Royal MS 10 E IV

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Date
c 1300-c 1340

Title
Decretals of Gregory IX with gloss of Bernard of Parma (the 'Smithfield Decretals')

Content
The Decretals of Gregory IX, edited by Raymund of Penyafort (or Peñafort); with the glossa ordinaria of Bernard of Parma in the margin. The text is dedicated to the University of Paris (f. 4r), but both the text and gloss were written in Southern France, probably in Toulouse, and include a characteristic southern feature of lemmata underlined in yellow. The Calendarium or table of contents at the beginning (ff. 1v-3v) was added on a separate quire in England.Decoration:The manuscript's decoration was executed in two phases. Phase 1 (Toulouse) includes 5 historiated initials in colours and gold at the beginning of rubrics to each book. Initials in red with pen-flourished decoration in purple, or in blue with pen-flourished decoration in red. the subjects of Initials are:f. 4r, Gregory IX receiving the Decretals (Book 1);f. 91v, A bishop and his adversary pleading in front of the pope (Book 2);f. 167r, A layman being expelled from the choir of the church where mass is being celebrated (Book 3);f. 229v, Marriage (Book 4);f. 251r, A man and his lawyer pleading in fron of a bishop (Book 5).Phase 2 includes historiated borders in colours and gold in the Calendarium (ff. 1v-3v); more than 600 bas-de-page narrative scenes in colours added in London, probably on the request of John Batayle, a canon of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield (his arms: see Provenance) (see Bovey 2000 and 2002). Human figures, flowers, monsters, animals, and hybrids in upper margins and between columns, decorative frames around the text, partial borders around the gloss.The marginal scenes include:1. Promulgation, production and use of the Decretals (ff. 3v-5v);2. Biblical stories, including (a) the story of Joseph and his brethren (ff. 6v-28v); (b) the story of Samson (ff. 29r-38r). 3. Animal fables, e. g. the cycle of Renard the Fox (ff. 48v-49v, 53v-56r; Lion as judge (f. 55v); a cycle about rabbits (ff. 60r-64r, 70r); Lion and bear (f. 65r); monkey and bear (f. 66v), monkeys and other animals (ff. 149r-158v)etc.; 4. Hunting scenes (ff. 40r, 41r, 44r, 46r, 48r, 53r, 59r-59v, 159v, 160, 162v, etc.)5. Miracles of the Virgin, including: (a) the story of Theophilus (ff. 161r-172v); (b) ); (c) The Sacristan and the Knight's Lady and the tale Two Devils in Prison (ff. 185r-191v); (d) A drowning nun rescued by the Virgin (ff. 192r, 192v); (e) Pope Leo (Caesarius) and the Lady (from the Golden Legend) (ff. 193r-195v); (f) The Lost Foot restored (ff. 196r, 196v); (g) St Dunstan's vision (ff. 197v-198v) and some miracles of St Dunstan (ff. 199r-209r); (h) The Painter and the Devil (ff. 209r-201r); (i) The Jew of Bourges (ff. 210v-213v); (k) A story of a monk who robbed a church and was rescued from the stocks by the Virgin (ff. 218r-225v); (I) The Virgin rescuing a drowned monk (ff. 225r-227r); (m and n) the story of the Virgin's Syrup (f. 227v); The story of the Clerk of Chartres (ff. 228r, 228v). 6. Miracles or scenes from the lives of other saints, including: (a) Thais (ff, 177r-184v); (b) St Hubert (ff. 229r-230v); (c) St Eustace (ff. 231r-240v); (d) St Dunstan (ff. 241r-250v); (e) St Mary of Egypt (ff. 263v-290r). 7. Miscellaneous tales and connected scenes, including th following: (a) An uncivil miller punished by having the mill set on fire (?) (f. 70v);(b) A wild man abducting a woman (ff. 72r-75v); (c) story of a lion and a kinght based on the Chevalier an Lion by Chrétien de Troyes (ff. 80v-88r); (d) A knight slaying a wild man and rescuing a lady, who goes off with another knight. The second knight is slain by a third and the woman attacked by bears. (ff. 101r-106v); (e) A clerk with a holy water vessel kisses the cook and robs the pot (ff. 108r-109v); (f) story of the hermit (ff. 113v-118v); (g) Children suckled by a lioness, rescued in a boat, and baptized (ff. 119r-125r); (h) Another story of a hermit (ff. 125v-136v); (i) A housewife sets tasks for her husband or lover; possibly a variant of the Wright's Chaste Wife (ff. 137r-148r); (k) Tricks of a blind man's boy (ff. 217v-220v); (l) The Three Live and Three Dead Kings (ff. 251r-263r); (m) A long series of chivalrous adventures (ff. 290v-314r).
 
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Languages
Latin

Physical Description
  • Materials: Parchment codex.
  • Dimensions: 450 x 285 mm (text space: dimensions variable).
  • Foliation: ff. A + 314 (+ 2 unfoliated modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and at the end; f. A is a medieval parchment flyleaf).
  • Collation: Gatherings of 12 leaves, except for: i3, ii13, xx8, xxii10, xxviii4; Catchwords and bifolium signatures.
  • Layout: Written in two colums of a variable number of lines, with marginal glosses.
  • Script: Gothic.
  • Binding: Post-1600. Royal Library binding of brown leather with the arms of George II and a date of 1757.

Ownership
Origin: Southern France (probably Toulouse); ff. 1v-3v, and marginal scenes added in England (London).Provenance:John Batayle, a canon of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield, mentioned among other canons in a clerical subsidy roll of 1379 and named in a will of 1382, made by John Chyshull, another canon of St Bartholomew's (see Bovey 2002), probably illuminated for him: the Batayle arms (ff. 3v, 4r, 43v, 47v, 65v, 66r, 75v, 90v, 178v, 179v, 180r). The Augustinian priory of St Bartholomew's at Smithfield: inscribed, 'Liber domus sancti barthomomei in smyth fylde', 15th century (f. 1v).The Old Royal Library (the English Royal Library): Henrician title 'Decretales' and Westminster inventory number 'no. 1059' (f. 1r), included in the Upper Library at Westminster after the inventory of 1542; in the catalogue of 1666, Royal Appendix 71, f. 9v; and in the 1698 catalogue of the library of St James's Palace (see [Edward Bernard], Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (Oxford: Sheldonian, '1697', but 1698?), no. 8377, 8378, 8380, or 8388). Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library. Presented to the British Museum by George II in 1757 as part of the Old Royal Library.

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