The opening leaf of Pope Gregory’s Decretals finely illuminated by an unknown artist with a distinctive style.
Text:
In the 1220s or early 1230s Pope Gregory IX (d. 1241) commissioned a canon lawyer of Bologna, Raymond of Peñafort/Penyafort, to compile a new volume of decretals (papal decrees) that would bring order to the previously scattered and sometimes contradictory nature of such writings; the result was the Decretales Gregorii IX, also known as the Liber extra, promulgated in 1234 with the bull ‘Rex pacificus’, which decreed that it should be the only such collection employed for official uses. Various commentaries on it were subsequently written, and the most popular, which therefore came to be known as the ordinary gloss, the glossa ordinaria, was written in 1241 and revised in the early 1260s by Bernard of Botone (d. 1266), also known as Bernard of Parma. His gloss was sometimes written as a separate volume, and sometimes, as here, written alongside the text it is expounding.
The main text opens immediately below the miniature with the papal bull ‘Rex pacificus’, preceded by the greeting of Pope Gregory addressed to the scholars of Paris: ‘Gregorius episcopi servus servorum dei dilectus filiis doctoribus et scolaribus universis Parisius commorantibnus salutem, et apostolicam benedictionem. Rex pacificus …’; it ends on the verso and is followed by the first chapter of the Decretals, which concerns the Trinity: ‘Firmiter credimus et simpliciter confitemur, quod unus solus et verus deus, eternus, et immensus …’, here ending at ‘doctrinam humano generi tri[buit]’.
The gloss begins in the top left corner, with an illuminated initial ‘I’ and explanation of the content of the book and Gregory’s intentions for it: ‘In huius libri principio quinque sunt prenotanta …’, and in the lower left corner with an illuminated initial ‘G’(regorius) and a commentary on ‘Rex pacificus’, the quoted words usually underlined. In the lower right corner of the verso the commentary on chapter 1 begins with another illuminated initial, quoting the opening words, ‘Firmiter credimus’.
Illumination:
The miniature depicts a seated pope receiving a book from a kneeling tonsured figure, behind whom stands another tonsured figure: this represents Gregory IX being given a copy of the present text by its compiler and its commentators, Raymond of Peñafort and Bernard of Parma. The historiated initial depicts God, enthroned, holding Christ Crucified in front of him, with the Dove of the Holy Spirit between their heads – i.e. the Trinity. Below the miniature is a large initial filled with dense lattice diaperwork of gold, the lozenge interstices each with a fleur-de-lys on an alternately blue or pink background. The same pattern is used for the background of the historiated initial.
The large size of the miniature allows us to study the style of the illuminator in some detail. His figures have very elongated upper bodies whose main features and drapery outlines are drawn in black ink, with white for faces and hands, and flatly applied colours for the draperies, with minimal modelling – though some grey-blue shadows are indicated for the kneeling figure. Gold is used only for the outer frame and Gregory’s collar. Although the style is distinctive, we have not been able to find any other example of his work. We are grateful to François Avril for his advice on the illumination.
Minor marginal soiling, one crease affecting the historiated initial, and vestiges of an old paper mount stuck to inner edge, attesting to the long separation from its parent manuscript, but overall in fine condition.
