Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, Trinity Hall, MS 15

Martinus Polonus Tabula Martiniana

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript is a popular legal concordance of topics contained in Gratian’s Decretum and the Decretals promulgated by Gregory IX (known as the Liber extra). The work is attributed to Martinus Polonus (died 1278) who was a Dominican friar and chaplain to Pope Nicholas III (c1225-1280). An alphabetical table of the topics follows the text. This manuscript was given to the College by its founder, Bishop William Bateman (d. 1355). The signum of a crescent ermine with the Maltese cross instituted by Bateman is on folio 139v.
1.
Martinus Polonus Tabula Martiniana Margarita decreti et decretales Martini Tabula Decretorum Martinus Polonus, died 1278
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 1r Inter alia que ad fidelium Christi doctrinam scripta sunt
Explicit: 137r De eleccionibus hietibus. Explicit tabula Martini

Most of fol. 92 torn out. Very good nota bene hand, fol. 127v.

2.
Tabula Martini
Language(s): Latin

Index

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r de senex
Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: iii modern parchment flyleaves + 141 folios + iii modern parchment flyleaves. Leaves lost between fols. 33–34 (stub numbered 33b). 266 × 182 mm.
Foliation: Modern foliation in pencil on right side of leaf.

Collation

18-8 8; 9 6 (wants 1); 108-238.

Condition

Hole and rust-stains in centre of upper margin of first few folios from chain on earlier binding, significant worming for first few folios. Quire lost after fol. 181.

Layout

210 × 135-141 mm. Double columns of 51 lines, ruled in crayon, catchwords. Index in 4 columns

Hand(s)

Gothic bookhand (hybrida)

Gothic bookhand (textualis) for subject names

More than one scribe?

Decoration

Red penwork initials [1 – 4 l.] for Prologue, each subject and Index

Binding

20th century alum-tawed skin over wooden boards by Cambridge Conservation Consortium. Purple endbands.

Damage and staining from chains at top of first few folios and bottom of last few folios

Previous 19th century calf binding kept with Manuscript.

History

Origin: 14th century, ca. 1325 – 1350 ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

One of the manuscripts of William Bateman (d. 1355), Founder of Trinity Hall . His gift to the College (signum instituted by Bateman, fol. 139v

In the Library by 1600, when it was recorded as no. 2176.2 in the Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis by Thomas James (1600).

Additional Information

Record Sources

Description draws on M.R. James(1907). A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Trinity Hall.

Bibliography

    Hinton, Lavinia. Trinity Hall: the story of the Old Library (Cambridge,2000), p. 8.
    James, M. R. (1907) A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Trinity Hall. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 33.

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