Unpublished description by H.L. Pink of Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4081 (Peter of Poitiers, Compendium historiae in genealogiae Christi)

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 Both Pink’s and Mynors’ unpublished descriptions have been accessioned into the University Archives as UA ULIB 7/3/75.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 In most respects, Pink’s and Mynors’ work on the Additional manuscripts has been superseded by that of Jayne Ringrose.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 For further information, see: James Freeman, 'Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society (2020); James Freeman,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宣告无果而终。此后，针对该馆藏开展系统化更新编目描述的下一次集中尝试，由剑桥大学图书馆手稿部职员哈罗德·平克（Harold Pink）发起。平克于1948年起投身此项工作，直至1970年退休；期间他多次修订二十年前詹姆斯完成的手稿编目描述。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开展工作——迈纳斯本人也参与撰写了多篇手稿描述——随后又转向双字母类索书号序列的手稿编目描述工作。平克与迈纳斯的未刊手稿描述均以档案号UA ULIB 7/3/75入藏剑桥大学档案馆。其后，二人的全部手写手稿描述均被制作了影印本；目前这些影印本已完成扫描，并以PDF文件形式在此提供下载。就多数内容而言，平克与迈纳斯针对附加类手稿的编目工作已被简·林格罗斯（Jayne Ringrose）的研究成果取代。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》于2009年由布鲁尔出版社（Brewer）出版；目前该总目及其支撑出版总目的详尽手稿原始描述均可在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描述》，载《剑桥书目学会会刊》（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）。