Book Series Ius Illuminatum, vol. 1

The Illuminated Legal Manuscript

Forms, Iconography, Materials, Use, and Cataloguing

Maria Alessandra Bilotta (ed)

  • Pages: approx. 350 p.
  • Size:216 x 280 mm
  • Illustrations:11 b/w, 103 col.
  • Language(s):English, French, Spanish
  • Publication Year:2026


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The essays in this collection provide an overview of the research on illuminated legal manuscripts in Europe.

Subject(s)
BIO

Maria Alessandra Bilotta is an art historian, medievalist and integrated researcher at the Institute for Medieval Studies (IEM) of the NOVA School of Social Sciences and Humanities of Lisbon. Currently, her research focuses on the medieval illuminated legal manuscripts from the South of France, on illuminated medieval legal manuscripts preserved in Portugal, and on the circulation of foreign legal manuscripts (particularly from southern France and Italy) in the Iberian Peninsula. Her research interests also include the study of medieval liturgical manuscripts, the analysis of artistic transfers and mobilities, and the archaeological aspects of medieval manuscripts. Since 2019 is the coordinator and principal investigator of the IUS ILLUMINATUM international research team.

Summary

The essays in this volume provide an overview of the current research on illuminated legal manuscripts in Europe. They focus on cataloguing, digitization, and the materiality of these manuscripts. Bringing together renowned experts on the subject, the contributions reflect on the methodological implications, as well as the practical and theoretical challenges that this research entails. Multiple case studies from different European regions have been analysed through an interdisciplinary approach, to overcome their geographical limits, and to open up innovative and fruitful research tracks.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Maria Alessandra Bilotta, Introduction: The Study of Illuminated Legal Manuscripts and their Circulation in Medieval Europe: The Crucial Role of Portugal and of the Institute of Medieval Studies (IEM-NOVA/FCSH) and the Work of the IUS ILLUMINATUM Research Team

Legal Illuminated Manuscripts in Libraries and Archives

Jorge Jiménez López, Fuentes para el estudio de los manuscritos jurídicos en la Universidad de Salamanca. Entre la reforma del Papa Luna y la Escuela de Salamanca

Michela Perrotta, Legal Manuscripts from Southern Italy: An Early Cassinese Decretum Gratiani (Naples, National Library, “Vittorio Emanuele III”, ms. XII.A.5)

Sofia Orsino, Un manuscrit juridique de l’ancien monastère d'Alberese. Fragments d’histoire d’une bibliothèque

Maura Mordini, Fragments de textes juridiques des Archives d’État d’Arezzo. Présentation du projet et état d’avancement du catalogage

The Illuminated Legal Manuscript: Some Case Studies

Jaime Moraleda Moraleda, Heterodox Motifs in the Illumination Works for the Decretum Gratiani of the Chapter Library of Toledo (ms. 4-2)

Andrea Improta, Illuminated Legal Manuscripts in Abruzzo and Naples (13th-15th centuries): New Acquisitions

Jorge Pradános Fernándes, The Construction of Legitimacy: The Iconography of the Fourth Council of Toledo Through the Medieval Copies of the Fuero Juzgo

Nuria Ramón Marqués, El Llibre del Consolat de Mar: Maritime Law and the Art Trade in Fifteenth Century Valencia

Issues of Legal Iconography

Rosa Alcoy, La Ley y los (reyes) legisladores: espectros y lugares del juicio en el Llibre Verd de Barcelona y en otros manuscritos colidantes

Alison Stones, Some Iconographical Borrowings from Legal Illustration in Lancelot-Grail Manuscripts

Gianluca del Monaco, The Initial “H” (“Humanum genus”) and the Depiction of the Two Earthly Rulers in the Illuminated Manuscripts of the Decretum Gratiani

Viviana Persi, Les images illustrant la matière des successions dans les Intitutiones et dans le Digestum de Justinien. L’exemple de quelques manuscrits conservés à la Bibliothèque nationale de France (XIIIe et XIVe siècles)

Rogerio Ribeiro Tostes, ‘Naturales sesos de buenos omnes et leales’. The Imagistic Representations of the Public Justice in the Vidal Mayor Miniatures

The Illuminated Legal Manuscripts: Cataloguing and Publishing

Andrea Padovani, The Irnerius Project

Maria Alessandra Panzanelli Fratoni, IVS Commune online and MANUSIuridica: Towards an Integrated Description of Legal Texts and Illustrations from Manuscript to Print

Gianfranco Malafarina, Study and Restoration of Illuminated Legal Manuscripts Through the Pages of “Alumina. Pagine miniate”

Medieval Jurists, Civic Statutes

Francesco Salvestrini, The Use of the Vernacular: Language, Law, and Political Culture in Fourteenth-Century Italy

Legal Iconography in Manuscripts and Monumental Sculpture

Lucia Lahoz, Ámbitos y marcos de la Justicia

Heraldry in Illuminated Legal Manuscripts

Martin Sunnqvist, Armorials, Seals and the Law of Arms

Laurent Macé, Une emblématique hors normes. Le traitement de l’héraldique dans les Coutumes de Toulouse (1296)

Conclusions

Giovanni Rossi, Conclusions. Le droit dans les images, les images pour le droit : une ‘redécouverte’ nécessaire