Lot pagina - Van De Wiele Auctions

[LAW: ROFFREDUS BENEVENTANUS]

Single leaf from Roffredus Beneventanus, De libellis et ordine iudiciorum, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum

[Italy
second half of 13th century]

€400 - €600

Single leaf with double column of 58 lines of a tiny university hand (with parts of book VI of text), red rubrics and long elongated initials set off in margin, some contemporary marginalia, recovered from a binding and hence with stains, tears and holes, overall fair condition, 330 by 200mm

Roffredus Beneventanus (c. 1170-c.1244) was a civilian jurist who studied under the foremost medieval glossators of law, including Azo and Hugolinus. He went on to teach law at Bologna and Arezzo in 1215, and it was there that he appears to have begun the present work, finishing it about a decade later. By 1224, he had moved to Naples where he seems to have served as an active lawyer, rather than teacher. His glittering career brought him into imperial service and to the papal curia in Rome, where he died soon after 1243. While popular in its own time, the text is rare on the market, with the Schoenberg database recording the last copies sold by Sotheby's that of 5 July 1937, lot 778, and by Christie's on 12 November 2008, lot 9

Manuscripts