Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Psalms with gloss. Cantica canticorum with gloss
Parchment: low quality throughout, with clear contrast in tone between H and F, pronounced follicle marks, scars, edgecuts, and early repairs (e.g. f.5, 45). Arranged: HF, FH in (A), FH, HF in (B).
The modern pencil foliation counts unfoliated medieval flyleaf as 1 and then runs 2-185. Initially, the foliator had erroneously used 175 twice and had stopped with 183 on the last leaf with text; all these numbers were then struck through and the correct ones supplied above, continuing to 185.
flyleaf (f.1) singleton; (A): I1 (original structure uncertain), II7 (=8 lacks leaf 1 before f.3), III8, IV7 (=8 lacks leaf 7 after f.23), V-VII8, VIII7 (=8 lacks leaf 3 after f.50), IX8, X7 (=8 lacks leaf 2 after f.64), XI8, XII7 (= 8 lacks leaf 4 after f.81), XIII8, XIV-XV10, XVI9 (=10 lacks leaf 4 after f.116), XVII-XXI10. (B): XXII8, XXIII4, endleaf, f.185 singleton. The removed leaves all included the incipit of a psalm at a liturgical division (no doubt marked by an illuminated initial).
Written area.(A) central text plus flanking columns of gloss: approximately 222 x 190 mm. Biblical text alone (written above top line): 220 x 90 mm. (B) central text plus gloss: 220 x 215 mm. Biblical text (written above top line): 220 x 72 mm. Prefaces to both parts (f.2r, f.173r): 238 x 152 mm; two columns (width, 70 mm). Lines: (biblical text) 20 (space, 11-12 mm; height of minims, 5-6 mm); prefaces (f.2 and 173) 42 (written above top line).
The scriptural texts in both (A) and (B) are written in Textualis semi-quadrata, grand in scale and elongated; they are the work of the same hand. The variable, sometimes poor quality of the parchment surface has caused the ink to bleed in certain areas (e.g. f.170r-171v). The prefaces and gloss in both parts are probably the work of the biblical text scribe but, as the scripts are less formal and more compressed, it is difficult to be certain.
The leaves with the incipits of Psalms 1, 26, 51, 52, 68, 80 and 109, plus that with the start of the Song of Songs were doubtless removed on account of their decorated initials, though to judge by Psalms 97 and 101 these may not have been particularly fine. Psalms 97 and 101 (f.99r and 101v) are headed by 6-line high pen-work initials in red and blue with ornamentation in red, yellow and green, set against a green panel; qualitatively mediocre. The green, presumably copper-based, has penetrated the parchment. Other psalms, canticles etc., the litany and the prayers that follow it and the start of the Psalm preface are headed by 2- to 3-line-high initials, alternately red then blue, simply flourished in the other colour. Psalm and canticle verses etc. plus litany entries are headed by 1-line-high capitals, alternately red then blue. The Preface to Song of Songs and one of the subsections therein are headed by 2-line high green initials, simply flourished in red.
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)
Written in England?, start of 13th century.
Pressmark: .b., mid 14th century, f.2r, top right. Recorded in the Spendment Catalogue of 1392.
An addition made to the verso of the flyleaf by a single 15th/16th century cursive hand akin to that of Thomas Swalwell; it consists of three parts. 1. A, B, C, sunt extra, D, E, F, infra, G quoque supra. 2. Adam degebat ergo cifos adrifex | Cur confles adam flebis egens coeas. [Walther 490; here with abbreviations for the 12 months written above each syllable of the first line: Aiadamfe demgeapbatmay, etc.] 3. aIac, dfec, dmarf ...dnouember, fdecember. [The names of all 12 months, each with one letter above it and one letter below it, these corresponding to the relevant syllables in the first and second lines respectively of the verse that is item 2.]
Breaking off, owing to the loss of a leaf or leaves, a couple of sentences before the end.
Starts acephalus at Psalm 2.7, and lacks all or part of 25.1-26.3, 50.19-52.1, 67.29-68.6, 79.8-80.6 and 108.24-109.5 owing to the removal of leaves from between f.2/3, 23/24, 50/51, 64/65, 81/82 and 116/117. Psalm 118 is divided into the 22 sections of monastic usage. The glosses are keyed into place by lines and sigla.
All the items are set out, as (c), for a gloss but none was supplied.
Litany: the only entries distinguished by captials are BVM and the apostle Mark; among the martyrs the only English ones (nos. 19-21 of 21) are Edmund, Edward and Oswald; there are 10 confessors with Augustine doubled [Cuthbert is not included]; the only English virgin (no. 11 of 14) is Etheldreda. Prayers break off at the end of column 2, line 8, leaving the rest of the page and all of f.172v blank. Subsequently, 6 further lines of text were added in a poorly-formed, difficult-to read cursive hand, offsets and smudging indicating that the volume was shut while the ink was still wet.
There are no contemporary chapter numbers. Standard Parisian chapter numbering in Roman numerals was added as a running heading, 13th/14th century, the actual chapter incipit within the text being left unmarked.
A list of 40 incipits/cues, jotted on the flyleaf by a 13th century hand. f. 185v, blank
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]).
Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris,
approximately 1100-1160, Commentarium in
Psalmos ,
Library of Latin Texts A (Turnhout: Brepols, 2010)
Stegmüller, F., Repertorium biblicum medii aevi , (Madrid: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1950-1961)