[Rarebooks] FS: Rare Gratian Stolen during Thirty Years War

[Kaaterskill Books]

We offer for Sale:

Gratian. Joannes Teutonicus; Bartolommeo da Brescia (Bartolomaeus 
Brixiensis). DECRETVM GRATIANI EMENDATVM, ET NOTATIONIBVS 
ILLVSTRATVM. VNA CUM GLOSSIS, GREGORII XIII. PONT. MAX. IVSSV EDITVM. 
AD EXEMPLAR ROMANVM DILIGENTER RECOGNITUM [DECRETUM GRATIANI 
EMENDATUM]. Lvgdvni, (De licentia eiusdem D.N. Gregorii XIII. Pont. 
Max.), 1584. 68 leaves, 2068 columns (1034 leaves). Illus. with 
engraved frontis, head and tail pieces, and initial letters 
throughout. Folio (40 x 25 cm). Vellum with rules in blind and rules, 
medallions, and decorations in black on front and rear boards. 
Double columns with text in center, surrounded by gloss of Joannes 
Teutonicus and Bartolomaeus Brixiensis.

This volume is from the Library of Peter Wok von Rosenberg (1539 
-1611), the last of the Rosenbergs, who were one of the most powerful 
families in Southern Bohemia, important buyers of manuscripts written 
especially for their court or for churches and monasteries in the 
town. Peter, an avid collector, increased the library to 11,000 
volumes, a size unique in Central Europe at the time. Later owned by 
Johan Georg von Schwanberg, from whose son they were confiscated, 
they were carried to Sweden after the capture of Prague in 1648 by 
Swedish Army during the Thirty Years War and distributed among 
various Swedish libraries. The front engraved medallion reads Petr 
Wok Wolff z Rozmberka M.D.XXC.V; girdled by a wreath, it depicts a 
knight in full armor with a raised sword on a horse in mid-stride. 
The rear medallion contains a stamp again surrounded by a wreath with 
the words PWWZR 1585 KRZL, where KRZL is Katharina Ro mberk z Ludani 
(his wife Katerina of Ludanice). The medallions may have been 
designed by Aegidius Sadeler who did similar designs in gilt.

Not much is known of Gratian, the founder of Canon Law, a 12th 
century Camaldolese monk, other than he was well versed in both Roman 
law and the scholastic tradition. The Decretum, which appeared in 
1140, is in three parts dealing with canon law and ecclesiastical 
persons, ecclesiastical jurisdiction and property, and liturgy and 
sacraments. Along with Raymond of Pennaforte's Liber extra (or 
Decretales Gregorii IX or Liber extra decretum), the Liber sextus of 
Boniface VIII, the Clementines of Clement V, and the Extravagantes 
Joannis XXII and Extravagantes communes, the Decretum Gratiani formed 
the Corpus iuris canonici, a term used unofficially from the 12th 
cent., but officially adopted by the Council of Basle in 1441. The 
works were re-edited by a commission of cardinals and doctors in 1582.

There are no copies of this 1584 Lyon edition at the Vatican, but 
there is one in the Mediatheque de l'agglomeration troyenne and one 
in the Bibliotheque Cujas de droit et de sciences economiques. Our 
copy varies from the Cujas copy: there are different headpieces (p. 
3, 9, 65) and initial letters (p.6 "H" is upside down); occasional 
signature marks and blocks of text vary in layout; a few pages are 
misnumbered at the rear; and the "Margarita Decretalium" of Fr. 
Martinus is not bound in at the end.

All but a fragment of the spine lacking, front board and a few leaves 
detached, rear board tender but cords still holding, boards scuffed 
especially at the inner edges, front board worn with some loss at the 
lower corner, small scrape just affecting bottom of medallion, 
seminary library bookplate to front pastedown, small dampstain to 
lower edge through col. 20 not affecting text, small neat hole in 
outer notations occasionally affecting text from col 306 on, a second 
neat hole, though elongated, from approx. col 400 to 768; leaves 
clean with very minor and scattered foxing. A unique copy.   [26637] 
$1250

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Regards,

Charles Kutcher
Kaaterskill Books
P.O. Box 122
East Jewett, NY 12424.
Phone: 518-589-0555.
Email: books at kaaterskillbooks.com
Member of I. O. B. A.


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