Paris, BnF, lat. 3852

Library	Bibliothèque nationale de France
Shelfmark	lat. 3852
Century	s. XI-XII
General region of origin	Angers
Collection	Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii)
Collection 2	Pseudoisidore, False Decretals
Main author	Bruno Schalekamp

Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 3852 is an eleventh or twelfth-century manuscript of 238 folios (1-236 + 6bis and 6ter) in 2 cols. (355 x 265 mm (300 x 205 mm)). It is made of parchment. Its codicological composition reads as follows: 31 quires: (III + 2)⁸ + 7 x IV⁶⁴ + II⁶⁸ + 4 x IV¹⁰⁰ + II¹⁰⁴ + IV¹¹² + (IV – 2)¹¹⁸ + IV¹²⁶ + (IV – 1)¹³³ + (IV + 1)¹⁴² + 2 x IV¹⁵⁸ + (IV + 1)¹⁶⁷ + (IV + 2)¹⁷⁸ + 3 x IV²⁰² + (IV – 1)²⁰⁹ + IV²¹⁷ + (IV – 1)²²⁴ + IV²³² + II²³⁶, quire signatures on every verso side of the last folio of quires 1 through 8 (I-VIII), 10-28 (XI-XXVIIII) and 30 (XXXI). Modern foliation in Arabic numerals on every recto side. It was written by multiple hands, all with in the particular Angers-script in late Caroline minuscule. The manuscript's origins are from Angers according to Kéry. Its provenance is only first documented first documented as part of Jacques-Auguste de Thou’s (1553-1617) library, later purchased by Étienne Baluze (1630-1718) for Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s (1619-1683) personal library. In 1732 transferred to the Bibliothèque du Roi together with the colbertine collection.

Contents

Paris lat. 3852 is a large and bulky manuscript and contains almost exclusively canonical material. This composition is mostly dominated by Pseudoisidore's False Decretals. Another collection, the Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii), has been split up into two separate parts, in which St. Augustine strikingly functions as the introductory authority of the second part. The codex also includes two decretals by pope Gelasian I, as well as several decretals by Symmachus. Lastly, an unknown ordo on the excommunication of infidels is included and - being the only non-canonical material - a version of the Notitia Galliarum.

Fol. 1r of the manuscript, which includes a large I-capital introducing Pseudoisidore's work, here mentioned as Isidorus Mercator

The codex is a well-preserved work, with structured columns and Roman numbering of canons. It houses some elaborate capitals, such as the one showed here. Some minor marginalia can be found in both medieval and early modern hands, mostly explaining the contents or adding terminology to inform the reader, as well as adding lines to what can only assumed to have been lacunae. The medieval writers seem to have had the upper hand here, as the early modern hand (maybe Baluze's?) focused to clarify this codex was not actually Isidore de Seville's work, but Pseudoisidore. Interestingly, this is explicitly mentioned on fol. 1r: Non est hic liber Isidori Hispalensis Episcopi, sed Isidori mercatibus (?)... . It seems this had to be spelled out clearly for the reader, even though Isidorus Mercator Servuus Christi is mentioned a few lines down in the same column. The codex, therefore, probably interestingly sparked some discussion in early modern circles about the origin of the canonical material included.

See the digitized version: https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b105452787.

folios	texts
	Front cover and four flyleaves
Ir-v	Blank pages
1ra-2rb	Pseudoisidore's False Decretals, praefatio
2va-3ra	Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii), chapters I-VIII
3ra-68vb	Pseudoisidore's False Decretals, first volume (epistolae pseudographae)
68vb	Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii), here introduced as 'St. Augustine on matrimony', chapters I-VIII
69ra-220rb	Pseudoisidore's False Decretals, third volume
220rb-224ra	Decretal of pope Gelasian I (no. 636, chapters 1-28)
224v	Blank page
225ra-231ra	Multiple decretals of pope Symmachus
232va-234ra	Decretal of pope Gelasian I, titled De Damnatione Acatii
234ra-vb	Ordo qualiter episcopus excommunicare debet infideles
235r-236v	Blank pages
	Three flyleaves and back cover

Literature

Jasper and Fuhrmann, Papal Letters (2001), p. 178 n. 154; Kéry, Canonical Collections (1999), p. 76, 82, and 103; Reynolds, Studies on Medieval Liturgical and Legal Manuscripts (2009), cited in sources; Rohr, Der Theoderich-Panegyricus des Ennodius (1995), p. 145; Williams, Codices Pseudo-Isidoriani (1971), p. 55, 66, 109, 113-114, 123, 125, 128, 129, and 131.

An edition of the Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii) is currently being prepared by Sven Meeder, Gideon de Jong, and Bruno Schalekamp.