Cutting with initial Q from Gratian's Decretum, France (Pontigny), ca. 1160- 1165.

Decorated initial Q, at the beginning of Pars secunda, Causa II.
Part of leaf, with a 9-line decorated initial Q (vine-stem with acanthus leaf, blue and ochre in green ground); red, blue and yellow 1-line initials in text
Text: Quidam episcopus de lapsu carnis... Rubric : Amnari non valet nisi convictus aut sponte confessus.
Lead point ruling and evidence of pricking visible.

The cuttings make clear that they were taken from a large book with spacious margin. Complete surviving leaves (Cleveland) measure 450 x 320 mm. The margins of the V&A fragments are wide (upper margin 40 mm; outer margin 70 mm; lower margin 45 mm) and were used to enter a gloss and notes in the late 12th century; the columns are of at least 49 lines and divided by a space of 13 mm. Ruling in lead point (ruling below top line - 8985 C, E, F, which also show pricking for ruling on outer edge and top edge of leaf), with lines 6.5 mm apart. There is a wide double line for the running title at the of the page.
43 lines of 1 column visible; (2) columns.

Almost certainly from the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, and probably from the Volumine uno, Decreta Gratiani no. 153 in the late twelfth century catalogue of Pontigny, no. 100 in the early seventeenth-century catalogue, no. 235 in the catalogue of 1778, no. 7 in the catalogue of 1791, and finally no. 73 in the list prepared after the sequestration of Pontigny at the French Revolution, described there as ‘in-folio atlantico, elegans et completus’ dismembered probably in Auxerre in the early nineteenth century.
Part of cuttings purchased in batches from William Henry James Weale in 1883, 95 on 9 April 1883, 258 on 17 April 1883, 20 on 20 February, for the total sum of £96.7.2 (now Museum nos 8972-9042).
Other cuttings from the same manuscript in the V&A collection: Museum nos 8985A-F.
Cuttings from the same manuscript in other collections: Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS. 4874 E no. 2; Auxerre, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 269; Bloomington, Lilly Library at Indiana University, Ricketts 205; Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1954.531, 1954.598; Philadelphia, Free Library of Philadelphia, Lewis EM 16:8 and 16:9.

This fragment is part of a page from Gratian's 'Decretum', a summary of Canon Law, with marginal notes and a gloss - a commentary on the main text written down one side of the page in a smaller script - in a 12th century hand. Professionally-made books used decorative initials, such as the initial Q on this fragment, to signal the major divisions of a text. There was usually a hierarchy of initials within any book to designate sections, chapters, paragraphs and other breaks. The initials were added either by the scribe or, increasingly in the later Middle Ages, by a specialist, in spaces left blank by the scribe. The important initials might be historiated (ie embellished with a figurative picture, 'istoire' being the term for story) or decorated, while the lesser initials were made of coloured letters on coloured or gold grounds, often with flourishing in ink of a contrasting colour.

8985A