Speakers: Maria Alessandra Bilotta and José Domingues

 

Calouste Gulbenkian Museum holds two illuminated fragments and a medieval codex of Ius commune (Common Law). The common law – composed of the Corpus Iuris Civilis (Body of Civil Law), the Corpus Iuris Canonici (Body of Canon Law) and respective legal literature – constituted one of the most important sources of law in Portugal, from the Middle Ages until the Good Reason Law of 1769.

  1. According to the medieval systematisation, the Corpus Iuris Civilis – a compilation of Roman Law ordered by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century – was divided into five parts: the Digest of the Old, the Digest of the New, the Compiled Digest, the Code and the Small Volume. The ms LA212 is an old Digest, which would have been copied and illuminated in the south of France over the course of the 14th century.
  2. The Corpus Iuris Canonici was systematised into six parts: Decretum Gratiani, Decretals of Gregory IX, Sixth Book, Clementines, Extravagants of John XXII and Common Extravagants. The fragments M36A and M36B were part of the Decretum Gratiani, the most important source of medieval canon law that was composed by Gratian in the first half of the 12th century. Its illuminations are attributed to the workshop of the Maître du Missel de Augier de Cogeux (or Cogenx), made during the first half of the 14th century, probably in Toulouse.

In this seminar, we intend to highlight the decorative and illustrative apparatus of these legal fragments, relating them to other contemporary manuscripts, and explaining the practical importance these legal monuments attained during the Portuguese Middle Ages.

This event is part of the seminar cycle «Tesouros em Pergaminho – A coleção de manuscritos iluminados ocidentais de Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian» (Treasures on Parchment – The Western Illuminated Manuscript Collection of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian), result from a partnership between Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM) of the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, NOVA University (NOVA FCSH).