Little Book of Cistercian Statutes of Garendon Abbey

Лот 47
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Место проведенияВеликобритания, London
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ID 1514460
Лот 47 | Little Book of Cistercian Statutes of Garendon Abbey
Оценочная стоимость
£ 15 000 – 20 000
Little Book of Cistercian Statutes of Garendon Abbey
Libellus Statutorum Cisterciensis ordinis, in Latin, illuminated manuscript on vellum [England, Leicestershire, Garendon Abbey, first half 15th century]
An unrecorded and precious witness to the constant evolution and codification of Cistercian law, made for Garendon Abbey, and with an extremely rare fragment of an English cut-leather binding.

175 x 124mm. 99 leaves, collation: 1-208, 217(of 8, lacking i), 228, 234(of 8, lacking v-viii), 30 lines, catchwords and quire signatures survive, ruled space: 136 x 80mm, rubrics and headings in red, capitals touched in red, larger initials in blue with scrolling penwork decoration in red extending into margins, two illuminated initials, contemporary ink drawings of flowers on ff.6v and 8v and of fish on f.81, contemporary and later inscriptions, annotations and pentrials throughout (text block detached in three parts, lacking 4 gatherings after f.56, [VIII-XI], according to the contemporary quire signatures, also lacking 4 leaves at the end apparently with later 15th-century additions, only the lower half of f.3 survives, staining and marginal thumbing throughout, ff.65-99 somewhat gnawed and frayed at lower margin). Contemporary English cut-leather binding with the Virgin and Child (upper board alone survives, detached from the text block, cracked and worn).

Provenance:
(1) Garendon Abbey, a wealthy Cistercian house founded by Robert de Beaumont, 2nd Earl of Leicester, in 1133 and daughter house of Waverley Abbey (whose founding is mentioned on f.98v, along with Furness Abbey). Although the Consuetudinary at the end of the manuscript (ff.81-98) is setting out formulaic templates to be followed in various scenarios (the resignation of an abbot, the appointment of a new abbot), the examples given are always specific: there is repeated mention of 'huius monasterii de G. ordinis Cistercensis' and its daughter-house 'monasterii de B.' Initials and occasionally names and dates are provided: 'Anno domini MCCC XC IXo nono die mensis maii nos Frater Johannes abbas monasterii de B.' (f.89); 'Ego frater W. de S. abbas huius monasterii de G. ordinis Cisterciensis Covent. et Lych. diocesis' (f.89v); 'Ego Frater T. de L. electus in abbatem huius monasterii de G.' (f.95v). The clear identity of these houses is provided in the later 15th-century addition on f.99v, which mentions 'Johannes Abbas monasterii de Garadon [Garendon]', the resignation of 'Johannes Wykyng' (fl. 1446-48) and the succession of William Halford to the abbacy of Bordesley, in the diocese of Worcester, in 1452 (on which see D. Thornton, 'The Abbots of Bordesley: A Provisional List', Studia Monastica 43 [2], pp.233-267).

'Frater Johannes', abbot of Bordesley in 1399 is therefore John Broadridge, a Bordesley monk who was ordained in 1367-69 and elected to the abbacy in 1384; 'W. de S.', abbot of Garendon, in the diocese of Coventry and Lichfield, must be Walter Seynt Croys who resigned his abbacy shortly before 1350; and 'T. de L.', abbot of Garendon, must be Thomas of Lughtburgh, elected in 1361. The manuscript is not recorded in Ker's Medieval Libraries of Great Britain.

A curious mention on f.83 is the visit to Bordesley of brother Theobald, monk of the Abbey of 'Kyrie Eleyson', or Abbeydorney / Odorney, the only medieval Cistercian house in County Kerry, Ireland.

(2) John Prin, 16th-century ownership inscription on f.22v: 'Jhon Prin owneth this bok'. Numerous other inscriptions appear throughout the manuscript, including William Latham on ff.14v and 60v and Jhon House on f.32.

(3) Mount St Bernard Abbey, a Trappist Cistercian house near Coalville, Leicestershire, founded in 1835: a modern pencil note on f.98v reads: 'At Bernard's Abbey, Coalville, near Leicester'. Mount St Bernard Abbey is only a few miles from the old medieval site of Garendon Abbey.

(4) George Oliver, D.D. (1782–1867), English cleric, schoolmaster, topographer, and writer on freemasonry: his ownership inscription on f.1, dated 1836.

(5) 'Ex Libris AFGW': 19th-century inscription on f.1.

(6) W. Barrett of Kennilworth, Ill.: his sale Parke-Bernet, New York, American MSS in many languages incunabula, other books. Property of Roger W. Barrett, Kenilworth, Ill., 8 January 1952, lot 202.


Content:
Title of the 'new' codification of 1316-1317 and summary chapters for the 15 distinctions: 'Libellus statutorum Cisterciensis ordinis illorum videlicet que ad regularem observanciam correctionem morum viteque disciplinam pertinere noscuntur' , ff.1-3v; Libellus Statutorum Cisterciensis ordinis, ff.1-56v, beginning with the 'Carta Caritatis', the Charter of Charity, f.3v, followed by an excerpt from Clement IV's papal bull Parvus fons of 1265, f.7, the Libellus ending defectively on f.56v in distinction XIV, with the rubric 'De missis et communione [conversorum]'; Title of the codification of 1350 and summary chapters for the 14 distinctions: 'In nomine patris et filii et Spiritus Sancti Amen. Incipiunt novelle distinctiones edite in generali capitulo apud Cistercium Anno domini millesimo trecentesimo quinquagesimo', ff.57-58v; Novelle definitiones, ff.58v-80v; Customary, or Consuetudinary, with 'Forma ad visitandum', ff.81-88v and 'Forma ad procedendum in cessione abbatis et electione', ff.89-98.

This manuscript contains the 'old' and 'new' rules and regulations relating to the Cistercian Order. The General Chapter of the Cistercians would meet once a year in Cîteaux, and its decisions, or 'definitions', were hotly discussed, written down, circulated and eventually codified. The Libellus was revised several times throughout the 13th and 14th centuries: the present copy contains the revised statutes of 1316-17 and the final definitive amendments issued in 1350. On the codification of these Cistercian statutes see B. Lucet, 'L’ère des grandes codifications cisterciennes (1202-1350),' Etudes d’histoire du droit canonique dédiées à G. Le Bras, 1965, pp. 249-262.
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