Durham, Cathedral Library, Hunter 100 "Liber de medicina, compoto, et astronomia" including Latin-OE herbal glossary

Abstract

123. Durham, Cathedral Library, Hunter 100

"Liber de medicina, compoto, et astronomia"

including Latin-OE herbal glossary

[Ker 110, Gneuss-]

HISTORY: Four separate booklets of similar design and script which have at times had different arrangements since the 15c, as shown by two sets of foliations, one 15c and the other modern pencil. The opening words of f. 86r/I (the original second folio) correspond more or less to the entry in the Durham Cathedral library catalogue for 1395 ( the 'sunt nigro' of the catalogue reference is clearly a slip for 'sit ex nigri' (Botfield 1838: 33) so this book was certainly at Durham in the Middle Ages. That it was produced in Durham in the early 12c is shown by the occurrence in it of the hand identified with that of the cantor and historian of the church of Durham, Symeon (d. ca. 1129), which wrote part of ff. lr-42v (including the first section of item 10, ff. l 7r-20r/31 ). The book is written throughout in early 12c hands of an elegant, small, calligraphic character. Mention on f. 28r, in the marginal Easter table annals (item 12), of the deaths of William of Saint-Calais, bishop of Durham (d. 1096), and William Rufus (d. 1100), but not of their successors RanulfFlambard (d. 1128) and Henry I (d.1135), confirms that this item was written before the latter dates. In the 15c the book was extensively annotated throughout by a single large hand which also supplied a continuous foliation. The book presumably remained at Durham, and entered the collection of Dr. Christopher Hunter (1675-1757), from whose executors the Dean and Chapter of Durham bought it in 1757 (on the Hunter donation see Hughes 1925: 32-34). An apparently intermediate owner is noted on f. 12lr, 'Roger Gan<d>sar | hys Book 1710'. That it received its present arrangement in relatively recent times is shown by the 18c inscription at the top off. 85r, 'Liber Ecclesi.e | Cathedr. Dunelm:, which is however matched by the same inscription in the same hand on f. 1r.