Beschreibung:

Leaf from an early copy of Gratian’s Decretum, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment [France (probably the north), third quarter of the twelfth century (before c. 1180)] Single leaf, with double column, 59 lines in a professional early gothic bookhand (containing chapters CXXVIII-CXXXVII), without biting curves, but with pronounced wedging to ascenders, red rubrics, 2-line initials in alternate red and pale blue with single hairline strokes atop their vertical strokes, numerous contemporary or near-contemporary neat marginal and interlineal notes, pricklines remaining down outer side of leaf, trimmed at inner, some folds and small holes, scuffed at reverse (but legible), overall good condition, 220 by 315 mm. This leaf is among the earliest witnesses to this crucial text. The text was composed in Bologna in an initial version after 1139, followed by a second recension in the 1150s. We know little about the author, barring his name: Gratian. He attempted to resolve discordant parts of the law, and after the incorporation of the text into the Corpus Juris Canonici it came to form the bedrock for all medieval ecclesiastical law, and remained the established text until the early twentieth century. By 1143 the text was in use in legal disputes in Venice, and spread rapidly across the rest of Europe, being cited c. 1180 by Robert of Torigny, the abbot of Mont Saint Michel in Normandy, in his chronicle. This leaf probably predates a near-contemporary and perhaps French or Flemish fragment sold in our rooms, 9 December 2015, lot 23, by a decade or so.