By Catherine Monahan In a recent trip to England, I visited Durham Cathedral in hopes of viewing several of the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts found in the Cathedral Library. As the Managing Editor of the Dictionary of Old English, I was looking forward to seeing the actual manuscripts rather than the poor copies which we consult regularly during Read More …
Category: Durham Priory Library Project
Why analyse pigments in manuscripts?
In the next few months and years you may see more and more information on pigments available on the Durham Priory Recreated website. Collected by ‘Team Pigment’ – a group of chemists and historians from Durham and Northumbria Universities – this information aims to tell the viewer which exact pigments or dyes were used to Read More …
Law as Theology: Hypothesising about one of Durham’s canon law manuscripts
Durham Cathedral Library, MS B.IV.18, written in the early twelfth century, begins with what canon law scholars call the ‘Canterbury Abridgement’ of Collectio Lanfranci, which would be the canonical collection Lanfranc of Bec brought with him to England and dispersed whilst Archbishop of Canterbury (1070-1089). This manuscript and the other one that contains the abridgement, Lambeth Read More …
Just what is a Priory library book then?
The most common question arising about the Durham Priory Library digitisation project is “So how many books are you digitising?” and my response always starts with “roughly …”. There are several reasons for this. One of the largest books, the Bible of Hugh of Puiset, shelfmark DCL MS A.II.1 is, in spite of that shelfmark, Read More …
Late Antiquity in Medieval Durham
I have come to the study of medieval canon law from the study of late antique papal letters and their transmission — a transmission that is almost entirely through medieval manuscripts, and usually (but not always) manuscripts used as material for canon law. Canon law, whether seen as a scientia of its own or as Read More …
Christmas in the codices
Durham Cathedral Library B.II.2 is a homiliary — a book that has gathered together a selection of patristic (that is, ancient/late antique Christian) homilies. This particular selection of homilies is a collection put together by Paul the Deacon (720-799), who is more famous for his historical writings, The History of the Lombards and Historia Romana. Like our friends Read More …
Who needs canon law?
In short, the answer to the question, ‘Who needs canon law?’ is, ‘Everyone.’ Canon law is, as a practical discipline, the body of regulations (Latin: regulae or the Greek canones) that govern church life. As a realm of knowledge, canon law is the study of the ordering of relationships amongst human beings, clerical and lay, from bishops, Read More …
The Book Donation List of William of St Calais: Everything a Monk Needs?
On the front of the first folio of the Bible of William St Calais (Durham Cathedral Library MS A.II.4), Symeon of Durham (identified by his writing; d. c. 1130) gives a list of books donated by William of St Calais (Bishop of Durham, 1080-1096): Bishop William donated 49 volumes listed here: a two-volume Bible; three Read More …
An insight into digitisation: digitising a damaged book
De proprietatibus rerum (Durham Cathedral Library Inc.3) The digitisation of medieval books and manuscripts is generally a pretty straight forward process; provided you have the right equipment and you take the time to do it carefully. The Priory Library Recreated Project uses conservation copy stands, also known as ‘book cradles’ (there is a photo of Read More …
The manuscript with the most folios numbered 38
Durham Cathedral Manuscript A.II.17 One thing that you quickly get used to digitising manuscripts is that they don’t always have a neat numerical sequence, which makes the whole process of taking photographs page by page (and then linking these all together into the correct sequence) rather more work than it might appear. As you look Read More …