IM-13604: Pope Innocent IV, Apparatus in Quinque Libros Decretalium. Leaf on vellum, with text fm Liber II, Titulus XV: Cap. 4-1.
Northern Italy, Bologna, circa 1320-1350 AD
Size: 390 x 260mm – 15.25 x 10.25 inches
A very well-preserved single leaf from a fine illuminated manuscript in stately royal folio format (about 40 cm tall!) of Pope Innocent IV’s influential commentary on the Gregory IX’s Decretals. The Decretals promulgated in 1234 was the first collection of canon law for the Catholic Church invested with universal and exclusive authority (and remained the fundamental source of ecclesiastical law until the early 20th century!).
Innocent IV’s Apparatus was the earliest major commentary on the Decretals and “is considered the best commentary on the Decretals.” (Catholic Encyclopedia). The text begins (recto) with “[re]vocari & alia petebat eam confirmari” (Tit.XV, Cap.1) and ends (verso) with “… in pro se de l. ulti. ff. de privil.” (Tit.XIX, Cap.4). This text deals primarily with various subtle points of ownership rights and some procedural technicalities in resolving property ownership disputes, including discussion of missio in possessionem, a legal tool (originating in Roman law) used to enforce judgments by allowing a creditor to take possession of a debtor's property to satisfy a debt.
This is a complete single leaf (double-sided) from a fine illuminated manuscript on vellum, in a stately Royal Folio format, measuring approx. 390 mm x 26 mm. Written in double columns; 66 lines per column; in a rounded North-Italian textualis bookhand (arotunda); with running head indicating the book number (‘L[iber]’ on verso, ‘II’ on recto). There are three 3-line decorative illuminated initials (‘C’, another ‘C’ and ‘S’) at chapter openings in shades of blue, pale orange, brown, white and pale-pink, two of them with delicate, phytomorphic marginal extension ending with hairline tendrils. Also rubricated with two paragraph marks in red. Several small marginal notes (glosses) in a neat contemporary hand (in smaller rotunda hand), probably by the same scribe as the main text.
Provenance: The leaf likely originates from the same parent manuscript as the leaf offered in Quaritch, cat. 1315 (2004), no. 43, as well as the three leaves in the Roger Martin Collection of Western Manuscripts and Miniatures (Lot 75) sold by Bloomsbury Auctions on Jul 06, 2021.
Shipped unmatted
