Constitutiones clementinae, 1350

Text glossed by two contemporary hands. Lower corner of fol. 11 has been cut away with some loss of text. Thomas M. Izbicki and James Tanis graciously shared their notes on this manuscript with us.

Parchment support ff. iii (paper, f. i= front pastedown) + 59 + iii (paper, iii=back pastedown).

English scored Russian leather with fine gold-tooled border ca. 1750, restored by J. MacDonald Co., East Norwalk, Conn. On spine in gold: "O. P. Clement/ V. MSS."

ii+59+ii; 413 x 274 mm bound to 430 x 292 mm

Main text and commentary in two columns, a maximum of thirty-five lines of text and eighty-eight lines of commentary, single vertical and horizontal bounding lines full across, ruled in hard point and ink, prickings in upper and lower margins; written area (inclusive of both columns of secondary text): 345 x 227 mm

Gothic--rotunda script, with numerous annotations in the margins in contemporary hands.

One 18-line miniature, centered on f. 1r, shows an enthroned pope (Clement) holding a closed book, symmetrically flanked by groups of cardinals and bishops. Kneeling before him is a bare-headed cleric presenting a book. This composition is frequently encountered in manuscripts of canon law. The figures, outlined in ink, are placed in an architectural setting: the throne sits on top of an olive green staircase and in front of crenelated arched panels alternating gold with blue and pink. A tower rises from the center of the panels. Penwork vines with gold terminal leaves and seedpods extend along the two sides and the bottom of the illustration. Also on f. 1r are two 8-line initials on a gold ground, the title's initial an elaborate network of pink and blue vinestems with terminal flowers, the prologue beginning with a similar initial, with the vinestems and flowers replaced by a mythical pink and blue animal with the head of a fox on a lizard-like body with a feathered tail. Numerous 6- to 3-line pink or blue initials with white filigree on the opposite color ground infilled with gold on which there are vinestems with red, blue, and green terminal leaves and flowers, some of these initials have vinestem extensions, others have penwork extensions with gold leaves, a few have both. On ff. 14v, 29r, 40r, and 41r, the initials are infilled with a profile head of an orange dog with bared teeth on a gold ground. On f. 47 the initial is sketched in pen, but not painted. Many 2- to 7-line initials in red and blue on red and blue fine line backgrounds with modest penwork designs. Chapter headings in red, paragraph markers in red or blue. Extensive marginal decoration, whimsical heads, vinestems, and other decorations may be found on many leaves.

Modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.