Illuminated leaf from a manuscript of Gratian’s Decretum with the Glossa ordinaria of Bartolomeo da Brescia

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• Illuminated manuscript. Leaf from a manuscript of Gratian’s Decretum with the Glossa ordinaria of Bartolomeo da Brescia. The Marlay Gratian atelier, artist. Gratian, author (Italian, d. by 1159). Brescia, Bartolomeo da, author. Parchment, columns and lines ruled in plummet, running headers. 459 x 280 mm (recto 388 x 232 mm, verso 410 x 240 mm), two text columns of 56 lines and two gloss columns of 92 lines on recto, two text columns of 58 lines and two gloss columns of 98 lines on reverse (original recto). Production Place: Italy, Bologna. Circa 1320. CONTENTS: Gratian, Decretum, Part II. Causa XV (A priest is accused of murder by the woman with whom he lived in sin before ordination; Melnikas 1975, II, 487-514). DECORATION: Marlay cutting It. 6r: One-column miniature: A woman, accompanied by a lawyer, kneels before the Pope; the priest stands behind the Pope on the left; on the right, the priest attacks a man with a sword [Note: the woman was originally included again as a witness to the murder, but was then partially over-painted]. ORNAMENTATION: Main text: Inhabited initials with half-length portraits, letters painted in graded pink or grey on gold grounds and extending into acanthus sprays to form partial borders: Marlay cutting It. 6r [S, 6 ll.] Tonsured man, [Q, 4 ll.] Head; Marlay cutting It. 6v [Q, 4 ll.] Head in red hood. Gloss: Foliate initial [3-8 ll.] in pink or grey on blue grounds with small acanthus extensions, for major divisions (corresponding to both large and small inhabited initials in the main text); alternate red and blue initials [2 ll.] embedded within column with blue or red pen flourishing for minor divisions (corresponding to pen-flourished initials in the main text); voided paraph marks with alternate red and blue display capitals [2-gloss ll.] with minor flourishing in blue or red (guide letters in upper margin) for quaestiones; alternate red and blue paraph marks; simple geometric line-fillers in brown ink to even up gloss columns at the end of Causae. Inter-column decoration: The space between text and gloss columns is decorated with foliate, acanthus and gold disc partial borders and zoomorphic motifs: Marlay cutting It. 6r Crouching man.
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