A LEAF FROM THE DECRETUM (cum apparatu Bartholomaei Brixiensis) PRINTED BY JOHANN GRÜNINGER, STRASSBURG, 1484.

Strassburg: Johann Grünniger, 1484. A large folio leaf from the 1484 edition of Grantianus' DECRETUM printed in Augsburg Germany by Johann Schüssler. The leaf measures 395 x 280 mm (15 ¾ x 11 inches) printed in black & red in four columns. Fresh and very clean. See Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries (1964), item G-375. ISTC ig00375000

¶ The Decretum Gratiani, also known as the Concordia discordantium canonum or Concordantia discordantium canonum or simply as the Decretumwas first published in the twelfth century as a textbook of canon law. Although the Church never formally recognized it as the official version of canon law, Decretum was widely used in the study of canon law from the mid-twelfth to the early twentieth century. Commonly referred to as the Decretum Gratiani, this text is comprised of excerpts from a variety of authorities, including church councils, papal letters, penitentials, Roman civil law, regulations of Germanic rulers, and the writings of Church fathers. Gratian’s goal was to resolve discrepancies among canons, and organize the vast amount of rules governing the Church into a comprehensible legal system.It was used as the main source of law by canonists of the Roman Catholic Church until the Decretals, promulgated by Pope Gregory IX in 1234, obtained legal force, after which it was the cornerstone of the Corpus Juris Canonici, in force until 1917.