Walters Ms. W.133, Gratian's Decretum

W.133

Gratian's Decretum

Decretum

Authority name: Gratian

This deluxe version of Gratian's Decretum was created ca. 1280-90, most likely in Hainaut. The lively decoration of the manuscript indicates a marked taste for narrative, and there are thirty-seven historiated initials. The gloss work was completed by Bartholomew of Brescia. At first, Paris would seem to be the most likely place of origin, given that it was the leading center for the study of canon law. However, this particular manuscript exhibits scribal features that suggest its place of origin as being the Cistercian abbey of Cambron in Hainaut. Furthermore, Abbot Baudouin de Bousso, whose tenure at the abbey was from 1283 to 1293, was schooled in theology at the University of Paris, and he would eventually endorse the production of many fine manuscripts while at Cambron. In fact, the catalyst for this endeavor seems to have been the Beaupré Antiphonary (W.759-761), which was was created at Cambron during the 1280s. Stylistic features of W.133 seem to have connections with the Beaupré Antiphonary. For example, Cistercian monks are shown in three extant illuminations throughout three of the antiphonary volumes; these monks are pictured in brown habits similar to the type worn by clerics in W.133. The reliance upon Cistercian precedents for textual and design features associates W.133 with the Cistercian abbey at Cambron. However, more remains to be confirmed by further inspection of the output of the scriptorium at Cambron.

Ca. 1280-90 CE

Hainaut

Book

Legal

The primary language in this manuscript is Latin.

Parchment

Well-prepared thin to medium-weight parchment with few blemishes; follicles from hair-sides occasionally visible; stitching from original mending to folios visible on fols. 22, 57, 97, 120, 157, 187, 192, 200, 208, 209, 218, 229, 239, 242, 244, 249, 250, 253, 257, 265, 274, 284, 288, 298, 324, 327, and 335; mild yellowing and occasional minor stains throughout; evidence of rubbing at lower edges of folios; some folios trimmed at lower edges; prickings occasionally visible on outer edges

Foliation: i+344+i

Modern pencil foliation, upper right corners rectos

Formula: Quire 1: 10 (fols. 1-10); Quires 2-9: 8 (fols. 11-74); Quire 10: 12 (fols. 75-86); Quires 11-40: 8 (fols. 87-326); Quire 41: 10 (fols. 327-336); Quire 42: 8 (fols. 337-344)

Catchwords: Catchwords usually in brown ink in lower right corners versos, last folio of each quire

Signatures: Signatures in red ink, centered at the bottom of the versos, last folios in each quire, up to quire 10

Comments:

27.5 cm wide by 42.0 cm high

23.75 cm wide by 34.0 cm high

1. Columns: 2
2. Ruled lines: 53
3. Two columns of Decretum text, plus two columns of wrap-around commentary text = 34 x 23.75 cm; textual accretions on fols. 337r to 344r lack the wrap-around text, reducing the written-text dimensions to 25.5 x 15.5

fols. 1r - 344v:

1. Title: Decretum
2. Author: Gratian
3. Hand note: Textura semi-quadrata
4. Decoration note: Thirty-six historiated initials; two inhabited initials; flourished initials for secondary text divisions in red and blue ink; smaller initials for tertiary text divisions in blue and red ink; marginal drolleries throughout; rubrics in red; text in dark brown ink

fols. 1r - 10v:

1. Title: Prefatory summary
2. Incipit: In prima parte agitur de iusticia naturali et positiua tam constituta quam inconstituta.
3. Decoration note: One historiated initial on fol. 1r

fols. 11r - 86v:

1. Title: Distinctiones
2. Author: Gratian
3. Rubric: Prima pars
4. Incipit: Humanum genus duobus regitur: naturali uitelicet iure et moribus.
5. Decoration note: One inhabited initial on fol. 11r

fols. 87r - 310v:

1. Title: Causae
2. Author: Gratian
3. Rubric: Prima causa. Incipit prima causa que est de diuersis speciebus simonie
4. Incipit: Quidam habens filium obtulit eum ditissimo cenobio: exactus ab abbate et fratribus .x. libras soluit: ut filius susciperetur, ipso tamen beneficio etatis ignorante.
5. Decoration note: Historiated initials on fols. 87r, 107r, 123r, 132r, 134r, 137r, 143r, 146r, 149r, 152r, 162r, 172r, 176r, 179r, 183r, 195r, 198r, 201r, 202r, 204r, 206r, 213r, 233r, 243r, 247r, 253r, 260r, 263r,264r, 267r, 269r, 277r, 303r, 304r, and 310r; one inhabited initial on fol. 130r

fols. 311r - 336r:

1. Title: De consecratione ecclesiarum
2. Author: Gratian
3. Rubric: De consecratione ecclesiarum, et quod misse non sunt alibi celebrande: quoniam in locis deo sanctis
4. Incipit: De consecratione et de missarum celebrationibus non alibi quoniam in sacratis domino locis absque magna necessitate fieri debere: liquet omnibus quibus sunt nota noui et ueteris testamenti precepta.
5. Decoration note: One historiated initial on fol. 311r

fols. 337r - 344v:

1. Title: Accretions
2. Rubric: Incipiunt palee distinctionum. Distinctione .v. ante caput quod incipit. Si mulier. Inseri debet sequens palea. i. p.
3. Incipit: Cum enixa fuerit mulier post quot dies ecclesiam intrare debeat testamenti ueteris preceptione didicistis.
4. Decoration note: Flourished initials in red and blue ink; smaller initials in red and blue ink for tertiary text divisions; marginal drolleries

fol. 1r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "I" with Christ blessing, Ecclesia, a king, and a layman
3. Form: Full-page historiated initial "I"
4. Text: Prefatory Summary

fol. 11r:

1. 
2. Title: Inhabited initial "H" with biting animal heads
3. Form: Inhabited initial "H," 15 lines
4. Text: Distinctio I

fol. 87r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" of simony, with a father paying an abbot for his son's education
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 14 lines, with the tail extending another 31 lines
4. Text: Causa I

fol. 107r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "E" with bishop being accused of carnal sins
3. Form: Historiated initial "E," 13 lines
4. Text: Causa II

fol. 123r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "E" with a bishop, falsely accused by a layman, seeking to recover his position
3. Form: Historiated initial "E," 13 lines
4. Text: Causa III

fol. 130r:

1. 
2. Title: Inhabited initial "I" with animal heads
3. Form: Inhabited initial "I," 28 lines
4. Text: Causa IV

fol. 132r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "I" with defamed bishop
3. Form: Historiated initial "I," 26 lines
4. Text: Causa V

fol. 134r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "D" with bishop being accused by two fornicators
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 11 lines
4. Text: Causa VI

fol. 137r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" with bishop falling ill, being replaced, and then requesting his position back after regaining his health
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 11 lines
4. Text: Causa VII

fol. 143r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "A" with an ill bishop, charged with simony after his successor replaced him, restored to his position
3. Form: Historiated initial "A," 11 lines
4. Text: Causa VIII

fol. 146r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "S" with an excommunicated archbishop ordaining 2 clerics
3. Form: Historiated initial "S," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa IX

fol. 149r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" with a dispute between a bishop and layman over church-property ownership
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa X

fol. 152r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "C" with the application of civic law to church officials
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XI

fol. 162r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "C" with an ill cleric discussing the distribution of his possessions with a notary
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 11.5 lines
4. Text: Causa XII

fol. 172r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "D" with landowner's obligations in dioceses after moving
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XIII

fol. 176r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "C" with a cleric admonishing a canonist for making financial transactions with merchants
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XIV

fol. 179r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "C" with a priest accused of fornication beating his lay accuser with a club
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XV

fol. 183r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "A" with clerics accusing an abbot of wrongdoing
3. Form: Historiated initial "A," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XVI

fol. 195r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" with a priest, having recovered from an illness, seeking his former position
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XVII

fol. 198r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "A" with a conflict between monks and a bishop over the election of superiors
3. Form: Historiated initial "A," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XVIII

fol. 201r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" with a bishop exercising his jurisdiction over clerics seeking to enter a monastic order and over irresponsible clerics
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XIX

fol. 202r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "D" depicting a novice advancing to the priesthood prematurely
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XX

fol. 204r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "A" showing the rebuking of priests for worldly behavior
3. Form: Historiated initial "A," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXI

fol. 206r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "E" with an archdeacon forced to show respect for a bishop who perjured himself
3. Form: Historiated initial "E," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXII

fol. 213r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" with bishop pleading his case before civil authorities to use weapons against heretics in the church
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXIII

fol. 233r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "E" with a bishop, who is a heretic, asserting his right to suppress heresy
3. Form: Historiated initial "E," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXIV

fol. 243r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "S" with a seated cleric debating with another cleric and two laymen the income raised by monks from a baptismal church under their jurisdiction
3. Form: Historiated initial "S," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXV

fol. 247r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" showing a priest practicing sorcery
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXVI

fol. 253r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" showing a woman leaving the man to whom she was betrothed on account of his vow of chastity and entering into a relationship with another man
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXVII

fol. 260r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "G" showing the annulment of a man's marriage to a pagan wife and the validity of his second marriage to a Christian wife
3. Form: Historiated initial "G," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXVIII

fol. 263r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "C" showing a woman seeking an annulment after being deceived into marrying a man in the guise of her suitor
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 11 lines
4. Text: Causa XXIX

fol. 264r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" with the baptism of a boy
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXX

fol. 267r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "U" showing a seated cleric hearing the appeal of a kneeling layman whose promised bride has entered into a relationship with another man
3. Form: Historiated initial "U," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXXI

fol. 269r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" showing a seated canonist hearing the case of a man who has engaged in adultery with a sterile prostitute and asked his friend to seduce his wife so he could accuse her of adultery and remarry a pagan woman if she would convert to Christianity
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXXII

fol. 277r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" showing a canonist hearing the case of an impotent man whose wife left him and remarried another man, but then returned to her first husband when his impotence was cured
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXXIII

fol. 303r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" showing a seated bishop hearing the case of a soldier prisoner of war, who, after his release, discovers that his wife has remarried thinking he was dead
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXXIV

fol. 304r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "Q" showing a two-tiered example of the rules of consanguinity for marriage
3. Form: Historiated initial "Q," 12 lines
4. Text: Causa XXXV

fol. 310r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "C" with a ravished virgin marrying her assailant
3. Form: Historiated initial "C," 11 lines
4. Text: Causa XXXVI

fol. 311r:

1. 
2. Title: Historiated initial "D" with a bishop and two clerics blessing a church
3. Form: Historiated initial "D," 14 lines
4. Text: De consecratione ecclesiarum

The binding is not original.

Rebound in England in ca. 1900 with crushed-brown leather (the binding is listed as tan in the 1879 Catalogue illustré des livres précieux manuscrits et imprimés faisant partie de la bibliothèque de Ambroise Firmin-Didot); front and back covers blind-tooled with rectangular frames with alternating arabesques and vinescroll motifs and circular depressions with fleurons in the corners; fore-edges divided by vertical lines interspersed with arabesques framed by two sets of horizontal lines; seven ribs on spine with fleurons centered in each of the compartments

Produced ca. 1280-90, probably at the Cistercian abbey in Cambron, Hainaut

Possibly part of the personal library of Pedro Álvarez de Osorio, marqués de Astorga (d. 1589), in the sixteenth century; his descendants sold much of the library at auction in London in 1826 and in Paris in 1870

Acquired by the Marqués de Astorga (probably José María Osorio de Moscoso y Carvajal-Vargas) before May 7, 1870, when it was sold at auction in Paris (lot 14)

Acquired by Ambroise Firmin-Didot, a bookseller in Paris, and sold at auction on May 29, 1879 (part 2, lot 38)

Ex libris stamp of "F. Liechtenstein. Bibliothek" appears at the bottom of fol. 1r

Acquired by William Morris, whose bookplate appears at the top of the front pastedown, and whose inscription "William Morris, June 26th 1896, Folkestone" appears at the top of flyleaf i, r

Sold in London at auction (lot 558) in 1898 by William Morris to Quaritch, a London bookseller

Acquired by Laurence W. Hodson of Compton Hall, Wolverhampton, whose bookplate appears at the bottom of the front pastedown

Sold at Sotheby's auction in London on December 4, 1906, by Laurence W. Hodson to Quaritch, a London bookseller

Purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore, between 1906 and 1931

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by Henry Walters' bequest

Cockerell, S. C. "LXXXIII. Antiphoner of the Cistercian Abbey of Beaupré, near Grammont." Entry in A Descriptive Catalogue of Twenty Illuminated Manuscripts nos. LXXV to XCIV . . . in the Collection of Henry Yates Thompson. Cambridge, 1907, 55-74; p. 74.

Miner, D. Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages and Renaissance: An Exhibition Held at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Baltimore: Trustees of the Walters Art Gallery, 1949; cat. no. 65.

Rickert, E. Chaucer's World. New York, 1949; ill. opposite p. 90.

Kuttner, S. "Manuscripts and Incunabula Exhibited at the Inauguration of the Institute in May 1956." Traditio 12 (1956); p. 613.

Petry, Ray. History of Christianity. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1962-64; ill. (f. 174).

Philbrook Art Center. Medieval Art. Tulsa: Trustees of the Philbrook Art Center, 1965; no. 61.

Diringer, David. The Illuminated Book: Its History and Production. London: Faber and Faber, 1967; p. 380, pl. VII-5.

Miner, D. "Since De Ricci--Western Illuminated Manuscripts Aquired since 1934: A Report in Two Parts." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 31-32 (1968-69), 40-117; pp. 53, 65, fig. 8.

Stones, M. A. "Illumination of the French Prose Lancelot in Flanders, Belgium, and Paris, 1250-1340." Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1970-71; p. 236.

Melnikas, A. "The Corpus of the Miniatures in the Manuscripts of Decretum Gratiani." Studi Gratiana, 16-18. Rome, 1975; vol. 1: pp. 147 (fig. 18), 176 (fig. 14), 224 (figs. 13, 132), 256 (figs. 22, 134), 286 (figs. 15, 137), 310 (figs. 97, 143); vol. 2: pp. 334 (figs. 14, 146), 366 (figs. 17, 149), 392 (figs. 12, 152), 414 (figs. 9, 162), 444 (figs. 21, 172), 469 (figs. 13, 176), 496 (figs. 16, 179), 526 (figs. 17, 183), 555 (figs. 15, 196), 585 (figs. 17, 198), 637 (figs. 15, 202), 665 (figs. 17, 204), 694 (figs. 15, 206), 758 (figs. 13, 213), 785 (figs. 12, 233), 813 (figs. 14, 243), 841 (figs. 13, 247); vol. 3: pp. 870 (figs. 14, 253), 895 (figs. 9, 260), 921 (figs. 14, 263), 948 (figs. 13, 264), 975 (figs. 12, 267), 1005 (figs. 11, 269), 1037 (figs. 11, 277), 1090 (figs. 11, 269), 1119 (figs. 14, 304), 1155 (figs. 18, 310), 1185 (figs. 13, 311).

Given-Wilson, C., and A. Curteis. The Royal Bastards of Medieval England. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1984; p. 116, pl. 1.

Walker, S. S. "Free Consent and Marriage of Feudal Wards in Medieval England." Journal of Medieval History 8 (1982): 123-134; pp. 125, fig. 1.

Von Euw, A., and Plotzek, J. M. Die Handschriften der Sammulung Ludwig, vol. 4. Cologne, 1985; 55.

Larbage, M. W. Women in Medieval Life. London, 1986; p. 31, fig. 8.

Brundage, J. A. Law, Sex, and Christian Society in Medieval Europe. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987; pl. 14.

Leyser, Henrietta, and Hayden Middleton. Medieval Women: Presenting the Past. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988; ill. of fol. 277.

Murray, J. "On the Origins and Roles of 'Wise Women' in Causes for Annulment on the Grounds of Male Impotence." Journal of Medieval History 16 (1990): 235-249; p. 244, fig. 1.

Saint Bernard & le Monde cistercien, ed. L. Pressouyre and T. N. Kinder, exh. cat., Paris, La Conciergerie, (1990); p. 225, referenced under no. 70 as W.760, cat. no. 219B.

Zacour, N. Jews and Saracens in the Consilia of Oldradus de Ponte. Studies and Texts 100. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1990; pp. 1, 71, 91, 133, front cover ill.

Schmitt, Jean-Claude. "Le Miroir du Canoniste: A propos d'un manuscrit du Decret de Gratien de la Walters Art Gallery." Journal of the Walters Art Gallery 49-50 (1991-92): 67-82; pp. 67-81, figs. 1-14.

Sandler, Lucy Freeman, and James le Palmer. Omme bonum: A Fourteenth-Century Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge: British Library MSS Royal 6 E VI-6 E VII. London: Harvey Miller, 1996; 160 (nn. 12, 13).

Randall, Lillian M. C. Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery. Vol. 3, Belgium, 1250-1530. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press in association with the Walters Art Gallery, 1997; pp. 19-25, cat. no. 218.

Schmitt, Jean-Claude. "L'Historien et les Images." In Der Blick auf die Bilder: Kunstgeschichte und Geschichte im Gespräch. Edited by Klaus Krüger and Otto Gerhard Oexle. Göttingen: Wallstein Verlag, 1997; pp. 23, 46 (fig. 4).

Hassig, Debra. "Sex in the Bestiaries." In The Mark of the Beast: The Medieval Bestiary in Art, Life, and Literature, 71-98. Edited by Debra Hassig and Debra Higgs Strickland. London: Routledge, 1999; p. 90 (n. 53 for p. 80).

Günther, Jörn. “Johannes Gratianus: Concordantia discordantium canonum: Illuminated Manuscript on Vellum, Italy, Bologna, 1300.” In The Art of the Book from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: A Journey Through a Thousand Years. Exhibition Catalogue, John J. Burns Library of Rare Books and Special Collections, Boston Library, October 12-November 19, 2000. Edited by Jörn Günther and Robert O’Neill, 50-51. Boston: Trustees of Boston College, 2000; pp. 50-51, cat. no. 18.

L'Engle, Susan. "The Naked Bishop: Baring the Body to Express the Law." In Tributes to Lucy Freeman Sandler: Studies in Illuminated Manuscripts. Edited by Kathryn A. Smith and Carol H. Krinsky, 111-123. Turnhout, Belgium: Brepols Publications, 2007; p. 118, 123 (fig. 6).

Newman, Paul B. Growing Up in the Middle Ages. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2007; pp. 151-153 (fig. 31), 207-208 (fig. 33).

Karras, Ruth Mazo. Common Women: Prostitution and Sexuality in Medieval England. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008; p. 98, fig. 1.

McLaren, Angus. Impotence: A Cultural History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008; p. 34, fig. 2.

Sbriccoli, Mario. Storia del diritto penale. Milan: Giuffrè Editore, 2009; p. 159.

Wittekind, Susanne. "Der König als Gesetzgeber und Rechstgarant in den Miniaturen de Libro de Leyes (London, British Library, Add. Ms. 20787)." In Ausbildung des Rechts: Systematisierung und Vermittlung von Wissen in mittelalterlichen Rechthandschriften. Edited by Kristen Böse and Susanne Wittekind. Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2009; p. 149.

Portmann, John. The Ethics of Sex and Alzheimer's. New York: Routledge, 2013; p. 17.

Principal cataloger: Randall, Lilian M.C.

Cataloger: Dennis, Nathan S

Editor: Herbert, Lynley

Copy editor: Wallace, Susan

Conservators: Owen, Linda; Quandt, Abigail

Contributors: Bockrath, Diane; Emery, Doug; Herbold, Rebekah; Noel, William; Schuele, Allyson; Tabritha, Ariel; Toth, Michael B.

The Walters Art Museum

Licensed for use under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported Access Rights, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/legalcode. It is requested that copies of any published articles based on the information in this data set be sent to the curator of manuscripts, The Walters Art Museum, 600 North Charles Street, Baltimore MD 21201.