Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts

Catholic Church.

Decretales a[b]breviate [manuscript].

Decretales Gregorii IX. Selections.

[France, between 1250 and 1299]

147 leaves : parchment, col. ill. ; 208 x 148 (103 x 81) mm. bound to 210 x 162 mm.

An abbreviated version of the decretals compiled by Raymond of Peñafort in the 1230s by order of Pope Gregory IX. Thomas Izbicki has identified an additional selection from Innocent III from the Liber sextus decretalium (IV 1.6.1) included before the closing rubric (f. 147r). Table of contents entries for the chapters and chapter numbers added in the margins in a 14th-century hand. Mnemonic verses indicating the contents of the manuscript and three lines of a hymn to Saints John, Peter, and Lawrence are written inside the upper cover in a 15th-century hand.

Ms. codex.

Title from explicit (f. 147r).

Foliation: Parchment, 147; [1-147]; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto. 12 bifolia are missing with loss of text (4, 3, 3, and 2 bifolia following f. 11, 28, 126, and 145 respectively) in Book 1, the beginning of Book 2, and Book 5; the modern foliation does not account for the missing leaves.

Layout: Written in 2 columns of 25 lines; ruled in lead.

Script: Written in an early Gothic book hand.

Decoration: Historiated initial with a portrait of Gregory IX (f. 4r); large illuminated initials in blue, pink, and gold at beginning of table of contents and Books 3-5 (f. 1r, 61r, 96v, 111r); initials at beginning of chapters alternate between red with blue penwork and blue with red penwork; red or blue capital L and red and blue roman numerals in upper margins indicating book divisions; small initials throughout alternate between blue and red; rubrics in red.

Binding: 15th-century sheepskin over wooden boards; blind ruling and stamped heraldic eagles and flowers visible on lower cover; upper cover and edges smoke-damaged; metal clasp; chain, probably 17th-century, of 7 hourglass-shaped links attached to decorative boss at head of lower cover.

Origin: Written in France between 1250 and 1299.

UPenn LJS 280

Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania LJS 280