Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Composite manuscript codex made up of two parts (A) p. 1-76; (B) p.77-144) that were clearly brought together during the 12th century (indicated by description on du Puiset list: “Retoricae duae”).
Main body of book paginated in ink, 1-144, early 18th century (by Thomas Rud).
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 or Northern France, mid 12th century.
One of the books donated by Hugh du Puiset - inscription: Liber Hugonis Episcopi Rethorica, late 12th century, p.1. Pressmark and title: Rethorica tullii [ .C.] Sepe et multum .C., 15th century, p.1 top. Pressmark: 2a 7i l, 15th century, p.1, top right. Inscription: l Tullius in veteri rethorica et noua, 15th/16th century by Thomas Swalwell, f.iiv. In Spendement catalogue.
Parchment: low quality with noticeable H/F distinction; occasional large holes; leaves vary slightly in size. Arranged HF, FH.
I-IV8, V6
Written area: 153 x 90 mm. Lines: 33-34 (space, 4.5-5 mm; height of minims, 1+ mm). Pricking: knife. Ruling: ink. Single vertical bounding lines; first and last (occasionally the last two) horizontals extended.
Romanesque text-book hands, compressed, variable, the first slightly more angular than the second, the second having a slightly more rectilinear matrix than the first. The first word or words of new sections are written (in ordinary ink) in highly stylised Rustic Capitals. Two collaborating scribes; one main hand with contributions from a second. Corrections and annotations by one or more further contemporary hand(s).
Spaces reserved for enlarged initials heading books (I, 12 lines high; II, 7 lines high) and sections (generally 2 lines high) were almost all left unfilled. The one exception was the first (p. 1) - where a red ‘S’ was supplied, its interstices filled with crude black ink curls, no earlier than 12th/13th century; the main body of the letter may have been done then too.
Running headings with title and book number inserted by Thomas Rud;at the end of the text he added two ink notes.
Parchment: low quality; edge-cuts, occasional scar across text area. HF, FH (except Q. IV, where HF, HF, FH, HF).
I-IV8, V3 (=4 with 4 cancelled)
Written area: 154 x 91 mm. Lines: 35 (space, 4.5 mm; height minims, 1+ mm). Pricking: knife. Ruling: hard point, now very faint. Apparently ruled several leaves at a time, the direct impression onto a hairside. Single vertical bounding lines; first and last horizontals extended.
Romanesque text-book hand, compressed. One scribe
Spaces left for initials (7 lines high at the start of the text; 2 lines high for every division thereafter) remain unfilled.
Note at the end by Thomas Rud: Tho. Rud contulit hunc codicem cum libro impresso Oct. 1717.
Numerous subdivisions indicated by paraph marks.
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]).
Mynors, R.A.B., Durham Cathedral
manuscripts to the end of the twelfth century. Ten plates in
colour and forty-seven in monochrome. With an introduction
[including a list of all known Durham manuscripts before
1200] ,
(Durham: 1939)
Jevons, F. W., "An uncollated MS. of the “Ad Herennium”", Journal of Philology 12 (1883), 209-11