Gregory IX (c.1145-1241)
A fragment from the Decretales, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [northern Italy, c.1300].
A partial leaf with a charming historiated initial of an illuminated Decretales: a sister leaf is at Trinity College, Dublin.

c.205 × 273mm. A substantial fragment of a leaf, 22 visible lines of text (of 38) and 37 of gloss, the text from Liber III, Titulus XXIX ‘De parochis, et alienis parochianis’ and XXX ‘De decimis, primitis et oblationibus’, one large historiated initial with a king and one large illuminated initial with a serpent, extending into the margins, initials alternatively red or blue with purple or red penwork decoration, the gloss not one of the glossa ordinaria, 14th-century marginal and interlinear annotations (remnants of adhesive next to, but not affecting, the historiated initial, small losses to burnished gold, a few minor marginal stains).

Provenance:
(1) James Stevens Cox (1910- 1997), F.S.A., whose substantial collection was dispersed through Maggs Bros, London; this cutting was in their Catalogue 1376, Continental Books and Manuscript Leaves (2005), no 32 (with col. ill. inside upper cover). No 31 in the catalogue was another leaf from the same manuscript. Another is Trinity College, Dublin, MS 11242.
(2) Colker MS 525; acquired from Maggs in 2005.

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