Beschreibung:

Ɵ Opening leaf of Guillelmus Durandus, Repertorium juris canonici (Breviarium aureum), a collection of citations from canonists on controversial questions, in Latin, decorated manuscript on parchment[Italy and then England, fourteenth century] Single leaf (the opening leaf of the main text), with double column of 75 lines of an apparently Italian rounded university bookhand (textura semi-rotunda), some glosses (including many on verso that may be English in origin), single red rubric opening text, 2- to 3-line initials in red with blue penwork, one large variegated initial in red and blue intersecting panels with blue penwork, borders around edges of columns in repeating red and blue leaf-shapes with long whip-like penwork tendrils, some scuffing, slight discolouration and a few small holes, overall in good and presentable condition, 390 by 260mm.; in cloth-covered binding Provenance: 1. Most probably written in Italy or by an Italian scribe, in the second half of the fourteenth century, and then left undecorated, with the initials and distinctive border decorations being added a few decades later in England. The smaller of the glossing scripts may be an anglicana hand, also added in England during the volume's use there. This movement of the parent codex strongly suggests that it was produced for a law student or master, who trained in one of the popular legal universities in Italy, probably Bologna, before travelling to take up a position in England, perhaps at Oxford.2. Philip Bliss (1787-1857), registrar of the University of Oxford and principal of St. Mary Hall, Oxford; this leaf from an album of leaves and fragments assembled by him from Oxford bindings and elsewhere, the album sold at Sotheby's, 21 August 1858, lot 100/119.3. Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), the single greatest manuscript collector to have ever lived, who assembled a collection of some 60,000 manuscripts in a single lifetime, this part of his MS 15,659, passing after his death to his heirs and ultimately the Robinson brothers, whose bookdealership was based in the rooms in Pall Mall we now occupy; the album sold by them at Sotheby's, 24 April 1911, lot 390/391; with a pencil note on text and author in Phillipps' hand at head of recto.4. E.H. Dring (1863-1928), the first managing director of Quaritch, passing in turn to his son E.M. Dring (1906-1990), himself manager of Quaritch from 1960; sold after his death to Quaritch, and then this leaf their cat. 1056, Bookhands of the Middle Ages II, 1985, no. 36.5. Private American collector, returning to Quaritch in 1991.6. Schøyen Collection, London and Oslo, their MS 1396, acquired from Quaritch. Text and script: Guillelmus Durandus (c. 1230-1296) was a French canonist and liturgical writer, who also served as bishop of Mende, in France. He studied Canon Law at Bologna, and later taught the same at Modena, before serving Pope Clement IV and his successor Gregory X in Rome. Pope Martin IV elevated him to vicar spiritual in 1281, and despite his election to the bishopric of Mende he was compelled to stay another decade in Italy, only leaving in 1291. This leaf is an excellent witness to the strange portmanteau marriages of script and decoration that sometimes occur in university texts of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. As the universities grew and acquired reputations for the teaching of individual subjects so students travelled further and further afield for their education. Italy, and in particular Bologna, was notably strong in the teaching of law, and the script here is rounded and squat indicating an origin there. The border decoration and initials, however, point clearly at English book decoration, and were presumably added there.