Gui de Montrocher, Manipulus Curatorum, in Latin, manuscript on vellum and paper

Estimate

2,000 - 3,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

59 leaves, plus 4 original flyleaves, 200mm. by 145mm., lacking 5 leaves after fol.5, one after fol.8, 3 after fol.16, 8 after fol.23, many (up to 28) after fol.23, perhaps 8 after fol.25 and fol.27, 3 after fol.31, one after fol.36, and 2 after fol.40, else complete, collation: i^{13 [of 20, lacking iv-ix and xiii], ii^{8 [of 20, lacking ii-iv and xii-xx], iii^{1 [presumably of 20, lacking i-xix], iv^{4 [presumably of 20, lacking ii-ix and xii-xix], v^{13 [of 20, lacking iv-vi, xii and xvii-xix], vi^{20, with alphabetical leaf signatures, outer and inner bifolia of each gathering are of vellum, all other leaves are of paper, pencil foliation (followed here) includes flyleaves, 26 lines, vertical ruling in blind, horozontal ruling in pale red ink, written-space 146mm. by 95mm., written in dark brown ink in a small but spacious gothic bookhand, paragraph-marks in red or blue,}}}}}} painted initials throughout in red or blue, mostly 2 lines high, one 3-line, early additions at ends, occasional marks and minor signs of use but mostly (apart from loss of leaves) in sound condition, contemporary binding of thick very slightly bevelled wooden boards sewn on 3 thongs and covered with soft reversed leather originally stained red, mark from a clasp once on upper cover, corresponding metal catch on lower cover stamped with the Paschal Lamb, old paper title on spine, binding very worn and defective with rough repairs

Provenance

provenance

(1) Contemporary ownership inscription at the end of the text, fol.61v (in the same hand as the title on fol.3r), “Iste liber est domini Antonii Ventura prepositi Ecclesie Sancte Marie canonice perponi”, i.e., owned by Antonio Venture, provost of the church of Santa Maria Antica (founded in the eighth century) and a canon of Verona, with a further note in the same hand again on fol.62r, “1471, die martis vi augusti dominus prepositus accessit mantuam, pro clericatu, ad Illustrium ducem milani, qui tunc erat gunzaghe &c”., which seems to mean that on Tuesday, 6 August 1471 (it was indeed a Tuesday that year), the provost came to Mantua on behalf of the clerical staff of the illustrious duke of Milan, at the time of the Gonzagas’ (“gunzaghe” being a locative); presumably he was part of a delegation from Galeazzo Maria Sforza, duke of Milan 1464-76, either to Lodovico Gonzaga, marquis of Mantua, or to his son, Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga.

(2) Purchase note of c.1500 on fol.62r, apparently, “Iste liber Emptum fuit per Me presbiterem Georgium de boatariis presbitero laurentio de roverinis de locho gablati precio librarum trium signum”.

(3) Seventeenth-century note on front flyleaf, “Conventus sancti Francisci de Justinopoli”, i.e., the Franciscan convent of Capodistria, now Koper in Slovenia, then a Venetian colony on the Adriatic coast, the capital city of Istria (literally ‘caput Istriae’). The Franciscan convent, for long the headquarters of the Istrian Inquisition, was suppressed in 1806.

Catalogue Note

text

This is the practical manual of priesthood by Gui de Montrocher, Guido de Monte Rocherii, composed in 1333. It is known in approximately 180 manuscripts; cf. H. Santiago Otero, ‘Guido de Monte Roterio y el Manipulus Curatorum’, in S. Kuttner and K. Pennington, ed., Proceedings of the Fifth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, 1980, pp.259-65. It opens here on fol.3r with the preface addressed to Raimundus Gaston, bishop of Valencia 1312-48, “Reverendissimo in xpisto ac domino domino Raymundo …”, with the text itself beginning on fol.4b, “Sciendum ergo quod omnia …”, with Book I, concerned with the sacraments, baptism, confirmation, the Eucharist, last rites, and the laws of marriage; followed by Book II (fol.25r), on penance, contrition, confession, charity and fasting; and the short and final Book III (fol.45v) on the Ten Commandments, all ending on fol.61v, “… ad deum preces fundat, Amen”. Various Gospel lections have been added on the flyleaves.