[LEGAL SAMMELBAND WITH MANUSCRIPT WASTE DATING FROM THE 10TH OR 11TH CENTURY]. Constitutiones Dominii Mediolanensis (and three other texts)

Milan: various publishers, 1584. Very good. Three works in one volume, folio (300 x 200 mm). [Collations below]. Various blemishes and signs of age and use, some staining (persistent at the back). Bound in 17th- or 18th century pressed paper boards covered with a vellum manuscript leaf (see below), smooth spine (defective at head and tail), printed paper label (see below). Accompanied by a recent export license. Preserved in a cloth protective case. THE SPECTACULAR MANUSCRIPT "WASTE" IN THIS MILANESE LEGAL SAMMELBAND WAS LIKELY PRODUCED IN THE LATE 10TH- OR EARLY 11TH-CENTURY IN A NORTH ITALIAN SCRIPTORIUM. THE MOST IMPORTANT WORK IN THIS SAMMELBAND WAS ANNOTATED BY A KNOWN PAVIA NOTARY.

The primary fragment covers the boards and is a double-column bifolium from a noted Missal (leaf c. 350 x 280 mm, 31-lines per page), decorated with a large foliate initial T in red and green, red rubrics, majuscules highlighted in red and 15 lines of music with cheironomic neumes in "campo aperto." The texts come from the beginning of the Canon of the Mass and part of the Mass liturgy for the Dedication of the Church, and include three New Testament readings and chants for Gradual and Offertory. Two narrow slightly later fragments at the bottom of and inside the rear board contain part of Isidore of Seville's Sententiae XXVIII. We owe our knowledge of these fragments and the provenance of this Sammeband to Dr. Irene Malfatto.

CONTENTS OF THE SAMMELBAND (in order of appearance):

1: Grassi, Francesco: De Origine Iuris Mediolanensis [...] Libellus. Constitutionum Dominii Mediolanii. INDEX. Milan: V. Meda [for Calusco and Grassi] 1544. Folio. [32] ff., collated A4 A-B8 (A1 wrongly signed "A3") C-D6, complete. Title in red and black within a historiated white-line woodcut frame of grotesques, portraits and musical putti. ¶ By 1544 Grassi had completed an alphabetic list of subjects, to which he added a short history of Milanese law and Errata to the Constitutions. Notably, Grassi's "index" (as it is described on the title-page) does not contain references to associated pages (or leaves). References: Sandal, L'arte della stampa a Milano nell'età di Carlo V, no. 156. Sander, Le Livre à figures italien no. 4527. EDIT16 CNCE 21608.

2. Constitutiones Dominii Mediolanensis. Milan: V. Meda for B. Calusco and F. Grassi, 1541. Collation: [pi]4 A-N8 O6 P4, complete. Contemporary manuscript foliation. [4] ff. (including blank, all unnumbered) + 114 ff. Pounced marginalia on A1v. (Fols. K2-K8 with large portions of the outer margins torn away, not affecting printed text but with loss of some of the marginalia on those leaves: see images). Books 1-4 with MANUSCRIPT ANNOTATIONS (approximately 1300 words), in the hand of Marco Guenzi (ca. 1514-1547), a Pavia notary (see below). ¶ First Edition of this "landmark publication in the legal, legislative, and administrative history of Milan" (Stevens). The Constitutions regulated the city of Milan's dominions from 1542 through the Napoleonic era. Its five books cover all civil and criminal matters, from forgery, corruption, gambling and duels to rape, bigamy, woad smuggling and plague health measures. They stipulated distinctive dress for Jews and prostitutes, and punishments for abortion according to the presence or absence of a soul in the fetus. Charles V signed the code in October 1541 and mandated its implementation on 1 January 1542. Francesco Grassi, one of the compilers, and Calusco, the bookseller, worked feverishly to produce twelve hundred fifty copies in time. Their haste precluded foliating the work or preparing an index. References: Stevens, "Publishing the Constitutiones Dominii Mediolanensis (1541-1552): New Revelations" in La Bibliofilía 116 (2014) 215-230. Sandal no. 138. EDIT16 CNCE 49695.

3. [Caption title:] Philippvs Dei gratia Rex &c. Dux Mediolani [...] Milan: Meda [1584]. [2] ff. inserted between fol. 114 (above) and fol. 115 (below). With the woodcut arms of Emperor Charles V and of Milanese governor Carlo d'Aragona Tagliavia. Concerning provincial officials' visits to Milan. Not in EDIT 16 or ICCU.

4. Guenzi, Marco. MANUSCRIPT NOTES on 12 (formerly blank) leaves, foliation continuing from no. 2 above (ff. 115-126). Here Guenzi transcribes documents relevant to his local practice in Pavia.

PROVENANCE: Marco Guenzi (ca. 1514-1547), with his ownership inscription and purchase price of 3 lire, and his MS monogram (cipher) on fol. I5r in the second work above --> Lorenzo Sozzani (fl. 1623-1628), another Pavian notary, his ownership inscription on the first blank dated 1623, numerous annotations by him --> Antonio Castoldi, 18th-century jurist, his signature and notes --> Joseph Tornerius, his manuscript exlibris --> Luigi Ratti, Milanese collector, with the printed paper spine label of the auction of his library (20 March 1916, lot 504).