Gregory IX, Pope

Decretalium Gregorii...Venice, 1485

      1485. Gregory IX, Pope [1147? -1241]. Decretalium Gregorii. Venice: Petri Cremoniensis, 1485. Quarto in 8's and 12's (243 x 175 mm). 509 ff., 58 lines, Gothic type, one initial letter illuminated in silver, with penned red floriate surround, two to four line capitals supplied in red and blue, a few lines printed in red. Modern half blind stamped calf over wooden boards. Title lightly soiled, faint marginal stain to first 30 leaves. Extensive contemporary marginalia. A very desirable volume. * Goff G-455; Hain 8016. "Decretals are letters containing a papal ruling, particularly one relating to canonical discipline, and most precisely a papal prescript in response to an appeal...the Decretals of Gregory IX are the first authentic general collection of papal Decretals and constitutions, compiled by Raymond of Penaforte at the request of Pope Gregory IX in 1230-34 and promulgated in 1234. (...) It gave rise to a vast amount of commentaries and literature" (Walker). Gregory's Decretales is one of the four works known collectively as the Corpus Juris Canonici, a collection of papal decisions concerning ecclesiastical hierarchy, procedure, the functions and duties of clerks, marriage, and crime. This edition predates the Reformation-inspired Correctores Romani (1580-1582), which was definitive until the revision of 1917. Walker, The Oxford Companion to Law 177-179.