Unpublished description by H.L. Pink of Cambridge, University Library, MS Mm.3.31 (Bede, Commentary on the Song of Songs)

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 Both Pink’s and Mynors’ unpublished descriptions have been accessioned into the University Archives as UA ULIB 7/3/75.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 In most respects, Pink’s and Mynors’ work on the Additional manuscripts has been superseded by that of Jayne Ringrose.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 For further information, see: James Freeman, 'Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society (2020); James Freeman,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

继M.R.詹姆斯于1930年对大学图书馆中世纪手稿的研究工作未能圆满结束之后，哈罗德·平克（Harold Pink），图书馆手稿部的成员，着手进行了对馆藏进行更新描述的下一轮集中尝试。平克自1948年起投身于这一任务，直至1970年退休，在许多情况下，他修订了詹姆斯二十年前所撰写的描述。他起初在罗杰·迈诺斯（Roger Mynors）的指导下，着手对附加类目序列中的手稿进行描述，迈诺斯本人也贡献了若干描述，随后他又转向对双字母类目序列中的手稿进行描述。平克和迈诺斯未发表的手稿描述已被纳入大学档案馆，归档号为UA ULIB 7/3/75。在某个阶段，他们的手写描述的副本被制作出来。这些副本现已扫描并在此作为PDF文件提供下载。在多数方面，平克和迈诺斯对附加手稿的研究已被杰恩·林格罗斯（Jayne Ringrose）的工作所超越。她的《剑桥大学图书馆1940年前收到的附加中世纪手稿概览》由布鲁尔出版社于2009年出版，但现在也可在Apollo上找到，其中包括基于已发表概览的更详细的手稿描述。欲了解更多信息，请参阅：詹姆斯·弗里曼（James Freeman）,'剑桥大学图书馆西部中世纪手稿未发表描述',《剑桥书目学会学报》（2020年）；詹姆斯·弗里曼（James Freeman）,'H.L.平克的描述',《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）。