The Smithfield Decretals
No Yoda is Involved, or is it?
Issue 08 — Spring 2022 — Session 07 —
Microliteratures, 2
By Jesús R. Velasco | Published on February 24, 2022
By Jesús R. Velasco | Published on February 24, 2022
Among the many manuscripts containing pope Gregory IX’s “Liber Extra” or “Decretals”, the Smithfield Decretals stands out. The reason for this visibility is not the marginal gloss by Bernard of Parma, but rather the number and characteristics of the miniatures accompanying the text —miniatures that have amazed scholars and users of the book, and that, to say the least, are not very easy to interpret.
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The Smithfield Decretals are currently preserved in the British Library. We will be working with the digitized copy, and paying attention to the images. Do not hesitate to play with them and to be imaginative. These are, in themselves, pretty playful and imaginative. Think again about the tabula picta manuscript with images, in order to interpret this manuscript and its astonishing presence.
I also add Taylor’s chapter from his book Textual Situations, which is relevant for our discussion and provides much needed background for the manuscript itself.
