ABSTRACT
The Cosin collection includes eighty-one of the eighty-nine medieval manuscript codices in Durham University Library and is named after John Cosin, Bishop of Durham from 1660 to 1672, founder of the Episcopal Library administered by the University. In Cosin V.III.24, which contains three treatises concerning contemplative life, a contemporary corrector who was equipped to supply quite long, apparently authentic passages skipped by the original scribes also makes smaller verbal alterations which therefore have a strong claim to be quoted. Contrariwise, in Cosin V.IV.6, with two other devotional treatises, a hand somewhat later than the original makes changes, including erasures, which look much more arbitrary. "Iesus Maria" at the head of an epistle in Cosin V.III.16 might well be omitted, whether one decides that the item qualifies for indexing as a piece of spiritual counsel or solely for record as an actual missive, though in either case such invocation is a customary accompaniment of a letter for some writers.
