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Description
ff. 1-295v: [Guillelmus Durantis, Speculum iudiciale]: Prologue: In nomine domini et gloriose virginis matris eius incipit speculum iudiciale a magistro Guillelmo duranti compositum. Rubrica, Reverendo in christo patri ac domino suo octobono dei gratia sancti adriani diacono cardinali magister guillelmus duranti domini pape subdiaconus et capellanus ... De throno procedunt fulgura, voces, atque tonutrua ... Incipit: Quoniam parum esset nosce iura foreprodita nisi persone quarum causa prodita sunt note essent. Explicit: Pensans insuper non ministri meritum, sed ministerii effectum favorem profecto non querentes humanum sed solum bravium sempiternum. Ad quod nos perducat qui sine fine vivit et regnat. Amen. Guillelmus Durantis' Speculum iudiciale written in England in the first quarter of the fourteenth century. It appears similar in style of production, script and decoration to portions of a copy of the Apparatus on the Sext (Oxford, Bod. Lib., Lat. misc. b.16, ff. 1-72v, 151-276). Span folios: ff. 1-295v. Support: Parchment. Layout: 1-24¹² 25¹⁰(-8, 9, 10, excised). Quires signed in modern form arabic numerals on the first leaf recto; contemporary quire and leaf signatures: a-z, the tironian 7 and the "cum" abbreviation indicating the quire, and i-vii indicating the leaf. Catchwords in the inner corner, enclosed in a small ink frame. 2 columns of 75 lines, ruled in brown crayon. Written in a small semi-quadrata texture. Decoration: Opening historiated initial, 50 x 58 mm., depicting a doctor with an open book on his lectern, teaching 2 students, against a burnished gold background, from which grows a C-shaped frame of pink and blue segments, cusped corners, a grotesque, daisy buds, and occasional gold motifs. Major initials for the book divisions on ff. 2, 78v, 192v, 204, 9- to 5-line, in parted red and blue with void infilling of leaves produced by red crosshatching, and with filigree and cascades of both colors; 2-line blue initials with red penwork. Genealogical diagram, f. 284; simple profile-head brackets by annotator, e.g. ff. 197, 200; f. 135a, ruled, but blank with note on f. 134v, "Hic nichil deficit"; copious marginal notes in several hands of the third quarter of the fourteenth century. On f. 295v, Latin and English verses in a mid-fourteenth century hand: "Nulli crostico [?] reor esse fidem neque dico/ hosti pro modico fit amicus hostis amico./ O vos causidici qui linguas venditis issy aliter hic cy [Walther, Initia 13058]/ vos vocat infernus vous [?] resput ordo supernus." The English verses are: "Twenty wynter glad and blyth/ Twenty wynter pe and pryf/ Twenty wynter stond in stede/ Twenty wynter byde py bede". Also in the lower margin on f. 295v, a statement regarding the distance between the earth and the sky, pronounced by "quidam Bacalarius in theologia [?] in predicatione sua in ministerio sancti Pauli London." Input into Digital Scriptorium by: C. W. Dutschke, 8/19/2012. Cataloged from existing description: C. W. Dutschke with the assistance of R. H. Rouse et al., Guide to Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Huntington Library (San Marino, 1989). Bound in 17th century English speckled calf, with gilt-tooled spine; rebacked, original spine laid down; stains suggest that a former binding included 2 fore edge clasps. Two leaves, once used as pastedowns to judge from the stains (although not in this manuscript), and formerly laid in this volume, have been removed and catalogued as HM 46015. HM 19916. Huntington Library, San Marino, CA.
Canon law--Interpretation and construction--Early works to 1800 Roman law--Interpretation and construction--Early works to 1800 Historiated initials England 14th century. (aat) Genealogical tables England 14th century. (aat) Marginalia (Annotations) 14th century. (aat) Manuscripts (documents) (aat)
Source
Manuscripts, Huntington Digital Library
Provenance
Erased inscriptions on f. 295: "Liber magistri Richardi Langton Rectoris de Lythe," and, in a second hand, "[...?] mense [...?] xvi"; Richard Langton, a bachelor in canon law, flourished 1457-58; Lythe is in Yorkshire. Belonged to the Welsh antiquary Robert Davies of Llannerch and Gwysaney (ca. 1658-1710). The earliest known catalogue of the Llannerch manuscripts, dated 1740, lists this manuscript as n. 3 (that number in ink on f. i); the manuscript also appears in the 1778 catalogue as n. 2 (on a paper label on the spine). Later when the collection had passed through inheritance to Philip Bryan Davies Cooke, a list of its contents was printed by the HMC, 6th Report, pt. I (1887-88); this manuscript on p. 419. When owned by Lt.-Col. Philip Ralph Davies-Cooke (b. 1896), the collection was placed on deposit in the National Library of Wales, 1947-59, where this book bore the number "Gwysaney 6" (in pencil on the front pastedown). For the history of the collection, see H. D. Emanuel, "The Gwysaney Manuscripts," National Library of Wales Journal 7 (1952) 326-43. Davies-Cooke sale, Sotheby's, 15 June 1959, lot 205 to Maggs for the Huntington Library.
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