Franciscan Inquisitors in Tuscany, early 14th Century: The Index of Codex Casanatensis, ms. 1730

Franciscan Inquisitors in Tuscany, early 14th Century: The Index of Codex Casanatensis, ms. 1730

© Introduction, translation and notes by Geoffrey W. Clement

Introduction

Codex Casanatensis 1730 was a compendious work written and compiled in the early fourteenth century for use by Franciscan inquisitors in Tuscany. The manuscript contains a wide typology of legal texts in its folios that all pertain to the medieval inquisition of heresy. In my dissertation completed in 2013 at Fordham University, I argued that Casanatensis 1730 is unique since three-quarters of the manuscript was penned by one hand and assembled in a particular order.₁Furthermore, the manuscript incorporated many novelties of the time including rubricated headlines, Arabic numerals, cross references and an extensive alphabetically-arranged topical index. Some materials in other hands were later added to produce the codex in its present form, but the majority of the codex was conceived and produced in one place, at one time, by one person who was likely an inquisitor himself or a functionary in the service of the inquisition.

Casanatensis 1730 has 297 folios in twenty-seven gatherings. All of the folios that were written by the original author have two columns with twenty-seven lines for text. There are two foliation systems in Casanatensis 1730—a medieval and a modern one. Both use Arabic numerals and are continuous from their respective points of origin.

The modern system appears in the upper right corner of the recto side of each folio and was placed there by the Biblioteca Casanatense with a rubber stamp most likely in the twentieth century. Excepting four initial guard leaves, it is continuous throughout the entire codex running sequentially to the last parchment folio, no. 298. The medieval foliation was hand-written in the center top margin of the recto of each folio beginning on modern fol. 41r, the first folio of the collection proper after the index. It is contemporary with the composition of the majority of the manuscript both because it is the system used for references in the index which is unerringly accurate, and the hand of the enumeration in the original index entries and the medieval foliation is the same. The first forty folios comprising gatherings 1-4, thirty-seven of which are the index, are not numbered in the medieval system. The medieval foliation continues in a different hand in the later gatherings of the manuscript (nos. 25-27), which were not part of the original composition. All references to folios in these three later gatherings have been appended by a later hand in numerous spots in the index.

The first thirty-seven folios after the guard-leaves form a comprehensive, medieval index. Using Latin topical headings, it refers the user to a given folio number and column identified by letter. The text of the index appears to have been written by the same original hand as the majority of the manuscript, and the numerical references in Arabic numerals correspond to the medieval foliation system which begins with fol. 1 at the modern fol. 41. The text in the index was written in highly abbreviated early fourteenth century Latin. This document is an edition in full-length Latin in the left-hand columns with an English translation facing it in the right-hand columns. The integrity of folio numbers, line numbers and the interruption and continuation of a word on the next line as it occurs in the original manuscript has been strictly observed. As a result, the interruptions of words on one line and their continuation on the next does not conform to modern conventions.

Some noteworthy aspects of the index include capitalization, ubiquitous use of Arabic numerals, occasional cross-referencing, and index entries that distill or de contextualize the full-length text of laws and procedures contained in the main body of the codex. All of these features together made Codex Casanatensis 1730 especially useful in its day. The combination of index and texts resulted in a manual that was portable, quickly and easily consulted, authoritative in its contents, and allowed for subsequent addenda that updated the codex and were wholly integrated into its index reference system by later hands without changing the wording or order of the index entries themselves. Thus, alpha-numerical folio references were added to pre-existing index entries by later hands. Indeed, the index was comprehensive and yet flexible enough to accommodate references to later additional texts without necessitating any alteration to its structure because the entries were topical in nature (e.g., abjuration, absolution, accusation, apostasy, etc.), and the topical headings were arranged alphabetically.

In the case of Casanatensis 1730, every entry in the index that contains an alpha numeric reference directing the user to a given folio and column, which is the preponderant majority, uses Arabic numerals. The written style of these numerals in the index is the same as that which appears at the head of the recto side of each bi-folio throughout the original codex. There are texts referenced in the index that post-date the original manuscript, but the references to these later additions were incorporated into the index as it originally appeared without changing the Latin subject key-words or adding new entries. Though they observed the index headings of the original writer, the references to later additions in the body of the collection are all in a different hand and appended onto the end of the original alpha-numeric references for any given index entry. Furthermore, many of these later additions to index entries not only refer the reader to materials in those gatherings (nos. 25-27, fols. 262r-297v), but are as unerringly accurate as those of the original writer. Updating the index in this way, with additional numbers but no new headings, indicates how closely the later users and authors followed the original purpose and organization of the manuscript; in other words, the additions supplement topics already found in the original collection. The only exception to every index entry having been written by the original hand, are four entries appended by a later hand onto the last column of the index (fol. 37rb, lines 5-18). They all concerned the disposition of the registered goods (Annotata Bona) of those absenting themselves, or not, for a year or more.₂

Finally, one must consider two additional characteristics in the index’s numbering—both rare but present nonetheless. There are index entries lacking any alpha numerical reference, but most of these are simply cross-references directing the reader elsewhere for more information. Besides those entries which are cross-references, there are also extremely rare instances of entries lacking any numerical reference by the original writer at all. In these cases, the entries in question are simply summary statements needing no additonal elaboration.

Beyond the characteristics of the index noted above, a more precise location system was used in Casanatensis 1730 for subdivisions of folios. The index locates references with folio numbers plus the letters a, b, c, or d. On the folios themselves there are no letters, but it is evident that the index references correspond to the four columns of each folio counting from left to right, recto to verso (a = ra, b = rb, c = va, d = vb). The original medieval foliation and alphabetical references to particular columns are maintained in the left-hand Latin text, and modern foliation and columnar references (ra vb) appear in the English translation.

Another phenomenon which occurs repeatedly in the index is a rudimentary form of cross-referencing. Though entries are phrases generally arranged alphabetically by an initial topical keyword, the index is not always strictly alphabetized within its subdivisions, and the alphabetical order is sometimes interrupted by a change of tense, declension, or number of a Latin word within a category. The index is alphabetical up to the concept level since within a range for a given initial letter, there is a sequence of topical categories. For instance, under headings beginning with “S,” the index has topics, some with multiple subdivisions, that are ordered alphabetically; i.e., Sacerdos, Sacramentum, Sacros, Satisfactio, Sententia, Sepultura, etc., fol. 33va-34rb. Within any given topic, such as sacerdos, full alphabetical order throughout the word’s variants and subtopics is not strictly observed.₃

Cross-references, of which there are twenty-one, always start with alia. They appear occasionally in the middle of a string of entries relating to a topic, but are more often placed at the end of the sequence of related entries. Depending on where the reference appears, it directs the reader either supra or infra—above or below—for more information. In some instances, the cross-reference directs the reader to more than one spot for further consultation.₄ Of course, the range of issues addressed for some topics in the index, such as that concerning goods, is more comprehensive than for others. In those instances where there is less thorough treatment of a topic, cross-references are usually included at the end of a topic’s sequence of index entries to direct the reader elsewhere for more information. Clearly, the author of the index approached his work in a highly systematic and methodical manner and included what he must have considered particularly important points under different headings. In the event a user could not find what he was looking for in one spot where it may occur to him to search, he will find it in another that makes equal sense or he will find a cross-reference directing him elsewhere for more information.

In the pages that follow, the index for Codex Casanatensis ms.1730 is presented in full-length Latin and its English equivalent immediately facing it to the right. The texts contained within the manuscript have been edited and printed in collections of papal bulls, Gratian’s Decretum, imperial laws, and modern scholarly works, but that is not the case at all for the index—a primary source that has been neither edited nor translated to date. It is hoped that this edition will furnish medievalists and researchers of the medieval inquisition with an acceptably useful publication of this primary resource from Codex Casanatensis ms. 1730.

This extensive set of tables represents an edition and translation of the first thirty-seven folios of Casanatense ms. 1730; fols. 1-37rb.

• The line numbers for each column and folio appear in the left margin of the left hand Latin column. These line numbers do not appear in the original manuscript.
• The left-hand Latin column strictly adheres by line number and to the spacing and splitting of words, often in irregular or unexpected ways, in accordance with the script as encountered in the manuscript.
• There are occasional items added by later hands in the top and bottom margins usually with accompanying insertion marks to indicate where the entry was intended for insertion by this later annotator or user. These have been preserved and reproduced as faithfully as possible.
• The red capital letter “C” at the start of each entry reproduces a large red symbol that resembles a C, that is as a rubrication, and appears before nearly every entry in the index.
• Any italicized script indicates that it was added or inserted by a later hand.

fol. 1ra.

₁ Geoffrey W. Clement, “A Franciscan Inquisitor’s Manual and its compositional context: Codex Casanatensis 1730” (Ph.D. diss., Fordham University, 2013).

₂ Casanatense ms 1730, fol. 37rb, lines 5-18.

₃ The four entries for sacerdos in Casanatense ms 1730, fol. 37va begin: Sacerdotes….; Sacerdotes….; Sacerdos….; Sacerdotis…. .

₄ Casanatense ms 1730, fol. 9rb; for example, in the section of the index dealing with believers of heretics, an entry directs the reader both above and below for more information. The entry itself is at the end of the sequence on believers, or credentes, and reads: “Alia de credentibus supra in bonis, infra in hereticis.”