Beschreibung:

STATUTES OF THE CARTHUSIANS, in Latin, with glosses, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER AND VELLUM , [northern Europe, perhaps France, mid-14th century].
STATUTES OF THE CARTHUSIANS, in Latin, with glosses, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER AND VELLUM , [northern Europe, perhaps France, mid-14th century]. 333 x 243mm. 151 leaves, foliation 1-146 (f.67 occurring twice), initials and rubrics in red, two 14th-century flyleaves from the 7th book of the Codex Iustinianus (lacking end, some spotting and marginal staining throughout, red stain on f.10). Parisian blind-stamped calf, c.1515-1530 (scuffed and scratched). PROVENANCE : (1) The script is 14th-century and the letter forms indicate a localisation north of the Alps. The binding is Parisian, c.1515-1530. (2) 19th-century inscription on f.1, in French. CONTENT : Statutes of the Carthusian Order, in Latin, with glosses, beginning with Dom Riffier’s version of 1258: ‘Quia statuta ordinis diffusa sunt et multiplicata [...]’ and ending imperfectly in chapter LXXX of Guigo’s Consuetudines : ‘Talis est enim factus in solitudinem [ut dignus]’, ff.1-145. An early testament to the evolving nature of the Carthusian Rule that would only reach its modern incarnation later in the 16th century. Guigo, the fifth prior of the Carthusians, was the first to set out the customs and code of the Order (as introduced by St Bruno) in his Consuetudines . These were first approved by Innocent II in 1133 and are still the basis of the Order’s modern statutes. In 1258 the general, Dom Riffier, issued a new edition, adding various ordinances passed by the general chapters since 1127: these are known as the Statuta Antiqua , and it is with this text that the present manuscript opens. The Statuta Nova with similar additions appeared in 1368. In 1509 the general chapter approved the Tertia Compilatio , consisting of a collection of the ordinances of the chapters and a synopsis of the statutes. The Carthusian Rule was printed for the first time by Johann Amorbach at Basel in 1510.