Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex made up of four main sections. (A) is the original contents table for (C); (B) the later subject index is inserted between them and (C), Isidore of Seville's Etymologiae, has an added 14th century numbering corresponding to that in (B); a Bury St Edmunds ex-libris of 1429 x 1446 on the last leaf of (B) and refers to both (B) and (C). The fourth section (D), William Brito's Expositiones Vocabulorum Bibliae, forms a suitable companion to the first three, perhaps subjoined to them at Cambridge or Bury. The “James” scribbler, 16th/17th century, occurs in all four sections and on all the endleaves save f.1 and 378. The manuscript was owned by George Davenport and given by him to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Parchment, some flaying flaws and edges; quires with flesh-side outermost.
Neat arabic foliation, 13th/14th century (?), of f.52-91: 1-40.
2 portions of medieval endleaves, (A): f.3-6) 14; (B): f.7-51) 213 (including a regular quire of 8, f.10-17), 312, 416-54; (C): f.52-213) 6-916, 1016 wants 14 (left blank for unexecuted diagrams ?) after f.128, 1118, 12-1316, 14-1512, 1612 wants 9-10 (blank ?) after f.212; (D): f.214-373) 17-2616.
(A) No pricking for horizontals visible. Written space 140 x c.95 mm; ruled in sharp grey shading into soft brown. Two columns; 37 lines.
(B) Pricking in outer margins, f.10-17. Written space 145 x 95 mm; ruled in sharp grey, soft or sharp brown. Two columns; 37-40 lines.
(C) Pricking in outer margins, mostly cropped away. Written space 132 x 97 mm; ruled in sharp grey shading to soft brown.
Two columns or, f.90/13-92/17 (tabulation of etates ending Bk 5), long lines; 34-35 lines.
(D) No evidence of pricking for horizontals. Written space 130 x 88-92 mm; ruled in sharp brown. 40-43 long lines.
Written in smallgothic minuscules , with some loops, particularly on d, proficiently, by three or four hands, one for each section. Marks, probably by the main scribe of (C), as the same pen and ink, in the lower margins of f.120v, 122r, 128r, and 180r look like pen trials. Marginal book and chapter numbers and indexing letters added in (C) probably by the scribe of (B). Rubrics supplied in margins of f.52r and 73r, 14th century.
(A) & (B) none, apart from rubrication in (A). (C) text capitals touched with red. Paraphs, in red (f.131r), or blue (f.54r, 132v, 175r), the last with red flourishing. Initials: (i) to chapters, 2 line or, from f.54v onwards, a little larger, entirely to left of text block, in blue, with infilling and flourishing in red; (ii) to books, 3 line, in blue decorated with dotted zig zag in white, with infilling and flourishing in red. Guide letters for initials on edges of leaves. (D) almost entirely not executed but guide letters provided. Unfilled spaces for initials: (i) to each entry up to f.257r, 2 line; (ii) to each new letter up to f.366v (V), 2 or 3 line. Type (i) initials in alternately red and blue, f.214v-215r and 218v-219r. Running titles. (B) in ink; (C) in blue, with a little flourishing in red, for which there are guides in blue, cf. signatures. Plummet wording for rubrics in lower margin of f.167v and 170r.
Short scribal or contemporary marginal and interlinear supplies in (C); “210” in lower margin of f.54r for no apparent reason; man's head on f.80r; f.147v marginal distinction of 3 kinds of Serpentes; “Palinurus” noted in margin f.191v. For (D) some supplies and additions in more cursive hands; original sidenotes; early manicule on f.263r.
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). Stain of turn-in from previous f.381v.
Written in England or northern France, mid 13th century.
On top right corner of f.52r “<conventus cantebriggie>”, 14th century, the erased ex-libris of a Cambridge mendicant house, covered by the press-mark of Bury. Section (D) has 14th century notes in soft brown, suggesting that it was used as an exemplar: “Hic incipe cras”, f.321v, “Hic cras”, f.351r. Inscription: “Ysidorus ethimologiarum de procreacione domini Willelmi Curteys Abbatis Monasterii sancti Edmundi de Bury cum vna notabili tabula quem librum eiusdem Monasterij librarie ab ipso fabricate assignauit et donauit perpetuo remansurum qui signatur sub littera .y. et numero .28.”, f.51v, reproduced Brownrigg 1990, p.7; on Abbot Curteys' library see James 1895, p. 41, “.y.28.”, f.52r, the normal form of pressmark used at Bury, with the letter referring to the content. “Nono die Novembris thomas Qverende Anno 1587”, f.2r. “John Eger Esquir Receyuour of Suff Norf Cant et Hunt”, f.6v, end 16th century “John James” “thomas James” “Richard James”, by one (?) hand, f.377v; “Ihon James”, f.379v; “Richarde James Is my nam ...”, f.6v, among other scribbles; “Richard James”, three times, f.6r; “Richard James A.BCDEf”, f.2v; and in the same hand, “William Atkynson”, f.374r, start of 17th century, all in the same brown ink. A Richard James, who had brothers John and Thomas, was librarian of Sir Robert Cotton, but all of this scribbling and pen-trials looks like a child's, and he was from Hampshire, not East Anglia as this book seems to be. “Geo. Davenport. 1664.”, on a paper slip stuck to the front pastedown, from the previous binding. Ex-libris and shelfmark by Thomas Rud f.3r.
Various scribbles: on f.1r a fragment of nonsense (?) verse, 16th century, difficult to read, “Vna peticle valde deticle ...” and “Satisfactio”. f.1v blank. f.2 (a) Mangna esset elemosina pueros informare speculamine amicorum carentes quod ad gradum eleuarentur honoris - on the vocation of a teacher (b) Homo rebus secularibus (nimium) ocupatus obsequijs non poterit vacare diuinis - on the clash of secular and religious duties.
The list corresponds to the divisions found in item (4), except: IIb has ten chapters. III is divided into four sections: i-x, De geometrie Disciplina i-iiij, De arte musica i-ix, de astronomia i-xlviii; 13 is omitted, the text (f.75v) having a division but no rubric; 56, which here would be d,xxxiiij, is omitted, and added later; against the second and third lines of the long final entry, the numbering is continued: xlix. l. XIII,7 is immediately followed by “viij De tonitruo”. XVIII,23 and 24 have entries. f.6r [added] note, in soft brown. f.6v ruled, but originally blank.
The entries are arranged according to their first two vowels, ignoring inflections: a, a-e, a- i, ... u-u; the references are to book number, chapter number, and, for Book III onwards, lettered subsection, corresponding to those added in the margins of item (4). f.50v-51r (added on blanks, 51 unruled, notes, in soft brown plummet, by tiny hand, 14th century, with biblical references, partly rubbed away; cf. f.212v-13r, 374r-8r.
I,15 is omitted, f.55r, as in many early copies; added in margin as I,17. Spaces left for diagrams, e.g f.78v, 79r, 205v; the leaf removed after f.128r may have been left entirely blank, for the diagrams (IX, 6). II is the only book with a chapter list in the text; the chapters are not numbered and “de ethopoeia” is omitted (f.64v). II, 21 begins “Sunt autem et quedam figure uerborum in preceptis eloquencie quibus augetur ...” (f.67v). III, 32 ends with an additional passage “Ambrosius sanctus in libro exameron ... sustentacionem superiorum aquarum (f.77v-78r). The paschal table in VI,17, f.96v-97r, is corrupt; it ends “A condicione mundi usque ad hunc nouissimum cicli annum computantur anni. v' d ccccxx.” IX, 6 (23)-(27) is set out in three columns, f.128v. The original divisions are as in PL (why use PL instead of Lindsay edition here?), except: Book I has 40 chapters (PL 15 omitted; 6-7, 18-19, 41-44 combined; 5, 17 divided in two), numbered i-xxviii (vii comprises PL 6-14, xiii: 22-26). II has chapters numbered i-21, 1-x (24 & 25 both numbered 3; 27(2)-(7) counted as 6). III has PL 3 and 32 (expanded) divided in two; after 7 (numbered viii) the chapters are unnumbered. IV has only chapter 13 numbered (xiii). IX,7 is numbered viii. XIII,7 is divided in two: “viii. De nubibus Nubibus dicte ab obnubendo ...”; 8 is left unnumbered. XVI,13-14 combined, with subsequent chapter numbers reduced by one. XVIII,22-24 combined, but 25 is numbered xxv. XIX,30-31 combined, reducing the following numbers by one. The opening rubric is added in the upper margin of f.52r by a hand of 14th/15th century because of its separation from the original capitula. The arabic chapter numbers added 13th/14th century in the margins to correspond to the references in the item (3) are as those in Lindsay, except: Book XIX,xxx-xxxi; XX,i-ii combined. Book I,iii, iv, xviii; II,xxi, xxviii; III,iii, xxxii(expanded), xlii, lxvi; IV,v; V,xxvii; VI,i; VII,viii; IX,vi; XIII,x; XVIII,xxvii divided in two. Book X is divided into twenty. f.212v-213v originally blank; f.212* top half cut away. Theological notes, in sharp grey, by tiny cursive, mostly illegible, 40 or more lines per page, 14th century, f.212v, 212*r and 213r, cf. item (6a). The early 17th century “James” scribbler wrote, inter alia, “washe me thoughrlye from my wickednesse ... against thee onely” (Ps. 51:2 4, possibly recalled on account of the anthem setting by XXXX), and “Eune as the rowling stonne that neuer gather moes do gould with”, partly repeated, both f.212v. “Venit Summa dies et inelucktabile tempus”, f.212*r, 17th century.
Edition lists (pp. xlii-vi) 147 copies but not this one, adducing (pp. xiii-xviii) evidence that the work was not compiled before 1249, and showing that material was added, probably by Brito, after the work had begun to circulate. In this copy the original text contains single-word glosses in French, “gallice”, as recorded in Hunt 1991, I, p.389-91, from three English copies, one being MS C in edition. The prefatory 16 lines of verse (Walther 1959, 4463) are written as prose. The lemmata are fully alphabetised, unlike other early indexes. The concluding 10 verses are Walther 1959, 7892. Early marginal additions in this copy, f.262v, 311r, 315v, 324r and 347v, correspond to matter recorded in the edition as addenda in one or more of the four fourteenth-century copies that they collated (p.509, 533 and 582, from MS C (Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Rawlinson C.896); p.251, from MS D (BL, MS Add. 17743); and p.708, from MSS C and D. Other marginal additions represent supplementary articles not recorded in the edition, some, as in Brito's text, for non-Biblical terms: Apocrifum, f.222r; Cello, f.236v; Exaplois, f.260v; Gemini, f.271r; Ieiunium, f.276r; Prothelifonte, f.329r; Purpurissum, f.331v; Renices, f.336v; Sintagma, f.351r.
Endleaves, originally blank
Lengthy theological passages, in sharp grey, by small cursive hand, only partly legible; cf. leaves at the end of items (3) and (4).
Latin prose composition
Latin prose composition
Form of manumission by John abbot and the prior and convent of Bury St Edmund's of their neif N from their manor of <...> N in the county of S., cf. “Omnibus Christi Fidelibus”, false start by the same hand, f.378v.
Latin prose composition
Latin prose composition
All leaves except f.378r, by “James” hand pentrials and other scribbles.
Summa Britonis sive Guillelmi Britonis Expositiones vocabulorum Biblie 
, ed. Daly, L. W. & Daly, B. A., Thesaurus Mundi Bibliotheca Scriptorum Latinorum Mediae et Recentioris Aetatis 15 (Padua: In aedibus Antenoreis, 1975)
Brownrigg, L. L., Medieval book production: assessing the evidence. Proceedings of the second conference of the Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500 (Los Angeles: Anderson-Lovelace, 1990)
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]).
Hunt, T., Teaching and learning Latin in thirteenth-century England (Woodbridge: D. S. Brewer, 1991)
Isidori Hispalensis episcopi Etymologiarum sive Originvm libri xx , ed. Lindsay, W. M., (Oxford: E typographeo Clarendoniano, 1911)
James, M. R., On the abbey of St Edmund at Bury , Cambridge Antiquarian Society publications 28 (Cambridge: Deighton, Bell, 1895)
Stegmüller, Friedrich, Repertorium biblicum medii aevi , (Madrid: 1950-1980)
Walther, H., Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina 1. Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris latinorum: alphabetisches Verzeichnis der Versanfänge mittellateinischer Dichtungen (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959-69)