Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Medical text, Alexander of Tralles, Therapeutica written in France at the end of the 12th century, with short texts on similar topics added later.
Parchment: low quality with many edgecuts. H and F sides generally similar in tone, but follicles readily visible on the former. Arranged HF, FH.
Modern pencil foliation
I7 (structure unclear beyond the fact that 3+4 and 2+5 are conjoint), II-VI8, VII5 (6, with 6 (after f.62) lost or cancelled), VIII-XVII8, XVIII6, XIX1 (f.139, a former endleaf)
Written area: 143 x 90 mm. 2 columns (width: 40). Lines: 32 (space: 4.5; height: 2 mm). Pricking: knife and awl. Ruling: lead and ink. Single verticals define outer edges of columns (there is an extra vertical between the columns up to f.63r, but not thereafter. An extra vertical was intermittently supplied in the outer margin. Horizontals irregularly overrun the verticals. The number fully extended varies from one to three at both top and bottom but is most often two.
f.2v-53r/col. 2/ line 16 (item (b)). Transitional late Caroline Minuscule to proto-Gothic, compact; very brown ink.
f.53r/col. 2/line 16-137v, col. 1 (item (b)).
f.1v (a); f.137v/col. 2-139r (c) and (d) Informal Cursive
f.139v (f) Transitional late Caroline Minuscule to proto-Gothic
Book II (f.51r) headed by fine decorated initial, 9 lines high: leaf-gold letter-form infilled with simple foliate curls, set against large blue panel; followed by line of red and blue display capitals, 2 lines high. Book III (f.123r) headed by gold-leaf letter, 7-line high, outlined with blue foliate flourishing, a few details in yellow. Initial for Book I lost. Chapters red or blue initials, 2-7 lines high, the tails of Qs regularly extended down the margins. Letter-extensions occasionally enhanced with blue and red flourishing (e.g. 123r, 125r). Chapter headings 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), reusing earlier clasp (akin to that on DCL MSS C.IV.12 and B.III.28). Stains from turn-overs of earlier binding clearly visible on f.1, 138 and 139; holes from metalwork associated with earlier front clasp in f.1.
Written in France, late 12th century.
Inscriptions: f.1r, l. liber Alexandri yatros sophiste 14th century. de medicinis, 15th/16th century. f.3r, liber alexandriatos sophiste .l.,15th century; de medicina, 15th/16th century. In Spendment catalogue.
Set out in diagrammatic form. Added, 12th/13th century.
Text now starts in Therapeutica 1.3, the outer two-thirds of f.1r having been excised, and what remains of the recto having had its text obliterated, as also the first three lines of what remains on the verso. Latin recension in three books. Any preliminaries to Book I lost; unnumbered capitula list for Book II; no capitula list for Book III. Intermittent chapter numbering. Marginal and interlinear glosses (some clearly by the scribes of the main text) until f.60, mainly explaining Greek medical terms. Title added to margins of f.3r, 14th century: Liber Alexandri sophiste. Liber de medicina ad quid inuente sunt septem artes liberales. Item de diuisione septem atrium summe scienciarum cum earum subdiuisionibus – this last item referring to (c).
On the division of the artes plus medicine, ending or breaking off with notes on types of magic. Added, 12th/13th century.
Added, 12th/13th century.
Added, 12th/13th century. Title lost due to damage.
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]).
Thorndike, Lynn and Kibre, P., A catalogue of incipits of mediaeval scientific writings in Latin (Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1963)