Unpublished description by H.L. Pink of Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.1.36 (William of Nassington, Speculum uitae)

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 Both Pink’s and Mynors’ unpublished descriptions have been accessioned into the University Archives as UA ULIB 7/3/75.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 In most respects, Pink’s and Mynors’ work on the Additional manuscripts has been superseded by that of Jayne Ringrose.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 For further information, see: James Freeman, 'Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society (2020); James Freeman,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).

1930年，M.R.詹姆斯（M.R. James）针对剑桥大学图书馆（University Library）中世纪手稿（medieval manuscripts）的整理工作以失败告终。此后，针对该馆藏手稿描述的首次系统性修订尝试由该校图书馆手稿部（Department of Manuscripts）职员哈罗德·平克（Harold Pink）牵头开展。平克于1948年起着手此项工作，直至1970年退休，期间多次修订二十年前詹姆斯完成的手稿描述初稿。在罗杰·迈纳斯（Roger Mynors）的指导下，平克首先从附加类馆藏号序列（Additionals classmark sequence）下的手稿入手，迈纳斯本人亦参与撰写了多篇手稿描述；之后平克又转向双字母类馆藏号序列（Two-Letter classmark sequence）下的手稿整理工作。平克与迈纳斯的未出版描述稿（unpublished descriptions）均以档案号UA ULIB 7/3/75入藏剑桥大学档案馆（University Archives）。此前，研究人员曾将二人全部手写描述稿制作影印本（photocopies），现该影印本已完成数字化扫描（scanned），可在此处以PDF文件（pdf files）形式下载。在多数层面，平克与迈纳斯针对附加类中世纪手稿的研究成果已被杰恩·林罗斯（Jayne Ringrose）的后续工作取代。她所著的《剑桥大学图书馆1940年前入藏附加类中世纪手稿总目》（Summary catalogue of the Additional medieval manuscripts in Cambridge University Library acquired before 1940）于2009年由布鲁尔出版社（Brewer）出版，目前该总目及对应手稿的详细描述稿均可在阿波罗（Apollo）平台获取。如需进一步了解相关信息，可参阅：詹姆斯·弗里曼（James Freeman）的《剑桥大学图书馆未出版西方中世纪手稿描述》"Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library"，载于《剑桥书目学会会刊》（Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society，2020年）；以及詹姆斯·弗里曼的《H.L.平克的手稿描述》"H.L. Pink's descriptions"，见于剑桥大学图书馆特藏主题指南（Cambridge University Library Special Collections Subject Guide，https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/manuscripts-university-archives/subject-guides/medieval-manuscripts-2/hl）。