Catalogi veteres librorum Ecclesiæ 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. preserved in the library of Bishop Cosin, at Durham.

  • Durham Cathedral. Library
Date:
[1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Catalogi veteres librorum Ecclesiæ 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. preserved in the library of Bishop Cosin, at Durham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Beforo we procecd to specify more minutely tlie va- rious contents of tliis book, as we havc arranged them in the following volume, it may be stated tbat tbo Monks of Durham did not keep their books in one room, but in various places within the precincts of their Cathedra!, in the Spendimentum, or Splendement, in the Clois- ter, and the Refectory. The first of these places is proved, by p. 85, to be the same room as the Chancery, which stili remains subdivided by its iron cancdli from the Treasury, in which the Records are kept, and in which there was in old time “a four-square table covered As transcripls of the same book,—as, for instance, of the Scriptores,— having the same title and initial letter, multiplied, it became neces- sary, in taking an account of their number, to distinguish one copy from another by some certain mark. From the inequality of the hand-writing in different individuals, the scribe of one copy would rarely, and, if ever, accidentally, begin his second leaf vvith tlie same Word as his fellow-labourer; consequentiy, the first words of the second leaf were generally used by the Monks as the most convenient mode of distinguishing one copy of the same work from another, and of identifying the book itself. As a specimen of those mistakes into which people will sometimes unavoidably fall through ignorance, Mr. Rud’s interpretation of this simple expedient for the convenience of distinction, upon which he once stumbled by accident, in a copy of Secunda Pars Historialis Vincentii,” “ 2 fo., divina,” in the Diu'- ham Library, may be here given. Fle reasons thus :—“ 2° fo.. divi- na,^ si rect^ lego, est duo folia divina; i. e., duo volumina in folio egregia et eximia; ut ostendat c(uanto in pretio hi libri haberentur.” [Catal., p. 90, under B. I. 32.] To Thomas Rud, hovvever, we are greatly indebted for minute and accurate descriptions of such manuscripts contained in these Catalogues as, having escaped the ravages of time, and the hand of the spoiler, stili remain in the Li- brary of the Church of Durham.