Royal MS 4 A VI

HYPOGNOSTICON Laurentii Dunelmensis monachi de veteri et novo Testamento: a poem in elegiac verse, in nine books, by Laurence, Prior of Durham 1147-1154 (cf'. Dict. Nat. Biogr. xxxii, P. 248), containing a summary of the Bible narrative. Book ix treats of the apostles and various Christian institutions, and of several Christian saints, especially S. Cuthbert, the patron of Durham. The title, which is given as above in Harley MS. 3202 and Cotton MS. Vesp. D. xi, and has been added in this MS. in a different hand, appears here (f. 3) as 'De lapsu et reparatione hominis' (cf the colophon in Vesp. D. xi). Book i is headed 'Primus liber Laurentii mundi primam continens etatem'. The prologue (in prose) beg. 'Omnis ars uel disciplina, mi Gervasi, spei ratione pretendit' (f. 2); the poem beg. 'Principium rerum sine tempore tempora formans' (f. 3b). A marginal analysis is added throughout in red ink. Vellum; ff. 66. 10.1/8 in. x 5.1/8 in. XII cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves. The last word of each line is written in small rustic capitals, widely spaced out. Sec. fol.'breuitatem'. Good foliated initials to prologue and poem, without gold. On the fly-leaf at the beginning (f. i) is a roughly written and incomplete index to the poem, and at the end (f. 66) a portion of a treatise on metre, both late 15th cent. Ship seal on f. 1. CMA. 8659.