Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 077: Willelmus Durandus the Elder, Speculum iudiciale

purl.stanford.edu/kb675cq1385

Title:

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 077: Willelmus Durandus the Elder, Speculum iudiciale

Alternate Title:

Duranti Speculum Judiciale

Language:

Latin

Extent:

ff. 340 + 1

Dimensions:

410 Height (mm) and 260 Width (mm)

Approximate Date:

[ca. 1300 - 1399]

Provenance:

From St Albans. At top of last leaf is (xv): De studio dompni abbatis S. Albani. At the bottom of f. 1r is T in a cursive hand.

Table of contents:

Speculum iudiciale

Description:

CCCC MS 77 contains a copy of the Speculum iudiciale of Willelmus Durandus the Elder (c. 1237-1296). Completed in 1271 and revised twice before the author's death, the Speculum is a manual for the proper administration and exercise of ecclesiastical authority in a synthesis of the concepts underpinning Roman and canon law. The Speculum iudiciale remained an important text for the Catholic church long after the Middle Ages, with several printed editions appearing between the late-fifteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries. MS 77 was written in the fourteenth century and an inscription establishes that it was once at the Benedictine abbey of St Albans, Hertfordshire.