One of the main components of the corpus of medieval canon law was the Liber Extra, so called because it supplemented the first definitive compilation of canon law, Gratian’s Decretum (c. 1140). Since the appearance of the Decretum popes had made new law in the form of decretals letters. These contained judgements on specific cases or gave ecclesiastical judges advice on points of canon law. Collections of decretals had been compiled since the late twelfth century. Pope Gregory IX commissioned his chaplain Raimond de Peñafort in 1231 to assemble decretals from these collections in a single compendium. It was published as the Liber Extra on 5 September 1234. The new collection of decretals had an immediate diffusion and between 1250 and 1350 many copies were produced in the universities of northern Italy and France. More than 700 manuscripts of the Liber Extra are known to survive which were copied between the mid-13th and the mid-14th centuries.

Dr. Martin Bertram, Mitarbeiter at the Deutsches Historisches Institut in Rome, proposed the idea of a catalogue of the surviving manuscripts of the Liber Extra in European libraries. He is presently compiling a catalogue of the manuscripts in the Vatican Library and other libraries in Rome. In 2004 the Lyell Electors agreed to support a two year project on these issues and appointed Dr. Barbara Bombi as Lyell Research Fellow in Palaeography. Dr. Bombi catalogued the manuscripts of the Liber Extra in British libraries, which are about 70 manuscripts; they are mainly located in Oxford, London and Cambridge, but also in cathedral libraries, such as Durham and Hereford, and private libraries, notably Holkham Hall.

The description of each manuscript includes a general outline of its contents and a particular report on the part containing the Liber Extra. The description also treats additions to the standard text of the Liber Extra, produced later in the 13th century, such as the Novellae, which were issued by Pope Innocent IV, the Novissimae, promulgated by Pope Gregory X, and other post-1234 decretals. Finally a complete bibliography concerning the contents and the illumination of the manuscript will be listed. General comments on the quality and the usage of the manuscript will be also included in order to point out its particular importance in the manuscript tradition of the Liber Extra.

This description should eventually provide a complete paleographical and codicological account of the manuscript as well as an analysis of its contents. It will contribute to the study of the history of a specific text, the Liber Extra, indicating its remarkable success in the British Isles during the Late Middle Ages.

Project related external websites

http://www.dhi-roma.it/bertram_extrahss.html

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