Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex written in England in the mid 15th century. Collation and scribal hands indicate that it comprises three sections: Alan of Lille's Anticlaudianus and De planctu naturae in the first; Geoffrey of Vinsauf's Poetria nova the second and Richard de Bury's Philiobiblon in the third.
Parchment, some much thinner (split sheep?); some flaws and flaying edges, e.g. f.47, 59, 68, 83; quires with flesh-side outermost. All edges cropped. Brown stains on f.1r, 124-5. Red stain on f.60v.
foliated a, i-ii, 1-211
112 wants 1, 212 wants 6-7 after f.16 and 11 (blank) after f.19, 312, 412 with 2-3 (f.34-35) and 10-11 (f.42-43) singletons [apparently following the removal and replacement of the original 2-3, judging by the traces on the stubs of 10-11, but not on those of 2-3, of the horizontal frame-lines drawn across the full bifolia], 5-612, 712 wants 12 (blank ?) after f.79; 812, [one quire12? missing], 9-1012, 1112 wants 10-12 (blank ?) after f.124; 12-1412; 1512, 16-188, 1912.
No pricking for text lines but some traces of brown line ruling; blind ruling visible on blank lower half of f.160r. Written space 107-112 x 70-74 mm, with a single prick at each corner; ruled in soft brown. 27-30 lines. Top written line above top ruling.
Written in Written by 3 expert hands of Secretary duct, though with some Anglicana forms (particularly 8-like g and varying final s):
(I) f.17r-78v, 80r-92v, but 1r-16v, 93r-124v and 173r-208r (quires 16-19) with more formal final s
(II) f.125r-60r (quires 12-14), more upright, with secretary g giving way from f.137r to 8-like g, and final s as in hand I
(III) quire 15, f.161r-72v, with 8-like g much more often than secretary g, final s 6-like much more often than kidney-shaped, and r more often long Anglicana than Secretary. Explicits f.124v and 208r and section headings, f.174r, 195r, 198v, 208r in Anglicana Formata. Changes of pen and ink f.16/17, 38v lines 24/25. Change in number of lines from 24 on f.170v to 28 on f. 171r.
Litterae notabiliores and line initials stroked with red, f.1r-24r only. Paraphs or virgules, in red, f.1v-3v and 171v only, or, in items (3) and (5), in blue. Larger initials: (i) to subsections of item 1, 1-line, alternately blue and, f.4r-28v, red; (ii) to sections of items (1), (3) and (4), 2- or 3-line, blue, up to f.22v and (iii) and (iv), with infilling and flourishing in red; (iii) to item (4), 4-line, as (ii); (iv) to items (1) (f.4r), (3) and (5), 7-line or more, as (ii).
Sparsely-sprinkled brown leather, late 17th century, with a pair of blind fillets round boards and also vertically approximately 15 mm in from spine; Durham binder Hugh Hutchinson's dash and 3-dot roll (B) gilt on edges of boards. Rebacked by Tuckett, mid 19th century, with 1 clasp. Hole/mark three-quarters down outer edge of f.i- ii, as from fixing of one of a pair of clasps; similarly on f.209-10 further in. Offsets on f.ir and 210v from former turn-ins and V-disposed thongs of medieval binding.
Written in England, mid 15th century.
Inscription: “Pertinet R Langley” in red, late 15th century, f.iiv: there was a monk of Westminster of the name 1465-1501. Pen-trials on endleaves include “N(?) 3”, “Johannes Heyham(?) Johannes Hay good”, “Iste liber constat Thome ... Testantibus (?) Denbarowe (?)”, 15th/16th century, f.iir. “Liber psalmorum teste psalterio quod Jacke my bwoye”, 16th century, f.108v. “By me Michael Lart”, 16th/17th century, f.209v (not the 18th century book-collector Lort). Belonged to George Davenport: his notes on the texts and their authors, f.iiv, 125r and 160r. Usual ex-libris by Thomas Rud f.1r. “Tho. James edidit Philobiblon Oxonii 1599 - v. P.IV.39”, in the hand of R. Harrison, late 18th century, f.iiv (refers to printed copy in Cosin's Library, and he gives variants from “B” on f. 208r).
Medieval flyleaves, made from one larger leaf written in good rounded textura 14th/15th century in two columns about 70 mm wide, containing more than 35 lines each, more than 220 mm high, very effectively erased, mostly illegible but visible under ultra-violet light. The text is English prose numbering something “tweluet”, of religious or moral content (“don amys be proude men”). On f.iiv is a 15th century list of contents, in an English hand.
Starts with a prose prologue (opening lost), “... appetunt veritatem: ne sanctum datum canibus vilescat ne porcorum pedibus”, then f.1v the Summarium, “Quia igitur in hoc opere agitur de quattuor artificibus ... (f. 3v) dicitur antiruffinus quasi contrarius ruffino”. Gibson & Palmer place this copy among the “deteriores” of the English recension. The amount of text lost at the beginning is the equivalent of a little less than one folio; two folios lost between folios 16 and 17 contained 111 lines (II, 213-323). On two leaves, f.34-35, that appear to be replacements, the text on f.34v (IV, 278-306) is repeated on f.35r-v line 1. Lines omitted: III, 125-126, 141; IV, 339, 352; V, 321b-322a; VII, 50-52, 302; VIII, 61; IX, 74-76, 293, 350. Blanks remain for a number of individual words, presumably where the scribe had problems with the exemplar. Divisions, marked by a coloured capital, which do not coincide with those in Bossuat's edition, at: I, 109, 119, 124, 187; II, 185, 188, 191, 194; III, 489; IV, 83, 341; V, 109, 128, 243; VI, 50, 58, 284; VII, 20, 28, 34, 68, 77, 83, 92, 102, 110, 221, 237, 245, 248, 303, 315, 356, 419, 439, 458; VIII, 75, 221, 243, 249, 255, 260, 267, 280, 283, 288, 291, 296; IX, 14, 41, 257, 294, 329. One line left blank between VIII, 349 & 350, VIII, 369 & IX, 1, IX, 13 & 14, 379 & 380, 409 & 410.
Added in different hands. f.79v frame-ruled, blank.
Couplet, added in lower margin.
Quatrain.
Quatrain.
The loss of text between f.91 and 92 amounts to almost exactly the same as that covered by the twelve leaves of quire 8 (f.80-91). Blanks spaces on f.86v-87r, 109r, 111r, 117v, 121r, 123r where the copyist could not read his exemplar.
In its divergences from the main text this copy most frequently accords with MS G. It has extra lines: 1 between 1473 & 1474; 2 between 344 & 345 (as MS C), 468 & 469 (ABCDG), 475a & b (ABCDG), 1264 & 1265; and 4 between 922 & 923 (as A's replacement for 923). Lines 290-291 are between 303 & 304 (ABG), and 1077-1083 between 1018 & 1019; lines 49 & 50, 889 & 890 (G) are reversed. Lines omitted: 79-86 (BCDG), 327b-329a (G), 515-526 (G), 651b-652a (G), 675 (BCG), 678 (BCG), 735-736 (G), 1151, 1407-1410 (AG), 1511, 2081-2098 (G); lines omitted but added later: 21, 117, and 262. Divisions, marked either by a coloured capital or by a space for one, which do not coincide with those in Faral, at: 50, 213, 386, 397, 412, 437, 640, 645, 650, 718, 778, 800, 807, 813, 850, 855, 902, 913, 916, 938, 969, 1098, 1252, 1280, 1325, 1334, 1345, 1366, 1391, 1411, 1423, 1434, 1559, 1622, 1745, 1831, and 1888. Divisions in Faral omitted in this copy at: 71, 77, 151, 158, 206, 455, (line 515 om.), 687, 830, 908, 936, 949, 966, 1117, 1124, 1132, 1139, 1169, 1531, 1538, 1545, 1560, 1563, 1580, 1584, 1588, 1602, 1651, 1699, 1764, 1781, 1803, 1842, 1853, 1883, 1917, 1943, 1960, 1969, 2009, 2017, 2066, (line 2096 om.). f.160v blank.
Blank spaces on f.174v, 176r, 177r, 178r, 179v, 181r, 184r-v, etc., left by copyist.
Additions: (a) “artis et assimenis (?) humilem {sup}portat in altum”. (b-c) Two recipes: “Ypocras. R 33 albi boni ...”; “Pome aumbre. R Lapdani ...”.
Alain de Lille,Anticlaudianus. Texte critique, avec un introduction et des tables, ed. Bossuat, R. (Paris: Vrin, 1955)
Alain de Lille De planctu naturae, ed. Häring, N. M., Studi Medievali, 3a serie, 19 (1978), 797-879
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]).
de la Mare, A. C., Catalogue of the collection of medieval manuscripts bequeathed to the Bodleian Library, Oxford, by James P. R. Lyell (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1971)
Faral, E., Les arts poétiques du xiie et du xiiie siècle Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes Etudes - Sciences historiques et philologiques fasc. 238, (Paris, 1924)
Gibson, M. T. & Palmer, N. F. "Manuscripts of Alan of Lille, Anticlaudianus in the British Isles", Studi Medievali, 3a serie, 28, ii (1987), 906-1001
Häring, N. M., "Manuscripts of the De Planctu Naturae of Master Alan of Lille", Citeaux: Commentarii Cistercienses 29 (1978), 93-155
Philobiblon. Riccardo da Bury: edizione critica ed. Altamura, A. (Naples: Fiorentino, 1954)
Walther, H., Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi. Lateinische Sprichwörter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischer Anordnung (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1963-86)