; initials in red, (i) in chapter-list, 1-line, (ii) to chapters, 2-line, not executed, (iii) to first chapter, 3-line.
Written in Northern Europe, mid 13th century.
An unidentified Mariological tract; it cites Remigius, beatus Anselmus, and Ekebertus abbas [of Schönau from 1166, d. 1184] ad Mariam. First page worn, faded and stained. Starts with 12 partly illegible lines, each with following roman nos, i-xii; end missing.
46
Slit-pricking, some frame and line-ruling in ink or sharp brown visible, written space 97-103 x 74 mm, 21 long lines.
Written in a small textura of liturgical type, expertly, 14th/15th century.
Executed only on f.28-31: ink initial to each line lined with red; initials to section, 2-line, red.
Written in England (?), 14th/15th century.
Verses on the seven days of creation and the ages of man, lacking beginning and end. Six leaves of one quire from a copy of Petrus de Riga, Aurora, Book I Genesis), lines 9-260, corresponding by verse lines 42 per leaf exactly with pages of Durham Cathedral Library MS B.IV.28, f.3v-6v, with the contents of f.3r (Prefacio and ll. 1-8) lacking. As the placing of initials does not correspond between the two copies, besides some verbal variation, it is improbable that Cosin was copied from the Cathedral manuscript, and it is likely that such parallelism of pages or leaves occurred more than once within the tradition of this text (as it did with 46-line columns of English verse in copies of Gower's Confessio Amantis over a much shorter period). The phenomenon allows for the facility of copying out of sense sequence; though there is no evidence of it here the Cathedral copy is misbound, as Rud notes (Catalogus p.230-1). Both copies are of the first recension, i.e. without the additions by Aegidius of Paris: cf. edition, volume I, l-liv, 21-37.
Parchment, flesh-side outermost
512? wants ?4-9 after f.36
Frame-ruling only, in ink, written space 100-102 x 70-72 mm, 27-29 long lines.
Written in a smallanglicana, proficiently, first quarter of 15th century.
Not executed: 2-line spaces for initials to stories.
Written in England, first quarter of 15th century.
Portion of Gesta Romanorum, in the Anglo-Latin version: [56] “Dolfinus”, end missing; [60], beginning missing; [61] “Gorgonius”; [62] “Omas”; [63] “Alypodius”, end missing. Six leaves must be lost between f.36 and 37; there seems to be a gap of a word or two in xlviii (Dolfinus) after f.37, despite its last word (ex-) being incomplete.
Parchment, hair-side outermost
610 with 2+9 misbound in quire 7 (as f.50 and 55), 78 wants ?7-8 after f.54, + one bifolium from quire 6 now intruded after f.49 and 54.
Ruling in brown, written space 102-114 x 90 (43.5.42) mm, 2 columns, 27-30 lines.
Written in a small bookhand of academic type, rather unevenly, by two hands, one (f.40-41 and 50r-v) more cramped and using blacker ink, 13th century.
Paraphs filled with red; simple line-fillers in red; headings, etc. underlined in red.
Written in England, 13th century.
A summary of civil law principles, defective at the end and possibly internally; according to Dr G. Dolezalek, Bamberg Staatsbibliothek Can. 94 f.82ra-86vb contains all or some of the sections indicated below. Misbound: if the sub-headings quoted below are correct, f.50 should follow f.40 and f.55 precede f.47, and this would normalise the sequence of flesh and hair sides; the quiring of f.48-49 (71-2) is uncertain.
f.43va: Expliciunt flores codicis iustiniani sanctissimi principis. Incipiunt flores trium librorum codicis.
f.44va: Incipiunt flores disgestorum de iusticia et iure.
f.55va: Expliciunt flores .F. ueteris. Incipiunt inforciat.
f.47vb: Expliciunt flores inforciati. Incipiunt flores trium parcium.
f.48ra: Expliciunt flores trium parcium. Incipiunt flores institutionum.
f.48va: Expliciunt flo. insti. Incipiunt flores autenticorum.
f.49va: Expliciunt flo. auten. Incipi. flo. F. noui.
A vocabulary of terms of Roman law, arranged possibly in relation to some of the texts.
82 (strip only of 2 after f. 56)
No pricking or ruling visible, written space 123 x 98 mm, 33 long lines.
Written in a minutedocumentary cursive, proficiently, 13th/14th century.
None
Written in Southern France?, 13th/14th century.
A tract on legal procedure in relation to general proxies, defective at the end by the loss of at least one leaf, of which the surviving strip has writing in the same hand on the recto but none visible on the verso. For a comparable tract see Paris BN MS lat. 4489, f.100ra-101va, Forma opponendi contra procuratoria secundum symonem (written in Italy, 13th/14th century).
9-1014, 1118 (fragment only of 18 after f. 100)
Corner pricks, no ruling visible, written space 128-135+ x 70-75 mm, 27-29 long lines.
Written in a current anglicana and textura (for verse), fluently, first quarter of 14th century. Original side-notes down outer margin f. 62v.
Capital filled with red, f.57r; paraphs in red, f.57-60, etc.; initials in red (i) to sections, 3-line, (ii) f.57r, 4-line, with a little crude infilling etc.
Diagrams. Circular, in scribal ink, with legends by the same hand, f.71v, 81r (cropped), 84v, 85r (cropped), 88*r (cropped), 89r (cropped), 90r, 91r (cropped), 91v, 96v (cropped), 99v, 100r, 100v.
Written in England, first quarter of 14th century.
A dialogue between Dux and Philosophus, with 14 diagrams, preceded by a prologue addressed to Geoffrey Plantagenet, c. 1144-50 (printed Strasbourg 1567); here breaking off at a point corresponding in the two versions of William's earlier Philosophia, with further text visible on the remaining fragments of a leaf torn away after folio 100: i.e. ending in book IV, 13, line 54 (ed. Ronca p.120, after Figura 15). Thorndike, History, ii, 50-65, and Speculum 20 (1945), 84-87, and A. Vernet, Scriptorium (1946-47), 243-594 (repr. id. Etudes Médiévales (Paris, 1981), 143-59, add. 660-666) list many manuscripts but not this copy. Ronca used forty manuscripts, but not this, where the 2nd diagram, on f.71v, agrees in purport but not shape with only one half of Figura 2 in Ronca; the 3rd on f.81r is cropped at the foot; the 6th on f.88*r and the 7th on f.89r are cropped at the feet; the 8th on f.90r differs from Fig. 8 and 9, while the 9th on f.91r is like Fig. 10, the 10th on f.91v as Fig. 11, the 11th to 14th as Fig.12-15, the last two cropped.
128
Corner pricks, no ruling visible, written space approximately 105-125 x 80-90 mm, 29-33 long lines.
Written in a current cursiva, fluently, or, for verses, fere-textura, awkwardly, first quarter of 14th century.
Capitals in table, f.106v, filled with red; paraphs in red; each line of verse lined through in red; simple line-fillers and braces in red; initial in red, 3-line, with some crude patterning, etc., f.101r.
Diagrams. Circular, in red and scribal ink, f.108r-v.
Written in Northern Europe, first quarter of 14th century.
Computistical verses (Walther, 19208) (John of Garland attrib., Compotus metricus), with prose prologue and commentary, (T&K 1033) (John of Garland, Alium compotum metricum: Erfurt Amplonian Q.346, Vienna 5239) and also Cambridge Gonville & Caius Coll. 385/605 f.80-82 and Bodl. Auct.F.29 f.99-105. In the mnemonic calendarial verses (f.103r-v), (Walther, 2805), the English saints Cutbertus, Botulfus and Edmundus occur. The verses at the end (f.108r), (Walther, 14563), are found, one line per month, in the calendars of the Sarum Missal and Breviary as printed. The lower half of f.108r has a semicircular diagram of the spheres; the upper half of f.108v a rota with the names of the heavenly signs and months.
1312 + one bifolium (f.110 + 121) from another quire or codex (containing Items (18) and (27)); f.110, 112-119 and 121, octavo paper, 15th century (watermarks not sufficiently distinct to identify)
ff. 109r-v, 111r-v, 120v lines 1-5: No pricking or ruling visible, written space 118 x 85 mm, 29 long lines.
f.110r-v: Corner pricks, no ruling visible, written space 119 x 75 mm, 24-25 long lines.
f.112r-118v, 119v: No pricking or ruling visible, written space approximately 120-130 x 90 mm, 21-26 long lines.
f.121r-v: No pricking or ruling visible on recto, written space 90 x 85 mm, 19 long lines.
f.122r-v: No pricking or ruling visible, written space originally more than the present page-size, 27 long lines.
ff. 109r-v, 111r-v, 120v lines 1-5: Written in small current anglicana with single compartment a, fluently, 14th/15th century ("qwen", "qwat").
f.110r-v: Written in a current anglicana with both forms of a but secretary g, proficiently, mid 15th century.
f.112r-118v, 119v: Written in a current anglicana, untidily in places; for headings on f.114v-118v, in textura or bastard anglicana, but on f.119r-v underlined in red, mid 15th century.
f.121r-v: Written in a current anglicana with both forms of a, fluently, mid 15th century.
f.122r-v: Written in a squat anglicana of documentary type with single compartment a, rather untidily, mid 15th century.
ff. 109r-v, 111r-v, 120v lines 1-5: Headings underlined in red, paraphs in red, rubrics, f.109r-v. Diagram. Circular, in scribal ink, cropped, f.111r.
f.110r-v: No decoration.
f.112r-118v, 119v: Headings underlined in red.
f.121r-v: Table. Square, in scribal ink, f.121v.
f.122r-v: No decoration.
Written in England, 14th-15th century.
Five recipes, the last imperfect; rubrics, f.109v only, rubbed. The same hand copied other English pieces: items (19)-(20) and (26a).
The last 46 lines of words with initial P and the first three of those with initial Q, as in Cambridge Trinity Coll. MS O.5.4 (1285), f.30r-v. This leaf is half of a stray bifolium, for the other half see item (27).
Also found in Cambridge St John's Coll. MS E.2, f.38v, and Jeremy Norman & Co. Catalogue 8, no. 10, with facsimile p.47. The spellings here have an East Anglian flavour. The diagram occupying most of f.111r consists of three concentric rings, the outer with + A-Z, the middle with a random sequence of numbers between 3 and 27 (some repeated) under the letters of the outer ring; the innermost ring is blank. The central circle is divided into quadrants, the two upper each labelled "Vita" and the two lower "Mors", with three columns down the middle with days of the week and, divided between Vita and Mors, numbers from 1 to 30 (days of the month ?); in the corners outside the rings the names of the four evangelists, those on the fore-edge [Mattheus] and Jo[hannes] cropped, like the text.
Thirty-seven , written in one hand; some marginal headings cropped.
A medical recipe, in a different hand (?) from item (21).
Twenty-seven, written with a different pen and ink from item (21). (21b) Master Jordan is probably Jourdain de Turre, c. 1313-35: Wickersheimer, ii, 513-4, and iii, 195. The title, Flos vnguentorum, and incipit of the fifth piece, f.115v-116r, tally with the Latin of Singer & Anderson 1068, attributed to Petrus Hispanus (Pope John XXI), and here it has a long preliminary commendation, ending "Thys was wrytyn and cast in to the reclus at þe red hylle in Almayne the weche rechus wrowht many merueyllis Afterward And he vsyd neuer othyr but thys alone"; for the German of Red Hill, see perhaps somewhere called Rotenberg.
Four, written by various pens and inks.
All written by one hand.
Has "xal" (for shall), symptomatic of northern East Anglia.
In the same hand as items (17) and (19)-(20)
In another hand; (26b-c) obscured by rust-like stains.
In another hand; (26b-c) obscured by rust-like stains.
In another hand.
Isaiah 7:10-12, adapted; by a different hand.
In the same hand (?) as item (18), on f.110, which is conjoint with f.121; the two are apparently a stray bifolium from a codex containing complete or fuller texts of both.
Portion of a grammatical treatise. Soham is 5 miles from Ely, but was in the diocese of Norwich until 1837.
Two medical recipes, written by one hand
The end of (a) cropped away.
1412
No pricking visible, ruling in brown visible on some leaves, written space 110-115 x 80 mm, 27-28 long lines.
Written in bookhand but with d and b sometimes looped and final s cursive, proficiently, 13th/14th century
Rubrics; virgules and paraphs in red; initials, 2-line, red.
Written in Northern Europe, 13th/14th century.
From the start of the work, breaking off in the life of St Andrew (corresponding to p.1-21 in the Graesse edition).
1516
No pricking or ruling visible, written space 128+ x 100+ mm, 24-26 long lines.
Written in adocumentary anglicana, expertly, second quarter of 14th century.
Not executed; spaces for initials (i) to items (30a-d), 2-line, (ii) to item (30e), 4-line.
Written in England, second quarter of 14th century.
Copies of documents concerning possessions of the Cistercian abbey of Rufford (Notts.). This transcript may have been kept at York rather than Rufford in view of the additions in item (33). G. R. C. Davis, Medieval Cartularies of Great Britain, (London, 1958), pp. 126-7 (wrongly said to belong to Durham Cathedral).
Grant to Rufford abbey of land in the vill of Rotherham, the whole demesne, the advowson of half the church, several homages and services, and the lordship of half the market and fair; Bek was archdeacon of Durham 1275-83. The top outside corner of f.135r left blank, presumably for an unexecuted introductory rubric.
Royal inspeximus confirming (30a), 9 February 1283.
Grant by Peter de Mauley to Rufford of all the liberties, lands and tenements of his fee in Rotherham which he had by the gift of John de Vescy, with the advowson of half the church; Burnell was bishop of Bath and Wells 1275-92 and Chancellor 1274-92; as Bek is not placed or styled as bishop of Durham it is presumably before 1284.
Final concord between the abbot of Rufford and John de Vescy, April 1284. The lower half of f.138r blank.
Publication, at the request of Rufford's proctor, Henry de Haxiholm, of a royal licence for appropriation of the church of Rotherham 6 Oct. 5 Edw.[III? 1331], of letters about it by William [de la Zouche] archbishop of York 7 April [13]49 and by the chapter of York Minster 22 April 1349, and of the abbey's appointment of proctors, [13 July 1360, with notarial certifications by John de Lund and Hugh de Fleteham]
Mock-heroic (?) assonantal verse, written as prose.
Copy of letter, by a different hand from item (31), concerning payment for purchases of velvet, canvas, linen, with prices per ell.
Copy of letter, by a different hand from item (31), moves from courtesies to a request for a loan of an unspecified sum of money.
Sums (mostly 4d each) owed to 40 men, also including Robert Coper "mayster mayson of ye towne" and Richard Throkylby "mayster masun of ye haby" (St Mary's Abbey), probably for work on York Guildhall, c. 1447-50: cf. A. Raine, Medieval York (1955), p.136-7; J. Harvey, English Mediaeval Architects (1954), p.26, 75-6.
Bond with Ricardo de Neuton, dated Catterick (?), 22 September 1385.
Copy of a letter from London to a married man; most of the first three lines rubbed away.
Aurora: Petri Rigae Biblia versificata; a verse commentary on the Bible 
, ed. Beichner, P., ([Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1965)
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]).
The Anglo-Latin Gesta Romanorum , ed. Bright, P. (Oxford: OUP, 2019)
Gvillelmi de Conchis Opera omnia / 1, Dragmaticon philosophiae , cura et studio I. Ronca. Summa de philosophia in vulgari, cura et studio L. Badia; J. Pujol, Corpus Christianorum Continuatio Mediaevalis 152, (Brepols: Turnhout, 1997)
Schneyer, Johannes Baptist, Repertorium der lateinischen Sermones des Mittelalters für die Zeit von 1150-1350 , (Münster : Aschendorff, 1971-95)
Singer, D. W., & Anderson, A., Catalogue of Latin and vernacular plague texts in Great Britain and Eire in manuscripts, written before the sixteenth century (London: William Heinemann Medical Books, 1950)
Thorndike, Lynn and Kibre, P., A catalogue of incipits of mediaeval scientific writings in Latin (Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1963)
Jacobi de Voragine Legenda aurea, vulgo historia Lombardica dicta ad optimorum librorum fidem recensuit, emendavit, supplevit, poliorem lectionis varietatem adspersit ... catalogum Sanctorum bibliographicum , ed. Graesse, J. G. T. (Dresden: Ramming, 1846)
Walther, H., Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina 1. Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris latinorum: alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Versanfänge mittellateinischer Dichtungen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959-69)