For today’s Coffee With A Codex we took a look at Ms. Codex 1059, a compilation of canon law made by Raymond of Peñafort by order of Pope Gregory IX, with a gloss by Bernardo Bottoni, concerning jurisdiction, civil legal processes, clerics and regulars, marriage, and criminal procedure.
It was written in France between 1280 and 1299. The preface of our copy is addressed to the doctors and scholars of the university of Paris, although it could have been copied in southern France, perhaps for use a Montpellier or Toulouse, both of which also had universities that taught canon law. How do we know that Ms. Codex 1059 is French? The quires are made of 12 leaves and the lemmata are underlined, and both of these practices are typically French.
The manuscript was actively used through the 16th century. Glosses were added at points over the two hundred years after the main text was written, including a 14th century English hand which added cadels to ff. 2-21 and at other points later in the manuscript. This doesn’t mean the manuscript left France; an English person could have traveled to France and accessed it there.
Supplementary texts were added to originally blank leaves, and additional added leaves, in 14th century hands, and a 15th century hand has added a detailed list of contents on an inserted smaller bifolio.
Find out more about Ms. Codex 1059 by watching the recording of Coffee With A Codex from February 2 on YouTube, and you can view the digitized version and read the full catalog record from Franklin.
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The Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies 