Anthony Ian Doyle (AID), the distinguished medievalist and palaeographer, was born in Liverpool on 24 October 1925, and schooled by the Christian Brothers at St Mary’s College, Great Crosby. Debarred by asthma from wartime military service, he went up to Cambridge (Downing College) at the age of only 17, where he read English under F. R. Leavis, and graduated with a double first in 1945. Although his first publications (some while still an undergraduate) were on modern literature, he turned for his doctoral research to Middle English, and to the study not of texts but of the production and circulation of manuscripts This was to be foremost among his research interests throughout his life. His Ph.D. thesis, accepted in 1953, was entitled ‘A Survey of the Origins and Circulation of Theological Writings in English in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries with Special Consideration of the Part of the Clergy Therein’. The remarkably extensive survey of manuscripts he conducted for it underpinned much of his own later work, and influenced many other scholars in the emerging new discipline of codicology.
Although AID seemed initially bent on an academic career, part-time employment by Downing College library during his doctoral research gave him some introductory experience of librarianship, and in 1950 he was appointed to a post as Senior Library Assistant in Durham University Library, where the medieval collections, including a number of Middle English manuscripts, had particular attractions for him. He spent the rest of his career here (Keeper of Rare Books 1959-82, Reader in Bibliography 1972-85). The remarkable depth and range of knowledge he built up of the manuscript and early book collections of the University, Cathedral and Ushaw College libraries, is unlikely ever to be equalled. It is reflected in his numerous publications on individual collections and collectors, and in the catalogue of the University Library’s medieval manuscripts. Almost complete at the time of his death and now available in draft online [insert link], the catalogue’s preparation was a major preoccupation of his years both in post and in retirement, and his draft descriptions and accumulated notes on individual manuscripts occupy many of his personal research files.
AID played a central part in the development of the University library, and especially its special collections, throughout his career here. He was also a very active participant in university and city life more broadly. His interest in and knowledge of Durham’s collections extended to the historic buildings which house them, and to Durham Castle, where he was a leading figure in the senior common room and on the buildings and historic contents committee. He was active in the wider university, serving on senate and numerous committees, and also becoming much involved in city affairs, particularly in relation to Durham’s historic buildings and planning matters. He took a very active part in the learned societies of the area - Surtees Society, Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland, and Durham Local History Society - contributing to their publications and serving on their councils and committees. Concern for the built environment was one of his major interests, and he served as a trustee of the City of Durham Trust for many years. He helped to found the Bow Trust, and until his last years played a leading part in its development of the redundant church of St Mary-le-Bow to house the Durham Museum and Heritage Centre. A devout Roman Catholic, his religious faith was central to his life. He was a parishioner of St Cuthbert’s in Durham for over sixty years, interested in and knowledgeable about its history and that of Catholicism in the North-East, and readily gave time to parish affairs, especially concerning the church building.
Nationally, he was a pioneer in the development of special collections librarianship in this country, never confined by artificial organisational barriers between manuscripts and print, always keen to contribute to major collaborative projects, and renowned for his helpfulness to users of collections. From his arrival in Durham onwards, his scholarly career continued to develop in parallel with his library career. In 1967 he gave a seminal series of Lyall lectures at Oxford on ‘Some English Scribes and Scriptoria of the Later Middle Ages’, and he continued to produce a steady stream of influential publications right to the end of his long life, valiantly defying the difficulties that impaired sight and hearing brought to his latter years. Famed for the generosity with which he shared the fruits of his researches with other scholars, he also gave significant time to committee work nationally, especially on the councils of the Bibliographic Society and the early English Text Society, the committees of the Rare Books Group and Sconul Manuscripts Group, the editorial board of the British Academy’s Corpus of Medieval British Library Catalogues, and the conferences of the Early Book Society. After the Sconul group’s demise he was active in founding AMARC (the Association for Manuscripts and Archives in Research), serving as its chair and then president.
His scholarly distinction brought him many honours: member of the Comité International de Paléographie 1979, British Academy’s Israel Gollancz Prize 1983, Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America 1991, Fellow of the British Academy 1992, Durham University Chancellor’s Medal 2010, Bibliographic Society Gold Medal 2014. He died on 4 February 2018.
