Unpublished description by H.L. Pink of Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.1.34(2) (Dicts of the Philosophers, trans. by Stephen Scrope)

Abstract

Following the unsuccessful conclusion in 1930 of M.R. James’s work on the University Library’s medieval manuscripts, the next concerted attempt to produce updated descriptions of the collection was undertaken by Harold Pink, a member of staff in the Library’s Department of Manuscripts. Pink laboured on this task from 1948 until his retirement in 1970, in many instances revising those descriptions produced by James twenty years earlier. He began with those manuscripts in the Additionals classmark sequence, under the guidance of Roger Mynors, who himself contributed a number of descriptions, before later moving on to producing descriptions of manuscripts within the Two-Letter classmark sequence. Both Pink’s and Mynors’ unpublished descriptions have been accessioned into the University Archives as UA ULIB 7/3/75. At some stage, photocopies were made of the entire stock of their handwritten descriptions. These have now been scanned and are made available here for download as pdf files. In most respects, Pink’s and Mynors’ work on the Additional manuscripts has been superseded by that of Jayne Ringrose. Her Summary catalogue of the Additional medieval manuscripts in Cambridge University Library acquired before 1940 was published by Brewer in 2009, but is now also available on Apollo, together with more detailed descriptions of the manuscripts on which the published summary descriptions were based. For further information, see: James Freeman, 'Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society (2020); James Freeman, 'H.L. Pink's descriptions', Cambridge University Library Special Collections Subject Guide (https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/manuscripts-university-archives/subject-guides/medieval-manuscripts-2/hl).