To be found in the College archives, bound with the deeds of the Stanley Fellowship.
Bible; M. R. James's no. 9. It is slightly incomplete, ending with "Sadduci" in the additional matter "Interpretationes nominum". With decorative borders and initials "of rough English work" (e.g. a ship and fish for Jonah, a dove for Acts).
On the rule of princes, by Aegidius Columna (Aegidius Romanus); M. R. James's no. 26. James identifies it as English work. The text is ornamented fleur-de-lys and demi fleur-de lys, and at f. 1 is a miniature showing the Descent of the Holy Spirit as a dove; there is a coat of arms in the lower margin. James judges this miniature of inferior quality and it has been partially erased. Some marginal notes appear.
A collection of errors, etc.; M. R. James's no. 57. Contains: 1) Collectio errorum in anglia et parisius condempnatorum (A collection of errors condemned in England and Paris) by brother Robert de Kyluarby [Kilwardby], archbishop of Canterbury, AD 1276, with a confirmation and additions made by John Peckham, archbishop of Canterbury, 1286; 2) De malo, by Thomas Aquinas, also entitled: Questiones de malo cum titulis questionum previis; 3) a list of books sold by Thomas de Wyniston of Oxford (which James transcribes); 4) Tractatus de peccato mortali, also entitled: Tractatus bonus de peccato mortali et veniali et ceteris peccati speciebus cum titulis questionum et tabula vocali in fine. The ms. is of English workmanship.
By an anonymous author, 19C
Treatises on astronomy, etc.; M. R. James's no. 25. Contains: (1) an anonymous tract on celestial phenomena (apparently derived from Isidore's De naturis rerum), lacking initials and diagrams; (2) Sermones S. Augustini (96 sermons, most untitled). James gives detailed contents lists of both.
By Dr Ashton; compare his annotations to edns in the Old Library (1686 and 1718, E.6.42 and C.5.7/1)
Ashton, Charles (1665-1752), Master of Jesus College, CambridgePoems by John Lydgate; M. R. James's no. 56. A collection of 27 poems, in English with some Latin titles; James lists these and first and last lines. Appended is a table of contents by W. Aldis Wright, Vice-Master of Trinity College.
Isidore's encyclopaedic "Etymology" in twenty books; M. R. James's no. 8. It is lavishly decorated: "The ornaments and initials at the beginnings of the books are exceedingly good and characteristic English work".
Boethius' De consolatione philosphiae; M. R. James's no. 48. "Quinque libri boecij de consolacione philosophie cum tabula" and "Exposicio super quinque libros predictos satis certe notabilis". That is, Boethius' On the Consolation of Philosophy, with marginal and interlinear glosses and at the end a table of contents; there follows a commentary on the work by Nicholas Trivet (incipit: Explanacionem librorum boecij de cons. phil. Aggressurus) . There are some decorative borders and a few diagrams.
A dictionary of canon law; M. R. James's no. 7. Runs from "Abbas" to "Zelus"; James terms the writing "rough" and "ugly".
Theological treatises; M. R. James's no. 24. According to an old table of contents, they are: (1) Quidam tractatus de morte et eius circumstanciis; (2) Sermo de S. Benedicto; (3) Speculum religiosorum; (4) Expositio de sex alis Cherub. (with diagram of cherub); (5) Speculum theologie factum a magistro Johanne Welensi (with diagrams of tower of wisdom and trees of virtues and vices); (6) Explanacio ligni vite; (7)Vita Aluredi Abbatis Rievall. [life of Ailred, abbot of Rievaulx], by Walter Daniel; (8) Aluredus Abbas Rievallen, de onerbius, incomplete (truncated at homily 17, out of 31, according to index at f. 79); (9) Notule de historia aurea collectae; (10) Kalendarium plenum nominibus sanctorum quolibet die per annum (calendar associated with Durham, with placenames written above names of saints); (11) Legenda de Sancta Elizabeth; (12) Meditaciones S. Augustini.
A Premonstratensian ordinal; M. R. James's no. 55. There is an explanatory preface. Two parchment flyleaves at either end have been cut from a roll which had been taken round to various monasteries (in the Midlands and northern England) to solicit their prayers for William Yorke, abbot of the house to which the book belonged.
A Wycliffite New Testament; M. R. James's no. 47. Complete apart from the loss of one leaf containing text from the end of 1 John to the start of 3 John; includes high-quality ornamentation. The text consists of: 1) a table of "matters" of each gospel; 2) a lectionary, after the use of Salisbury; 3) the text of the New Testament, including prologues; 4) "Here eendith the apocalips of Jon ... And bigynneth the lessouns and pistlis of the olde testamente that ben red in the chirche bi al the yeere".
Psalter with miscellaneous ecclesiatical collection; M. R. James's no. 23. Contains: (1) Ieronimus de camera Christi; (2) Origenes; (3) ; (4) table of days and seasons; (5) a beautifully written Kalendar, with 15C insertions; (6) Libellus b. Martini episcopi de quattuor virtutibus; (7) a sermon, incipit: Sermo iste docet quales boni vel qualed mali sint xristiani; (8) preliminary matter to the psalter; (9) psalter, in double columns of 26 lines each, with a fine initial at f.15 and a collect after each psalm; (10) prayers; (11) cantica for particular occasions; (12) office of the dead, in a 15C hand; (13) collects and antiphons, in a 15C hand; (14) end of a Diurnal in a 12C hand; (15) a sermon of St Augustine, "de dedicatione ecclesie"; (16) another sermon on the same subject; (17) a tract: De corpore vel sanguine domini vel quid significet; (18) Isidore: De homine erumpnas presentis seculi defiente; (19) De quindecim signas; (20) a 15C table of Easter.
Papal decretals; M. R. James's no. 6. Contains [numbered by the order in its contents list, following James]: (1) a contents list of (2) text and gloss of Decretales Gregorii Novi; (3) Constitutiones nove duo innocencij iiiti (incomplete); (4, interrupting 3) Constitutiones alexandri iiiiti; (5 - bound after 6) Decretalis bonifacii in sixto libro, entitled in the contents list "Expositio super id et libro vj prout concernit visitationem episcopi dunelm et conventus dunelm"; (6) liber sixtus non glo[ssatus] (another copy of book 6 of the decretals of Boniface VIII, 1298, in another hand and with a table of chapters). With flyleaves from a 13C law ms.
Tracts by Aquinas, Bonaventura and others; M. R. James's no. 54. There is a early title - Breviloquium de virtutibus antiquorum principum ac philosophorum 2o fo. Quod habebat - and a contents table at f. 2v. Contents: 1) Tractatus de ente et essencia [by Thomas Aquinas]; 2) Breviloquium de virtutibus antiquorum principum et philosophorum [by Bonaventura]; 3) Diversa themata predicatoribus proficua (a collection of 23 sermons with Exempla, Applicationes, etc.); 4) Moralitates super ysaiam prophetam; 5) Libri 19 de animalibus et eorum proprietatibus moribus hominum applicatis; 6) Declamaciones senece et aliorum philosophorum dicta moralizata, under the headings: "De redemptione generis humane" and "De misericordia dei ad nos"; 7) De 7 mortalibus (peccatis et) eorum effectibus et incomodis; 8) Sermones quidam; 9) De quinque septenis in sacra scriptura inventis; 10) De 7 mortalibus peccatis ut supra [repetition of text (7) in another hand]; 11) Alie notule morales cum aliis, with notes; 12) six (?) sermons in a bad hand.
A well-known work by Petrus Comestor; M. R. James's no. 5. The main text has decorated initials in red and blue; it ends in the chapter "de dyonisio areopagtia". There are two flyleaves taken from a 10-11C missal, beginning with part of the gospel for the Decollation of St John the Baptist and ending with collects and lessons for the feast of the Assumption.
A Durham gradual; M. R. James's no. 22. Contains Graduals and Tracts for the year. Numerous additions have been made to the names of saints in the Proprium de sanctis. The flyleaf at the beginning has a verse in English; there are two flyleaves at the end from service-books with music, the second containing a hymn to St Oswald.
Letters of Ivo of Carnot; M. R. James's no. 53. Contains 54 letters with (after letter 11) a sermon of St Augustine: Quomodo homo ad imaginem dei creatus est. At the beginning of the volume appear leaves from the same psalter as appears in hte binding of Q.G.4.
A theological miscellany; M. R. James's no. 46. The heading of a 15C contents list refers to five books of Elucidarius, sermons and chapters. The volume falls into two parts, which are listed separately below. The last flyleaf is part of a 15C will with Northampton connections, but not fully legible.
Sermons of Ivo of Carnot and others; M. R. James's no. 52. Contains: 1) fifteen sermons of Ivo of Carnot; 2) Liber B. Augustini de vita Christiani ad sororem suam viduam (identified in the 17C as by Fastidius Britannus); 3) an untitled tract, incipit: Exceptiones ecclesiaticarum regularum, partim ex epistolis romanorum pontificum;4) Sermo B. Augustini ep. de decem preceptis legis et de decem plagis egyptorum; 5) Libellus de iiiior virtutibus id est prudentia fortitudine temperantia et iustitia martini episcopiad mironem regem. 1) and 2) make up the first original volume, 3) the second, 4) and 5) the third.The volume is bound in a leaf of a folio psalter of 13-14C date, related to leaves found in Q.G.5, with two leaves of a smaller psalter.
A compendium of canon law by Bartholomew of Pisa; M. R. James's no. 4. It runs from "abbas" to "zelum", in a hand that James says is "probably English", with initials in red and blue. The prologue begins: Quoniam ut ait Gregorius super Ezechielem.
Psalter; M. R. James's no. 21. Contains psalms and canticles, preceded by hymns and followed by the litany, "sequences" and "Virgo gaude". Names of saints in the litany have been altered to match the Sarum form. The "sequences" include music for the first verse of each.The end flyleaf is from a 13C missal; its contents include the proper prefaces for Easter.
Not in M. R. James' Catalogue. Incipiunt (f. 1a): hore de eterna sapientia. Anima mea desideravit te. Text enclosed in floriated border, with decorated initials; believed to be of North German provenance.
Not in M. R. James' Catalogue. Contains: 1) Calendar [with some entries relating to Florence]; 2) Hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary; 3) Office of the dead; 4) The penitential Psalms; 5) Office of the Passion; 6) Office of the Cross.
The daily offices according to the use of York; M. R. James's no. 77. Imperfect at the beginning. The flyleaves come from a 14C ms. of a historical and homiletical nature.
Speculum Christiani ("The Mirror of a Christian", a 14C devotional work): M. R. James's no. 51.
Bible; M. R. James's no. 3. 13C with decorated initials; the first quire is missing, so the text begins at Genesis 36 v. 24. James has a note on the order of the books. The Eusebian Canons occupy 2 pp. after the Apocalypse. In the flyleaves are two 15C lists of the books of the Bible.
Guides to vices and virtues [probably by Guillelmus Peraldus, 13C]; M. R. James's no. 20. Contains: (1) Summa de vitiis, incipit: Primo videndum est quid sit peccatum, with many marginal notes; (2) Tractatus de virtutibus, incipit: Postquam dictum est de morbis ipsius anime.
Repertorium on the Speculum Historiale of Vincent de Beauvais [Vincentius Bellovacensis]; M. R. James's no. 45. There is a prologue by John haut furey, priest, addressed to Simon, Cardinal of S. Prisca [Simon D'Archiac]. At the end are lists of headings and of the extracts contained in the Speculum Historiale. The first leaf has a decorated border.
M. R. James's no. 76. Contains: Epistola Hieronymi ad Demetriadum Virginem; Dicta Anselmi Archiepiscopi; Sermo S. Augustini de penitentia; Collaterales iiiior virtutum; De xii lapidibus; Orationes seu meditationes Anselmi Archiepiscopi; Expl. monologion Anselmi arch.: Inc. prologus in proslogion eiusdem; Proslogion Anselmi; Liber B. Augustini de presentia summi et veri ac omnipotentis dei; Seneca de institutione morum; Collatio Serapionis; De vestimentis sacerdotalibus; an exposition of the canon of the mass; a tract on prosody (wanting the first leaf); elegiac verses on death (30 lines); a dialogue on prosody; verses in another hand (wanting a quire); hymn to the Virgin; two unconnected lines of verse; prologue to a treatise on astronomy, with treatise beginning "Spera est rotundum et globosum corpus" and ending with instructions on making an astrolabe; and a gloss on the Lamentations.
De oculo spirituali, and other tracts; M. R. James's no. 75. Contains: 1)Tractatus de oculo spirituali, with table; 2) Medulla philosophorum, preceded by table; 3) an untitled tract ("De virtutibus"), preceded by table. The fly-leaves include: a leaf of a chronicle, with the year 968 mentioned and the names Lotharius Nicholaus Adrianus; a leaf and a half of "Interpretationes nominum"; and parts of two leaves from a psalter or service book with the beginnings of verses from psalms 13 to 40.
A commentary by William de Conches (Guillaume de Conches) on Boethius' De consolatione philosophiae; M. R. James's no. 74. Latin title: Commentum Willelmi de conches super boecium de consolacione philosophiae. Includes a few domestic and personal memoranda, in English.
The priest's prosody: a table of all the words in the readings, for the whole year, in which mistakes in prosody were likely to be made; M. R. James's no. 42. In the part concerning saints days, the usua; Sarum English saints appear, with special emphasis on Friedeswide. There follows a Chronology of national events from 1370 to 1443, in a different hand.
A theological encyclopaedia; M. R. James's no. 73. Runs from "Absolucio" to "Zelus". At the end are some extracts, the first beginning Gladium appellat dolorem effectum dominice passionis (with the marginal note "haec Bernardus"). The end fly-leaves contain an unfinished 15C English gloss on Psalm 17 (18).
Tracts on monastic life; M. R. James's no. 41. Contains: 1) Speculum Religiosorum, in an imperfect 15C copy running from chapter 26, ending with a table of the chapters; 2) contents table of a different (14C) volume, listing 24 sermons and the 131 chapters of a Summa de vicijs; 3) a tract on ecclesiastical discipline, 15C, incipit: De nocturna illusione; 4) Tabula super regulam S. Benedicti; 5) Tabula super librum B. Bernardi de precepto et dispensacione Compilata a magistro Uthredo Bolton.; 6) Tabula brevis super libellum dictum Abbas vel Prior; 7) Tabula brevis super constituciones benedictinas; 8) Quomodo et processus qualiter Judas postquam tradidit Ihesum venit ad matrem suam et qualiter consuluit eam et noluit ab ... (the story of Judas and the cock, exactly the same tesxt as in Q.D.4); 9) Regula beati Benedicti, imperfect in c. 73; 10) Articuli 5-14 on feudal rights of Durham, imperfect, beginning in art. 4, in 15-16C hand; 11) Constitution of the Abbots of St Alban's, St Mary of York, and Chester, for the Benedictines in England, 14C, with two notes on the rule; 12) Extracts in a 15C hand: Hoc autem non te lateat Petre ... , Plurimi nequaquam pleniter intelligentes (on the Rule), and Nota in rosario .xxvij. q. ij. De eo quod dicitur in regula monachorum ... ; 13) Meditacions: Incipit meditaciones excitative compuntionis ex sacre scripture et sanctorum sentenciis compilate presertim ex sentenciis beati Augustini beati Bernardi et venerabilis Anselmi. Memento miser homo ... (in nine chapters with a table at the end; 14) Meditacio divine laudis et spei venie provocativa composita a dicto magistro Willelmo monacho et doctore (incipit: Memor fui dei et delectatus sum); 15) Meditacio divini amoris desiderativa composita ab eodem (incipit: Memento mei deus); 16) Meditacio composita a domino Utredo monacho Dunelmensi et sacre pagne professore ad excitandum hominem cognoscere semetipsum (incipit: Domine recogitabo tibi omnes annos ; 17) Notes of ordinances concerning the order, 15C; 18) Copia litere domini Bernardi de Genebreda Prioris prioratus de Longavilla ord. Cluniac dioc. Rothomag. de revocatione censurarum constitutionum Benedicti Pape xii[mi] presidentibus ... anno domini mccc. Xliijo (15C copy); 19) Innocencius IIII etc. dilecto filio Priori Dunelm (giving the prior of Durham dispensatory powers); 20) Informacio ad computandum algorismi (probably in same hand as 10); 21) Ordinances made in Durham chapter by Prior Wessington, 1417; 22) Littere Mag. Rostandi de inquisicione pecunie e Archdiac. Dunelm, 13C, the first letter being dated 1256.
A medical miscellany; M. R. James's no. 72. Contains: 1) recipes in English and Latin; 2) Incipiunt notabilia distinctiones textus distinctiones librorum de anima extracte, with three books "De anima" following; 3) memorial verses, in Latin; 4) recipes in Latin and scribbled notes; 5) Utrum logica sit scientia; 6) Hic incipiunt distincciones et notabilia extracta a questionibus super primum librum phisicorum Aristotelis; 7) recipes in Latin and scribbled notes, including a hymn; 8) Hic incipiunt notabilia extracta ex tercio de anima secundum Alexandrum; 9) recipes in Latin; 10) [by Albertus], Primo est sciendum secundum M. henricum de mandavilla quod eodum modo operatur cecus in ligno et cirurgicus in corpore cuius anothomiam ignorat; 11) recipes; 12) Armaldus de nova villa de gradibus; 13) recipes; 14) a separate book fo recipes for parts of the body, incipit: Conferunt cerebro ; 15) Contenta magistri Walteri Agulini de urinis; 16) recipes
Acts of the Apostles with glosses; M. R. James's no. 40. Begins (f. 2): Quibus et (gloss: humanitate a divinitate). Ends: Explicit liber actuum apostolorum liber VIII [with symbol over]. D. C., which James says is thus written for "habet versus III. D. C.".
A sermon by Ricardus de Sancto Victore and a homily by John Chrysostom; M. R. James's no. 71. Contains: 1) A sermon on the Temptation of Christ, by Ricardus de Sancto Victore [Richard de Saint-Victor], incipit: Ductus est jhesus in desertum; 2) Omelia beati Johannis Crisostomi de muliere Chananea, in a different hand.
Lecture notes [on logic], headed Structura supplementum, dictated to Francis Sterling by master William Paterson; M. R. James's no. 39. At the end are four pages of notes.