Digestum vetus (Robbins Ms. 36)

[Digestum vetus cum glossa ordinaria Accursii].

Secundo folio: romanus inc[er]to magis iure

[Bologna?], [between 1290 and 1330]

270 leaves : parchment ; 400 x 200 (325 x 130) mm bound to 410 x 260

A very interesting late 13th- or early 14th-century copy of the Digestum book 1 to 24 with the Accursius's gloss, also known as Glossa ordinaria. The text was written in Italy, possibly Bologna, and glossed somewhere in southern France. Additional annotations were added in Anglicana. The text for D.1.8 and D 1.9 is wanting between fol. 6 and 7. Throughout the manuscript is visible a large number of grotesques and probationes calami with human heads, human bodies, real and fantastic animals, drawn in a surprisingly accurate way in pen, possibly by the scribe himself. Many of the drolleries have been subsequently erased. The text of the Digestum and the Glossa Ordinaria are both surrounded with later additions and notes (marginal ones and interlinear ones) by various hands. Extensive damage on the first 25 leaves, other leaves have been trimmed or otherwise damaged.

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Parchment, fol. i (modern paper) + 270 + i (modern paper). Despite occasional catchwords and signed quires, complete collation infeasible, as some folios have been cut and possibly resewn.
Layout: The text is written in two columns of 60 lines; below top-line; the Glossa Ordinaria is written in two columns of 90-92 lines. Ruled in ink and lead. The margins are very wide and mostly full of glosses. Cropped running titles on the upper margins. Visual aids in many different shapes throughout the text.
Script: The text is written in textualis libraria script, very close to littera Bononiensis, while the glossa of Accursius is written in a semi-textualis possibly from southern France.
Decoration: Red and blue paragraph marks throughout the text, black paragraph mark throughout the Glossa. Blue 3-line initials and red and blue 2-line initials, often penworked. Red rubrics, red and blue paragraph marks. Chapter headings written in capital or uncial blue letters, on 7 lines, penworked in red. Most leaves include one or more pen and ink drawings of animals of all kind, mostly fantastic, as much as human beings in various attitudes, and many heads, legs or arms coming out of the written page. Line fillers in light brown and green ink.
Origin: Written in Italy, possibly Bologna, at the very end of the 13th century or during the first decades of the 14th. Glossed in southern France or by a scribe who was trained there.
Shelfmark: Berkeley, CA, The Robbins Collection, UC Berkeley School of Law, Robbins MS 36.

In Latin.

The manuscript was pledged by a student from Oxford by the name of Thomas Bykken in 1347, as is apparent from reading the ownership notes on fol. 270v. The book was put in the Warwick Chest at Oxford University by Bykken (whose name does not appear in the Register of Oxford scholars and students compiled by Emden) as collateral for a loan, as was a common practice at the time at Oxford. Other pawn-broker notes are barely legible on fol. 270v. The manuscript also had a 17th-18th century owner, Francis Evans who signed his name on leaf 168r and wrote some other marginal notes in English (e.g. on fol. 268r). This manuscripts used to have the same binding as Robbins MS 37: the two manuscripts were clearly bound as a set by a former 19th-century owner, and this manuscript was supposed to be the second one, which is why the Roman number "II" on the spine is there. Some notes written in pencil by a 20th century hand on the back flyleaf.

Previously bound in dark brown paper, hardback, leather spine and corners. Now the manuscript is bounded with pasteboard. On the leather spine is gold-tooled the title: "Digestum vetus sec. XIV. II."

RESTRICTED ORIGINAL: Use of original only by permission. Inquiries concerning this item should be directed, in writing, to the reference librarian for The Robbins Collection.

Robbins MS 36

Latin