Unpublished description by H.L. Pink of Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.6 (M. Tullius Cicero, De inuentione; Boethius, De differentiis topicis (IV); pseudo-M. Tullius Cicero, De ratione dicendi ad Herennium)

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 Both Pink’s and Mynors’ unpublished descriptions have been accessioned into the University Archives as UA ULIB 7/3/75.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 In most respects, Pink’s and Mynors’ work on the Additional manuscripts has been superseded by that of Jayne Ringrose.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 For further information, see: James Freeman, 'Unpublished descriptions of western medieval manuscripts at Cambridge University Library', Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society (2020); James Freeman,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以失败告终后，图书馆手稿部职员哈罗德·平克（Harold Pink）发起了对该馆藏手稿描述进行系统性更新的下一次正式尝试。平克自1948年起潜心致力于此项工作，直至1970年退休，期间多次修订了二十年前詹姆斯完成的手稿描述文稿。在罗杰·迈纳斯（Roger Mynors）的指导下，他首先从附加类号序列（Additionals classmark sequence）下的手稿着手开展工作——迈纳斯本人也为该系列手稿贡献了多篇描述文稿——随后又转向处理双字母类号序列（Two-Letter classmark sequence）下的手稿。平克与迈纳斯的未出版手稿描述均已以编号UA ULIB 7/3/75归档入剑桥大学档案馆（University Archives）。其后，二人手写的全部描述文稿均被制作了影印本，目前这些影印本已完成扫描，并以PDF文件的形式在此提供下载。在多数领域，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）的相关工作所取代。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，目前该总目也可在Apollo平台获取，同时配套发布了支撑该出版总目详细描述的手稿细节说明。如需进一步了解相关信息，请参阅：詹姆斯·弗里曼（James Freeman）的《剑桥大学图书馆未出版西方中世纪手稿描述》，载于《剑桥书目学会会刊》2020年刊；以及詹姆斯·弗里曼的《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）。