Auxerre, BM, 269

Selected Canon Law Collections, ca. 500–1234
Revision as of 09:14, 6 December 2025 by Christof Rolker (talk | contribs) (note on Nordenfalk)
Library Auxerre, BM
Shelfmark 269
Century saec. XII
Provenance Pontigny
European region of origin France (Pontigny?)
ARCA md23vt150j57
Collection Gratian, Concordia discordantium canonum
Digital Images bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr
Description at arca.irht.cnrs.fr
Author Giovanna Murano


In the inventory of the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny at the end of the 12th century, a "Volumine uno, Decreta Gratiani" was recorded as number '153'. The same manuscript is described as "in-folio atlantico, elegans et completo" in later inventories, following the seizure of the abbey during the French Revolution.

The manuscript is extant only in fragments. Individual folios or fragments thereof are preserved in the following libraries:

C.1: Cleveland, Museum of Art, 1954 598 (olim 54 531; digital image online)

C.2: London, Victoria & Albert Museum, MS 8985 A

C.3: Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis EM. 16: 9

C.5: https://auctions.dreweatts.com/past-auctions/blooms1-10015/lot-details/0c39fa15-f9f2-4830-aca7-ad3600f19865

C.10: London, Victoria & Albert Museum, MS 8985 E

C.14: London, Victoria & Albert Museum MS 8985 F

C.19-20: Bloomington, Indiana University Lilly Library, Rickets 205

C.22: London, Victoria & Albert Museum MS 8985 B.

C.23: Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis EM. 16: 8.

C.24-25: Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS 4874 E, no. 2.

C.26: London, Victoria & Albert Museum MS 8985 C

C.27: London, Victoria & Albert Museum MS 8985 D

C.35: Auxerre, Bibliothèque municipale, 269

Note that Nordenfalk, Review of Melnikas p. 335 mentions three fragments of this manuscript as having been "acquired by the museums in Cambridge, Cleveland and Detroit, are included in the Corpus without being recorded as coming from the same manuscript. A fourth has been given to the Art Museum of Princeton University (fig. 19)." As "Cleveland, Museum of Art, Single leave 54.598" is the only fragment in the Cleveland museum which Melnikas mentions and there are no known fragments of the Pontigny Gratian in Cambridge or Detroit, Nordenfalk must be referring to a different manuscript than the Pontigny Gratian. See Melnikas, Corpus vol. 1 p. 112 fig. 5 ("Cleveland, Museum of Art, Single leave 54.598").

Literature

Walter Cahn, A Twelfth-Century Decretum Fragment from Pontigny, in: The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62 (1975) 47-59.- Mordek, Review of Melnikas p. 409. La più antica tradizione p. 129 n. 2.- Nordenfalk, Review of Melnikas p. 335 Nordenfalk, Review of Melnikas p. 335