A Durham Canonical Manuscript of the Late Twelfth Century

Abstract

This paper seeks to present merely a preliminary report on a twelfh-century English canonical manuscript of more than usual interest. The work in question is the Durham Cathedral MSC.III.i, ff. 1v-18r, of which a complete analysis with full palaeographical description will be published later, giving clearer definition to the discussions simply outlined here. To deal briefly with the physical appearance of the manuscript first: the folios are 13½ × 9½ in. in size, and the canonical matter is transcribed in double or triple columns with an average of sixty-five lines to the column, carefully written in several different hands of the later twelfth century, with many rubrics and occasional brief marginal references, comments or glosses. It may be said at once that one obvious point of interest in this work is the variety of types of composition, many of them common-place enough individually, gathered together compactly within a few folios of a single volume, revealing the many-sided activities of English canonical collectors at a very creative and formative period in the history of canon law.