Manuscript. Gregory IX, Pope

Liber Quinque Decretalium, Four Leaves From Book III, Paris, 13th C.

      1200 [Manuscript]. Gregory IX [d.1241], Pope. [Liber Quinque Decretalium, Four Leaves From Book III]. Paris, 13th Century. Folio (13" x 8-1/2"). Wide-margined parchment leaves bound into recent half-morocco over marbled boards. Light rubbing to extremities. 46-line gothic text in parallel columns with numerous vivid Lombard initials in red and blue, most with extensive tracery. A few early corrections, annotation to margins of verso of first leaf. Negligible faint dampstaining to top edges, browning to second and fourth leaves. A handsome example of * Attempts to codify the body of canon law began in earnest during the Carolingian Empire. These efforts reached fruition between 1020 and 1025 in the twenty-volume Decretum of Burchard, Bishop of Worms. The next great step was taken in 1151 with Gratian's Concordia Discordantium Canonum or Decretum Gratiani, a watershed compilation that superseded earlier collections. The Fifth Book of Decretals [Liber Quinque Decretalium] of Gregory IX followed in 1234. Published in 1298, the Liber Sextus of Boniface VIII was the last great collection of the pre-Reformation era. John XXII added the final official collection, the Liber Septimus Decretalium, better known as the "Constitutiones Clementis V" or simply "Clementinae" (1317). Three more texts were added later: the Extravagantes of John XXII (1325), the Extravagantes Communes of other popes to 1484 and the Appendix Pauli Lancellotti (1563). All of these texts were edited after the Council of Trent in 1582 under the collective title Corpus Juris Canonici.