Cosin MS V.iii.4Decretals of Pope Boniface VIII, etc.
Held by: Durham University Library: Bishop Cosin's Library: Cosin Manuscripts

Decretals of Boniface VIII, written in France or England in late 13th or early 14th century, with additions of related material.


Digitised: https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2m4j03cz679.html


Physical description of manuscript
Support

Parchment, some natural flaws, repaired e.g. f.5 or 28 (stitches gone); hair and flesh sides indistinguishable. All edges cropped; both corners cut away, f.1-8, and lower corner, f.9-15, also most of the margins of f.1; Front leaves stained, soiled, distorted and brittle from damp.

Extent: ii+60+vi f.
Size: 248 mm x 179 mm

Foliation

Foliated, ii, 1-62.


Secundo folio: puniendus
Collation

1-38, 4-612; 74 (1-2 stubs of cancels).

Catchwords: Catchwords on quires 1-5, in ink rectangles decorated with red lines and corner-blobs.
Layout

Little pricking remains except for vertical and top lines; on f.58-62, for alternate lines of the text. Written space 190 x 130 mm.; clearly ruled in soft brown. Two columns, 37 lines.

Running titles: (1) only - books, tituli and topics, added in ink in top margins and corners, in 14th century.

Script

Written in textura, expertly, with only a few rubrics;
(2) in incipient anglicana of a documentary type;
(3) in anglicana.

Decoration

Names of popes touched with red, f.19 and 41. // marks for paraphs in text, not implemented. Paraphs, f.59-60 to rules, in alternating blue and red.

Initials: (i) to tituli and capitula, 2-line, in alternating blue and red; (ii) to (1), top missing, 3-line, in blue and red, with red and blue infilling. 3-line initial space to (2) unfilled. One initial cut out from f.1.

Corrections and annotation

Corrections by the copyist, interlinear, e.g. f.4v, 36v; marginally f.20, 28-30, 54. A few slightly later corrections, e.g. f.11, 54ra (over erasure), 15th century. Considerable small neat early annotations, f.1-33v, in a script of notarial type, cf. (2); perhaps in the same hand as distinctive marginal signs (cc within four dots as cross), f.10-17v, 20v-24, 28r-v, 43v, 57v, etc., cropped at top. Marginal note, cropped, on f.38, 14th century, “De fratribus predicatoribus & minoribus”, corresponding with insertion in contents list on f.62.

Inscription: “Hoc scio pro Certo quod si cum Stercore Certo siue vinco siue vincor tamen ipse maculor”, 16th/17th century, f.34r top.

Binding

Brown calf, blind tooled with Hugh Hutchinson's rolls A, and D on board edges, 17th century; spine,mid 19th century, gilt title and shelf-numbers and 1 clasp.


Manuscript history
Creation

Written in France or England, late 13th or early 14th century.

Provenance

(2) presumably copied in 14th century from a document in Durham Cathedral Priory archives; (4) added by Thomas Swalwell, monk of Durham (c. 1483-1539). Top of f.1 lost, taking any ex libris there; “Clementine”, f.1r foot, 15th century. “Th...”, f.62v, 15th century.

“Geo. Davenport. 1663.”, on older pastedown, hidden by later pastedown; his note of contents, f.iiv.

Ex-libris and shelf-numbers by Thomas Rud on f. iiv.


Manuscript contents
(1)     f.1-60
Original title: Liber sextus decretalium
Author: Boniface VIII, Pope, -1303
Language: Latin

Corpus Juris Canonici ii,933 1124; here, as often, V,xii,3 (CIC ii,1109 1121) is omitted. Two capitula are divided in two: I,xiv,4 (CIC ii,979) at “Cum autem delegatus” (f.16); II,xvi,1 (CIC ii,1053) at “Sane ut hoc salutare” (f. 39). The rubrics to the tituli are original.

(2)     f.60-61
Date: [added early 14th century]
(2a)     f.60r-60v
Original title: Constitucio inter Dunelmensem episcopum ac priorem et ecclesie de visitacionibus
Author: Boniface VIII, Pope, -1303
Date: 23 July 1302
Language: Latin

Presumably derived from the lost original with full anathema, which was Durham Cathedral Archive 3.2.Pap.8, copied in Durham Cathedral Archive Cartulary I f.17v-18v, Durham Cathedral Archive Cartulary III f.186-187, and Durham Cathedral Archive Misc. Ch. 7140.

Edited: Les registres de Boniface VIII, ed. G. Digard, M. Faucon, A. Thomas & R. Fawtier, (Bibliothèque des Ecoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome 2nd series 4; 1907-1934), iii,514-515, no. 4730 (without full anathema)
Edited: Extravagantes decretales communes I,vii,1, CIC ii,1243-1244.
Records of Antony Bek, ed. C. M. Fraser (Surtees Soc. 162) (Durham: Published for the Society by Andrews & Co., 1953), p.86-7 (English abstract)
Fraser, C.M. History of Antony Bek (Oxford:OUP, 1957), p.161-2
(2b)     f.60v
Incipit: Mundialis machine fabricator
Explicit: unum annum usque ad decennium de iniunctis sibi penitenciis misericorditer relaxamus
Language: Latin

Clauses of papal indulgence, not traced, with notes inserted by the scribe, “Lacuna” and “dorsa vertens” (60vb lines 4, 11); the latter indicates that the exemplar was written on both sides, and hence was not the original document.

(2c)     f.60v-61r
Original title: Constitucio de nullo loco ecclesiastico interdicto supponendo pro pecunario debito
Author: Boniface VIII, Pope, -1303
Date: 31 May 1302
Incipit: Prouide attendentes quod ut frequentius quamuis non sine causa
Explicit: patentes litteras apparente
Language: Latin

Edited: A. Potthast, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, (Berlin; 1875), ii, no. 25155
Edited: Extravagantes decretales communes V,x,2, CIC ii,1310
Edited: Les registres de Boniface VIII, iii,654-655, no. 5019 (without final clauses)
(3)     f.61v-62r
Modern title: List of tituli to (1)
Date: [15th century]
Incipit: Primi titulus primus De summa trinitate et fide catholica
Explicit: 14 De regulis Iuris Expliciunt etc.
Language: Latin

(4)     f.2-229
Modern title: Alphabetic index to tituli of (1)
Date: [15th/16th century]
Incipit: Appellationibus 22 Baptismo
Explicit: Vsuris Verborum significacione
Language: Latin

Microfilm
Microfilmed in 1985/86 by the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, St John's Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota. Copies held by them and Durham University Library.

Digitised material for Durham University Library. Cosin Manuscript V.iii.4 - Decretals of Boniface VIII
Digitised February 2017 as part of the Durham Priory Library Recreated project
https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t2m4j03cz679.html

Bibliography

Les registres de Boniface VIII   OCLC citation, ed. G. Digard, M. Faucon, A. Thomas & R. Fawtier, (Bibliothèque des Ecoles Françaises d'Athènes et de Rome 2nd series 4; 1907-1934)

Corpus iuris canonici   OCLC citation (Leipzig: Tauchnitz, 1879-81)

Records of Antony Bek   OCLC citation, ed. C. M. Fraser (Surtees Soc. 162) (Durham: Published for the Society by Andrews & Co., 1953)

Fraser, C.M. History of Antony Bek   OCLC citation (Oxford: OUP, 1957)

Index terms