FRAGMENT OF THE DIGESTUM NOVUM FROM THE LATE 12th CENTURY IN THE SCIENTIFIC ARCHIVES OF THE SAINT PETERSBURG INSTITUTE OF HISTORY

The paper presents a detailed description of the fragment with portions of the Digest text from the books XXXIX and XL (D. 39.6.42–40.2.13) and with glosses to them. The fragment of codex is stored in the Scientific Archives of the St. Petersburg Institute of History of the Russian Academy of Sciences under the code Cart. 625, N28 and has not yet received a scientific description. The author dates the fragment to the end of the XII century, and he shows its connection with the tradition of the law school of Piacenza. The newly identified fragment deserves the third place in the chronological series of the earliest Italian copies of the Digestum Novum. The fragment reflects well the work of the scholars on the emendation so called Bolognian version of the Digest. The glosses in the margins of the manuscript, written by the early Bolognese rotunda, were copied almost simultaneously with the text of Digest, but belong to the hand of another scribe. The learned corrector compared the new copy with reliable manuscripts, and in one case he has referred to the reading in the manuscript of Placentinus. It is shown that the basis of the glosses contained in the fragment were the glosses of Martin Gosia. Evidence is given that the glosses may have been borrowed from a manuscript belonging to the glossator Otto of Pavia, a pupil of Placentinus. The paper proposes some additions and clarifications to the observations of Gero Dolezalek, which were based on the study of a fragment of another, somewhat later, codex containing parts of the text of Digest from the same book XL (titles 5–12) and the first title of the next book XLI. The comparative material from seven manuscripts was used in the paper, including three earlier manuscripts, which remained out of reach for Dolezalek. It is also noteworthy to mention, that the fragment preserved an initial, executed according to traditions of the school of Lucca, with the image of an anthropomorphic figure resembling a siren, quite rare for the iconography of Italian illuminated manuscripts of the XII century.

Littera Bononiensis, Liber Placentini, Roman law, paleography, Liber Placentini, glossators of the 12th century, glosses of Martinus Gosia, law school of Piacenza