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Johannes Monacus: Glossa Aurea (1)

JOHANNES MONACUS: GLOSSA AUREA

MS 5151/1
MS Short Title JOHANNES MONACUS: GLOSSA AUREA
Text JOHANNES MONACUS: APARATUS SEXTI LIBRI DECRETALIM (GLOSSA AUREA)
Description MS in Latin on vellum, Southern France, mid 14th c., 108 ff. (complete), 41x28 cm, 2 columns, (29x19 cm), 60 lines in a bold bolognese Gothic rotunda book script of medium quality, some marginal commentaries in slightly later glossing book script, numerous 2- and 3- line initials alternating in red and blue with violet or red penwork, several up 17- line coloured initials with penwork, ff. 60v-62r and 64r with layout of the text into a page- tall hourglass and diamond shapes.
Binding Spain, 15th c., brown morocco over oak boards, richly blind-ruled, sewn on 4 cords, pastedowns from 2 Spanish breviaries, MSS 5151/2-3; and with booklabels for Sammlung Ludwig made by Pablo Picasso.
Context The knotwork and layout of the blindruling on the binding is comparable to Thomas: Early Spanish Bookbinding, p. 51, plates 95-96, Madrid, BN ms. 19159.
Provenance 1. Lucien Scheler, Paris (-1960); 2. H.P. Kraus, Inc., New York, (1960), cat.100(1062:14; 3. Sammlung Ludwig, Aachen and Köln, MS XIV:4; 4. J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu and Los Angeles, California; 5. Jörn Günther Antiquariat, Hamburg; 6. H.P. Kraus, Inc., New York, cat. 216:162.
Commentary This is the famous set of glosses on the 6th book of the Decretals by Jean Le Moine/Joannes Monacus (d. 1313), created cardinal by Pope Celestine V in 1294. Bonifacius VIII published the sixth book of the Decretals in 1298. Joannes Monacus' aparatus was finished in the beginning of 1301. It was so well received that it became known as the Glosa Aurea. Though never attaining the stature of the Glosa Ordinaria by Johannes Andreae, it was generally used in French law schools, forming 2 traditions, one with the commentary alone, as in the present MS, and one with the gloss combined with the main text.
Place of origin Southern France
Dates mid 14c AD