MS Durham Cathedral Hunter 100 is a stunning scientific album from the first quarter of the twelfth century. Produced at Durham Cathedral Priory, it incorporates medical recipes, in two collections, and a series of diagrams and texts on time-calculation, the science of compotus. These are accompanied by exquisite illustrations, the detail all the more fascinating and beautiful given the small size of the volume. At the same time, the manuscript reveals the requirements of the community for scientific learning, the activities of various scribes known from other volumes in the collection, and the intense debates about how the calendar should be reformed and calculated. These debates would continue throughout the twelfth and early thirteenth century. Robert Grosseteste’s Compotus correctorius brings these debates to a head, and provided, for the first time, a more comprehensive approach to the serious calendrical problems faced by the medieval West. The Hunter 100 Project then, falls naturally under the aegis of Ordered Universe: the fusion of creative arts and design, of mathematics, of medicine, time-reckoning and discussion of the universe and the place of the world, and humanity, within it. The aim of the Hunter 100 Project is to provide a full digital edition, with transcription, translation and commentary essays, to show the detail and intricacies of the texts and illustrations to as wide and audience as possible, and to create a teaching and research resource to bring this gem of a manuscript to life. This in turn is part of the Durham Priory Digitisation Project a major digital humanities partnership between Durham Cathedral and Durham University
The Digital Edition will be hosted on the Ordered Universe website, alongside side the other twelfth and early thirteenth century compotus material we are working on, in support of a fuller and richer understanding of Grosseteste, his inheritance and his scientific works. As an edition for teaching and elucidation, the Hunter 100 Project will form an essential part of the Ordered Universe’s engagement with contemporary perceptions of science, medieval and modern. The Hunter 100 team (the Hunter-Gatherers) are led by Professor Faith Wallis (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) and Dr Giles Gasper (Durham), with Dr Helen Foxhall Forbes, Professor Tom McLeish and Professor Brian Tanner, Dr Sigbjørn Sønnesyn (Durham), Dr Charlie Rozier (Swansea) and Dr Philipp Nothaft (Oxford), and Durham graduates Sarah Gilbert, Ana Dias and Jonathan Turnock. The rest of the Ordered Universe team are also involved – and many other experts. This page will include updates on the project and its developments!