Cleveland Museum of Art

Single Leaf from a Decretum by Gratian: Quadruple Arcade with Concordance of Greek and Latin Alphabets

Date: c. 1160–1165
Medium: ink and tempera on vellum
Culture: France, Burgundy, Archdiocese of Sens, Abbey of Pontigny, 12th century
Department: Medieval Art
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art

This leaf was excised from a copy of the handbook of church law known as the Decretum written by Gratian, an Italian Camaldolese monk active in Bologna from about 1130 to 1140. The style of the illumination and the script date the leaf to between 1160 and 1165. In November 1164, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, took refuge at Pontigny as a result of his conflict with King Henry II of England. During his stay, Becket immersed himself in the study of church law, as evidenced by his later use of citations from the Decretum . This leaf could have been part of the original manuscript Becket consulted. The volume was later dismembered following the suppression of the monastery during the French Revolution in the late 1700s.

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