Boniface VIII, Decretals, 1489

BONIFACE VIII (1235–1303).
Liber sextus Decretalium.
Commentary by Joannis Andreae.
Venice: Thomas de Blavis, 14 August 1489. (06193)

Boniface VIII compiled this “sixth” book of the Decretalium in 1298 as a supplement to the five books of canon law issued by Gregory IX in 1234. As in most early printed law codes, the main text appears as an island of large type surrounded by commentary in smaller type. The page facing the illuminated initial B features the “Tree of Affinity,” which diagrams the legal degrees of separation between marriageable in-laws. Elsewhere, another chart shows the “Tree of Consanguinity,” for blood relatives. Bridwell Library’s copy retains its modest fifteenth-century binding, which is covered by a vellum leaf taken from a Hebrew manuscript.