Abstract
The Two Anonymous Liber extra Commentaries in Paris, BNF lat. 3966
Edward A. Reno III
The paper manuscript Paris, BNF lat. 3966 contains two incomplete, unidentified commentaries on the Decretals of Gregory IX (1234) copied by two different mid-fifteenth-century French hands.1 The first commentary, transcribed by Hand A and hereafter referred to as Deduc me Domine [= DMD] following the incipit, is the more complete of the two, running from an initial preface and commentary on the bull of promulgation Rex pacificus up to X 3.12.1 (fol. 1r-55v). Not all the canons within this range are covered, however—especially after the middle of Book 2, the commentary begins to skip over quite a number of texts.2 DMD does not offer any specific content that would help us fix the original date of composition, but the legal citations and the dialectical structure point to the early fourteenth century in the environs of the University of Paris, possibly by a member of a religious order. Although an almost equal volume of text survives from the second commentary (fol. 57r-108v)—dubbed here the [End Page 143] Lectura arelatensis [= LA]—the portion of the Decretals it covers is much more limited, consisting of the last eight titles of Book 1 (X 1.36.1-X 1.43.2) and the first three from Book 3 (X 3.1.1-X 3.3.6). We can be more precise about dating both the composition of the LA and its transcription by Hand B. The author's citation of fifteenth-century jurists, the most recent of whom was Panormitanus (1386-1445), places the LA around the middle of the fifteenth century. In addition, the transcription by Hand B of two pieces of ephemera onto fol.55v, the last leaf of DMD, enable us to provisionally identify him as Guillaume Blégier (fl. 1424-1470), a metropolitan official in the archdiocese of Arles and a 'Doctor decretorum'.3 The first piece of ephemera, intitulated Allegationes in causa iurium [sic] patronatus by the scribe, is a decision rendered by Guillaume Blégier himself in a dispute over patronage rights in a local parish church in Arles. The second is a letter dated March 26, 1463 from Philippe de Lévis (1435-1475) to the Arles cathedral chapter announcing Pope Pius II's (1458-1464) decision to transfer him from the metropolitan see of Auch to become their archbishop. Beyond their assistance in identifying the scribe of the LA, the presence of these documents at the end of DMD shows that Guillaume Blégier was in possession of the entire manuscript, and thus provides a starting point for future efforts at tracing its provenance.
To date there have been no modern discussions of BNF lat. 3966, so the opportunity will be taken below to provide a thorough codicological and paleographic study of the manuscript along with an assessment of its contents.4 The analysis will first tackle its [End Page 144] codicological peculiarities: when the manuscript was rebound some of the quires were rearranged and even separated, thus requiring a careful renumbering of the leaves to restore the original ordering of both commentaries. Thereafter will come a discussion of the ephemera on fol.55v, which are crucial pieces of evidence for identifying the second hand as Guillaume Blégier and situating the entire manuscript at Arles. The analysis of the actual contents of the commentaries will focus largely on DMD, justified both by its greater substance and by the greater difficulty in determining its date. Following the analysis are two appendices. The first pulls together all of the available printed biographical evidence for Guillaume Blégier. The second provides an edition of the preface and Rex pacificus commentary of DMD, a text that because of its didactic emphasis, deserves closer scrutiny for what it reveals about the way canon law was taught at the beginning of the 14th century.5