Abstract
A tree of consanguinity (arbor consanguinitatis) contained in a manuscript published on e-codices (Cologny, Fondation Martin Bodmer, Cod. Bodmer 28), served as the model for a new class of forgery. An analysis of the Bodmer leaf in the context of other arbores consanguinitatis shows how the leaf relates to tradition; an examination of the leaf’s history and provenance reveals that the leaf was mutilated, probably in the mid-twentieth century. The forgery is proven to be such through a paleographical and content analysis of the script, and through an examination of the leaf’s method of composition. A second forgery is examined, a fragment of Jerome’s Epistle 53, fabricated from the first folio of another e-codices manuscript, Aarau, Aargauer Kantonsbibliothek MsWettF 11. The forgeries and their circulation provides the opportunity for an assessment of the changing role of manuscript fragments and fakes in the twenty-first century.
Highlights
By the time of the composition of the Decretum Gratiani in the twelfth century, early-medieval papal decrees barring marriage within seven degrees of consanguinity were interpreted such that each degree represents a generation, and, intermarriage between sixth-cousins was forbidden
A tree of consanguinity contained in a manuscript published on e-codices
An analysis of the Bodmer leaf in the context of other arbores consanguinitatis shows how the leaf relates to tradition; an examination of the leaf’s history and provenance reveals that the leaf was mutilated, probably in the mid-twentieth century
Summary
By the time of the composition of the Decretum Gratiani in the twelfth century, early-medieval papal decrees barring marriage within seven degrees of consanguinity were interpreted such that each degree represents a generation, and, intermarriage between sixth-cousins (without papal dispensation) was forbidden. The subject-person (“ego”) was situated in the middle, above him were depicted his ancestors or ascendants (pater, avus, proavus, and abavus), below him, his progeny or descendants (filius, nepos, pronepos, and abnepos), and, to the sides, collateral relatives to the fourth degree. In this way, legitimate marriages could be distinguished from those within the prohibited degrees of consanguinity. We have compiled (in Appendix A) a catalog of those images from Schadt’s Scepter Type arbores that were available on the internet at the time of the writing of this article (July 2018), as well as three depictions not in Schadt’s catalogue
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