Lot 76

Pope Clement V, Constitutiones Clementinae, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [southern France (perhaps Avignon), mid fourteenth century]

Estimate

5,000 - 7,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

Vellum

24 leaves, 368mm. by 255mm., complete, collation: i-ii^{10, iii^{4, horizontal catchwords, double column, 51 lines in brown ink in a round gothic bookhand, 2-line initials in red (with occasional penwork infill, some picking out human faces), text opening with a}}large historiated initial 'I', enclosing a seated pope with the book in his lap, penwork extensions into two borders touched in coloured wash, slight cockling of first few leaves, else very good condition, modern red leather over pasteboards

Provenance

provenance

1. Perhaps written in Avignon in the mid fourteenth century.

2. The Franciscan convent of San Nicolò, Sulmona, central Italy, founded in 1443: partially erased inscription on fol.1r apparently "Iste liber est librarie sancti Nicolai de sulmone".

3. Bergendal MS.5; bought by Joseph Pope from Fogg in October 1993 (Fogg, cat.15, 1992, no.9; then bound together with Bergendal MS.47, lot 77 here): Bergendal catalogue no.5; Stoneman, 'Guide', p.167.

Catalogue Note

text

The Constitutiones Clementinae were compiled under the direction of Pope Clement V (1305-14), but not published until after his death by his successor, John XXII, in 1317. The text collects together 106 decretals governing matters of faith and discipline, as well as the records of the Council of Vienna (1311-12) and the letters of John XXII to the university of Avignon and Clement V to the university of Orleans.