Unpublished description by H.L. Pink of Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.2.5 (Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales)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 Both Pink’s and Mynors’ unpublished descriptions have been accessioned into the University Archives as UA ULIB 7/3/75.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 In most respects, Pink’s and Mynors’ work on the Additional manuscripts has been superseded by that of Jayne Ringrose.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 For further information, see: James Freeman, 'Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society (2020); James Freeman,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）针对剑桥大学图书馆（Cambridge University Library）中世纪手稿的研究工作以失败告终，此后该馆手稿部职员哈罗德·平克（Harold Pink）启动了对该馆藏进行更新描述的下一次系统性尝试。平克于1948年起潜心投入此项工作，直至1970年退休，期间多次修订了詹姆斯二十年前完成的手稿描述。他在罗杰·迈纳斯（Roger Mynors）的指导下，首先从附加类索书号序列的手稿入手——迈纳斯本人也参与撰写了多篇描述稿——随后转向双字母类索书号序列的手稿编目工作。

平克与迈纳斯的未出版描述稿均已入藏剑桥大学档案馆（University Archives），编号为UA ULIB 7/3/75。彼时，工作人员对二人手写描述稿的全部原件制作了影印件，如今这些影印件已被数字化扫描，并以PDF文件形式在此提供下载。

在多数研究维度上，平克与迈纳斯针对附加类手稿的工作已被杰恩·林格罗斯（Jayne Ringrose）的成果取代。她所著的《剑桥大学图书馆1940年前入藏中世纪附加手稿概要目录》于2009年由布鲁尔（Brewer）出版社出版，目前该目录及作为其编撰依据的手稿详细描述均可在Apollo（Apollo）平台获取。

如需进一步信息，请参阅：詹姆斯·弗里曼（James Freeman）《剑桥大学图书馆未出版西方中世纪手稿描述》，《剑桥文献学会汇刊》（Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society，2020年）；詹姆斯·弗里曼《H.L.平克的手稿描述》，剑桥大学图书馆特藏主题指南（https://www.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/departments/manuscripts-university-archives/subject-guides/medieval-manuscripts-2/hl）。