Unpublished description by H.L. Pink of Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 3478 (register of writs)

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 Both Pink’s and Mynors’ unpublished descriptions have been accessioned into the University Archives as UA ULIB 7/3/75.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 In most respects, Pink’s and Mynors’ work on the Additional manuscripts has been superseded by that of Jayne Ringrose.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 For further information, see: James Freeman, 'Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society (2020); James Freeman,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中世纪手稿的研究工作未能顺利完成。此后，该馆手稿部职员哈罗德·平克（Harold Pink）牵头开展了针对馆藏手稿进行更新著录的首次系统性尝试。平克自1948年起辛勤推进此项工作，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著录内容。他最初在罗杰·迈纳斯（Roger Mynors）的指导下，率先对附加类号序列下的手稿开展著录工作——迈纳斯本人亦参与撰写了多篇手稿的著录内容，随后又转向双字母类号序列下的手稿著录。平克与迈纳斯的未刊手稿著录均已以档案编号UA ULIB 7/3/75入藏剑桥大学档案馆。他们的手写著录原稿曾被批量复印，目前这些复印件已完成数字化扫描，可在此处以PDF文件形式下载。
在多数研究维度上，平克与迈纳斯针对附加类手稿的研究成果已被简·林格罗斯（Jayne Ringrose）的后续工作取代。她所撰《剑桥大学图书馆1940年前入藏附加类中世纪手稿总目》于2009年由布鲁尔出版社（Brewer）出版，如今该目录与支撑其出版总目的详细手稿著录内容一同可在Apollo平台获取。
如需进一步了解相关信息，请参阅：詹姆斯·弗里曼（James Freeman）《剑桥大学图书馆未刊西方中世纪手稿著录》，《剑桥书目学会汇刊》（2020年）；詹姆斯·弗里曼《H.L. 平克手稿著录》，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）。