Unpublished description by H.L. Pink of Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.4.24 (Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales)

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 Both Pink’s and Mynors’ unpublished descriptions have been accessioned into the University Archives as UA ULIB 7/3/75.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 In most respects, Pink’s and Mynors’ work on the Additional manuscripts has been superseded by that of Jayne Ringrose.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 For further information, see: James Freeman, 'Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society (2020); James Freeman,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）对剑桥大学图书馆（University Library）中世纪手稿（medieval manuscripts）的研究工作无果而终后，该馆手稿部（Department of Manuscripts）工作人员哈罗德·平克（Harold Pink）启动了针对该馆藏的又一次系统性协同修订描述工作。平克自1948年起耗时开展此项任务，直至1970年退休，期间多次对二十年前詹姆斯所撰写的描述稿进行修订。他最初在罗杰·迈纳斯（Roger Mynors）的指导下，从附加类馆藏编号序列（Additionals classmark sequence）的手稿入手，迈纳斯本人也参与撰写了多篇描述稿；之后他又转向双字母类馆藏编号序列（Two-Letter classmark sequence）的手稿描述工作。平克与迈纳斯的未出版描述稿（unpublished descriptions）均以UA ULIB 7/3/75的编号入藏大学档案馆（University Archives）。后续，工作人员对二人手写描述稿的全部存量进行了影印，目前这些影印件（photocopies）已完成扫描，并以PDF文件（pdf files）的形式在此提供下载。平克与迈纳斯针对附加类手稿的研究成果，在多数层面已被简·林罗斯（Jayne Ringrose）的相关工作所取代。她所著的《剑桥大学图书馆1940年前入藏的附加类中世纪手稿总目录》（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，如今其内容连同该出版总目录所依托的手稿详细描述，均可在Apollo平台获取。如需进一步了解，请参阅：詹姆斯·弗里曼（James Freeman）：《剑桥大学图书馆藏西方中世纪手稿未出版描述稿》，载《剑桥书目学会会刊》（Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society）2020年版；詹姆斯·弗里曼：《H.L.平克的手稿描述稿》，剑桥大学图书馆特藏主题指南（Special Collections Subject Guide）（https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/manuscripts-university-archives/subject-guides/medieval-manuscripts-2/hl）