View source for List of Gratian Manuscripts

A complete and reliable list of copies of [[Gratian, Concordia discordantium canonum|Gratian's ''Concordia discordantium canonum'']] has long been a desideratum in legal historical research. The Clavis Wiki is proud to make such a list available to scholars and the general public.

==Genesis of the current list==
The first version of the below list of manuscripts of the ''[[Decretum Gratiani]]'' was compiled by [[User:Anders.winroth|Anders Winroth]] on the basis of older scholarship ({{author|Kuttner, Melnikas, Nordenfalk, Zapp, Weigand}} etc.). For this first version, including an overview of the sigla, see [https://data.mgh.de/databases/clavis/wiki/index.php?title=List_of_Gratian_Manuscripts&oldid=11044 here] for the first and [https://data.mgh.de/databases/clavis/wiki/index.php?title=Special:Undelete&target=List+of+Gratian+Manuscripts+2&timestamp=20240919103039 here] for the second part. Since its first publication in September 2024, the list was reworked and supplemented by users of this Wiki, namely [[User:Christof Rolker|Christof Rolker]], [[User:JJakob|Jonas Jakob]], and [[User:Giovanna Murano|Giovanna Murano]]. It is still work in progress, but by autumn 2025, all entries of the original list have been checked and (if the information was found correct) turned into an article in the respective manuscript. Compared to the figures often found in the literature („600+“), the number of complete, or nearly complete copies we established was relatively low (below 550).  

As the original list was integrated into the Clavis Wiki, we made various amendments. Many were purely formal, as we adopted our [[conventions on referencing manuscripts]]. This often implied minor material corrections, as libraries, cities, and even countries sometimes had changed their names since the original entries had been made. Some manuscripts cited in the older literature sadly are now damaged, lost, or unaccounted for; others have changed ownership and/or shelfmarks, leading sometimes to multiple listing of ultimately the same manuscripts. Finally, a certain number of false positives had to be removed from the list, many going ultimately back to the index to {{Author|Melnikas}}’ three volumes. {{Author|Melnikas}} cited Gratian abbreviations, smaller fragments, and other materials among complete Gratian copies. Later scholars took his references sometimes as evidence for complete copies of the ''Decretum Gratiani''. To avoid confusion and to make our own approach as transparent as possible, we document such cases in individual articles gathered in the [[:Category:Erroneous Gratian reference|category „Erroneous Gratian reference“]] ({{PAGESINCATEGORY:Erroneous Gratian reference}} entries).

==The current version of the list==
All known complete (or almost complete) copies of Gratian can now be found in the [[:Category:Manuscript of GR]] ({{PAGESINCATEGORY:Manuscript of GR}} entries as of {{CURRENTDAY}} {{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}). In addition to these complete extant manuscripts, see also the [[:Category:Gratian Fragment]] ({{PAGESINCATEGORY:Gratian Fragment}} entries) and [[:Category:Lost Gratian Manuscript]] ({{PAGESINCATEGORY:Lost Gratian Manuscript}} entries) for larger fragments and lost (destroyed or currently unaccounted) manuscripts, respectively. As always on the Clavis Wiki, these number of entries refers to shelfmarks, not codicological units; multi-volume copies may be listed under more than one shelfmark, if the holding library does so, and ''membra disiecta'' are each cited with their respective shelfmark. In analogy to Martin {{author|Bertram}}’s treatment of ''Liber Extra'' fragment, very small fragments of the ''Decretum Gratiani'' are  generally ignored. If they are documented on this Wiki, they are gathered in a separate category ([[:Category:Small Gratian Fragment]], {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Small Gratian Fragment}} entries); they do not figure in the lists of Gratian manuscripts, nor do we count them in our respective statistics.

The below ist is that of all {{PAGESINCATEGORY:Manuscript of GR}} extant, complete, or almost complete, copies of the ''Decretum Gratiani'' having a separate article on this Wiki:

<dpl>
category=Manuscript of GR
ordermethod=sortkey
include={Infobox manuscript}:century:biblissima:digitalimages
table=class="wikitable sortable",Manuscript,Date (approx.),Biblissima QID,Digital Images
count=1000
</dpl>

[[Category:List]]