Articles
Articles
“The Two Anonymous Liber extra Commentaries of Paris, BnF lat. 3966,” Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 34 (2017), pp. 143-93.
The 15th century manuscript Paris, BnF lat. 3966 (antea: Codex Regius 3894.8; Codex Colbertinus 1921) contains two, previously unidentified and incomplete commentaries on the Decretals of Gregory IX (1234). The scribe of the second commentary and likely owner of the entire manuscript was a prominent archdiocesan official at Arles and doctor decretorum Guillaume Blégier (fl. 1430s-60s). Following a formal description and codicological reconstruction of the manuscript, whose quires were badly misordered when it was rebound for inclusion in Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s (1619-83) library, internal evidence from both commentaries is marshalled to determine their date and intellectual milieu. The first commentary, called here Deduc me Domine after the incipit, dates to the early 14th century and was likely executed at the University of Paris. Because of its composition soon after the issuance of the Liber sextus (1298) and its patent didactic structure, Deduc me Domine presents an opportunity to assess how the conception and instruction of the Liber extra began to shift in the wake of Boniface VIII’s collection. The second commentary, termed here the Lectura arelatensis, can be confidently dated to the middle of the 15th century owing to its deep familiarity with contemporary jurisprudence. Its engagement with the work of Panormitanus (d. 1445), in particular, makes the Lectura one of the earliest surviving examples of how jurists went about grappling with the formidable achievement of Nicholas de Tudeschi. The article concludes with two appendices, the first reconstructing the career of the scribe, Guillaume Blégier, on the basis of currently available evidence; and the second offering an edition of the preface and Rex pacificus commentary of Deduc me Domine.
“Ad agendam penitentiam perpetuam detrudatur: Monastic Incarceration of Adulterous Women in Thirteenth-Century Canonical Jurisprudence.” Traditio 72 (2017), pp. 301-40
Despite an established tradition of dealing with adultery in the penitential forum, in the 13th century canon law jurists began to entertain using relegation to a monastery, usually termed detrusio, for women convicted of the offense. This study traces the origins of this debate to the appropriation at the end of the 12th century of more coercive forms of punishment found in Roman Law, and follows its progress over the course of the 13th century as canonists argued over the appropriateness of the monastery as a site for lay incarceration. In addition to the legal questions at stake, this study demonstrates the importance of examining the editorial history of canon law sources like the Liber extra (1234) and the associated commentary literature, showing how, for example, the intent of papal legislation can be deduced from comparing the original form of a decretal with the version that ended up in a canonical collection, or, how the evolution of jurisprudential debate can be tracked through the multiple recensions of works like Bernard of Parma’s Glossa Ordinaria or Hostiensis’ Lectura.