Summarium Clementinorum and Summarium Sexti Libri Decretalium, in Latin, manuscript on paper

Estimate

1,000 - 1,500 GBP

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Description

103 leaves (2 blank), 92mm. by 63mm., complete, collation: i-xii^{8, xiii^{7 [of 8, a further blank cancelled at end], 23 lines, ruled in plummet, written-space 69mm. by 42mm., written in a flamboyant cursive hand mostly in red ink with only the headings in black, one- and 2-line initials throughout in black with some flourishing, the black ink having occasionally eaten through the pages leaving holes, a few marks, generally in fine condition, sixteenth- or seventeenth-century blind-stamped calf, rebacked and repaired, replaced paper endleaves}}

Provenance

provenance

Ownership inscription in the scribe’s hand, “Iste libellus est deputatus usui prioris sancti pauli de urbe” (fol.24v), i.e., assigned to the use of the prior of the great basilica of San Paolo fuori le Mure in the via Ostiense in Rome, and the prior may have written it himself.

Catalogue Note

text

Among the most enormous and unmanageable medieval texts are the decretals of canon law known as the Liber Sextus, promulgated by Boniface VIII in 1298, and the Constitutiones Clementinae, compiled by Clement V in 1312 and promulgated by John XXII in 1317. Each is in five huge books, subdivided into tituli and capitula. The present text is a pocket summary of those great legal reference works. The opening words of each chapter are quoted in black. The summaries are in red. The manuscript opens on fol.1r, “Summarium clementinorum, Fidei catholice, titulus primus, capitulum primum, Fatetur concilium unicum dei filium …”, ending on fol.24v, followed by the “Summarium sexti libri decretalium” (fol.25r), all ending on fol.101r, “… designet ostendit”.