Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex copy of small format Bible, written in France or Italy in the mid 13th century
Parchment, flesh- and hair-sides indistinguishable), all edges cropped with marginalia. Soiling, stains and damage from damp, particularly on the first leaves and f.322v. Ink flaking on some leaves. Parts of f.3-5, 7-10 (most of 9-10) and of 302 cut or torn away. A blank rectangular space at the left top of f.146va, perhaps because too thin for writing.
foliated i, 1-322
112, 28 wants 7-8 after f.20 + 1 supply-leaf (f.21), 312, 48, 512, 66, 7-912, 1014, 1112 wants 12 after f.120, *, 12-2112, 2212 wants 1 before f.241 and 12 after f.250, *, 2312, 2412 wants 1 before f.263, 2512, 2612 wants 10 after f.294, 2714, 2814 wants 13-14 (* indicates missing quire).
No evidence of pricking. Written space 96-97 x 65-67 mm; ruled in sharp brownish grey. 2 columns. 50 or, quire 5, 51 lines.
Written in small rounded gothic minuscule, expertly, with at least seven changes of hand or ink at f.21 (supply), 22 (31), 42 (51), 54 (61), 121 (121), 241 (221) and 265?.
The bottom margins of the first recto of many quires, of the recto or verso of the first leaf of the second half of some quires, and of a few other leaves, contain horizontal penwork features, about the width of the written space, not generally attached to any initial, in blue and red and (f.169r) gold, f.1r, 9v, 16r, 20v, 42r, etc. (erased on f.53v?, 175r and 211r with a bird, 229r with a dog's head), the last on f.318r.
Initials: (i) to each entry of item (2), 1-line, alternately red and blue; (ii) to each new letter and to subsections of A-E in item (2), 2-line, alternately red and blue, with, f.297r onwards, a little infilling and flourishing of the other colour; (iii) to chapters and divisions of first prologue of item (1), 2-line, alternately red and blue, with infilling and flourishing in the other colour embellished, except quires 3-4, with the principal colour; (iv) for I of Ruth and to prologues of item (1), generally 3-line, with some 2-, 4- or 5-line, as (iii); (v) to first prologue and books, except Ruth, of item (1) and to item (2), about 8-line, either (a), to Exodus, in blue with a little red, with infilling and flourishing in red embellished with blue, or (b), in blue, pink or orange or, to Daniel (f.219r), in bluish grey incorporating a winged zoomorphic form, patterned with white, on gold grounds outlined in black, with stiff foliate forms in blue, pink, green and orange shaded and patterned with white, or (c), f.228r, 233v, 239v, in gold, on grounds of pink and/or blue, with foliate forms as (b); (vi) for I of Genesis (f.5v), entire height of page, as (v,b), with I of Mark (f.250r) similar and issuing from the mouth of a winged bipedal dragon. The style of these painted initials suggest Southern France. No decoration or running-titles on supply-leaf, f.21.
Running titles: naming books, across openings, in alternating red and blue lombardic capitals; and marginal chapter-numbers.
Some original marginal glosses to Judith. Added single letters and numerals in the inner margins of f.141v-168r. Nota 13th/14th century with human face in ink on f.143r. Doodling, 16th century, on f.190r.
Full pebble-grain morocco, by Tuckett, supplying outermost endleaves (3 inner front endleaves 17th century). Charles Tuckett, binder to the British Museum, rebound many Durham manuscripts in the 19th century.
Written in southern France or northern Italy, mid 13th century.
Unreadable three-line inscripton on f.182v. Inscription: "Jacobo de Magna Villa | D D D | charissimus eius Avunculus | Tho: Gill: | 1662.", f.1r; on f.2r a note in the same hand, headed "Biblia haec S.S." misdated 1550 ("MDL" recte "MDCL"), says that King James IV of Scotland, who was killed at Flodden in 1513, left it to the chief of the Ogilvy family [earls of Airlie], and after two centuries as an heirloom of theirs the first-born gave it to David Dickson professor of Divinity at Edinburgh [from 1650], and he to John Hall as a token of regard for favours, who in turn sent it out of love and gratitude to his uncle Thomas Gill. This John Hall must have been the poet (d. 1656), of the Consett and Durham City family, whose mother was Elizabeth daughter of John Gyll. He visited Scotland in 1650 with Cromwell (ODNB). James Mickleton the elder (d. 1693) in 1660 married Frances, one of John Hall's sisters. Inscription: "Geo. Davenport | Donum Jacobi Mickleton Armigeri | 1669." and Rud's ex-libris with shelf and volume number, f.iv.
Bible in the usual order, without Psalms and I-II Maccabees, and now also missing I-II Chronicles, I Ezra, Nehemiah, II/III Ezra, Luke, John, and parts of IV Kings, Matthew, Mark, Romans, Ephesians and Philippians. In Ruth I.7 as in Paris text "revertendi posita".
f.21 is a supply-leaf, completing Genesis. Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Tobit start new quires, 3, 4, 5 and 12; f.54 (61) is blank save for the last two verses of Numbers by a changed hand and ink. The three columns f.54ra-va apparently erased (the prologue to Deuteronomy, Stegmüller 301?). The upper margin at the start of Tobit contains an invocation "Spiritus sancti assit nobis gratia. Amen. Aue Maria gratia plena dominus tecum ..." with a change of hand, f.121r. Ecclesiasticus ends with a version of Solomon's Prayer, III Reg 8:22-31, "Et inclinauit salomon genua sua ... Exaudias et propicius sis. si peccauerit uir inte.", f.168r (ed. Rome 1964 p.373-5). Jeremiah ends with the introductory sentence of Lamentations, f.199r. Proverbs 31 begins at 31:10 and then has spaces between each verse, presumably for names of Hebrew letters in red, f.148r; likewise Lamentations. Jeremiah's Prayer starts with a separate rubric and a larger plain initial, f.199v; the titulus to Baruch 6 is treated as a rubric, f.202v; space but no rubric for first prologue to Joel, no space or break at beginning of second prologue, f.227v; space but no rubric for first prologue to Amos, but rubrics to second and third, f.228v, 229r; Jude divided in two after v.10, f.287r. Last verse of Daniel omitted; supplied in margin but cropped, f.225v.
In addition to the common set of prologues (MMBL i,96-97), no. 631 precedes no. 640 for Acts (f.271v), and no. 806 precedes no. 809 for the Catholic Epistles (f.282v). Prologues: Stegmüller nos 284 divided into at least eight (f.3r), 285 (f.5r), 311 (f.64v), 323 (f.81v), 332 (f.121r), 335 (f.124r), 341+343 (f.128r-v), 344 & 357 (f.132v), 457 (f.141r), 462 (f.148r), 468 (f.151v), Eccli. Prologue treated as separate (f.156r), 482 (f.168r), 487 (f.182v), 491 (f.201r), 492 (f.203r), 494 (f.218v), 500 (f.225v), 507 (f.225v), 511+510 (f.227v), 515 (f.228v) 512 & 513 (f.229r), 519+517 (ff. 230v-231r), 524 (f.231r) & 521 (f.231v), 526 (f.232r), 528 [? shorter:] ending "... sicut in consequentibus libri huius demonstrabatur" (f.233v), 531 ending "... tribulationem uenire desiderat" (f.234r), 534 (f.235r), 538 (f.236r), 539 (f.236v), 543 (f.239v), 590... (f.240v), 607 (f.249v), 685 (f.254r), 699 (f.258r), 707 (f.260v), 715 (f.262r), 736 ending "et onesimum acolitum ab urbe roma" (f.263v), 747 (f.264r), 752 (f.265r), 765 (f.265v), 772 (f.266v), 780 (f.267v), 783 (f.268r), 793 (f.268r), 631 & 640 (f.271v), 806 & 809 (f.282v), 839 (f.287r).
End of alphabet missing, through the loss of last two (?) leaves; also part of A, with one leaf lost after f.294.
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]).
Stegmüller, Friedrich, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi , (Madrid: 1950-1980)