{
"data": {
"id": 132038,
"accession_number": "1954.598",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Single Leaf from a Decretum by Gratian: Decorated Initial Q[uidam habens filium obtulit] and Quadruple Arcade with Concordance of Greek and Latin Alphabets , c. 1160\u20131165. France, Burgundy, Archdiocese of Sens, Abbey of Pontigny, 12th century. Ink and tempera on vellum; sheet: 44.8 x 32 cm (17 5/8 x 12 5/8 in.); framed: 63.5 x 48.3 cm (25 x 19 in.); matted: 55.9 x 40.6 cm (22 x 16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1954.598",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Single Leaf from a Decretum by Gratian: Decorated Initial Q[uidam habens filium obtulit] and Quadruple Arcade with Concordance of Greek and Latin Alphabets ",
"creation_date": "c. 1160\u20131165",
"creation_date_earliest": 1160,
"creation_date_latest": 1165,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"France, Burgundy, Archdiocese of Sens, Abbey of Pontigny, 12th century"
],
"technique": "ink and tempera on vellum",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Medieval Art",
"collection": "MED - Manuscript Illuminations",
"type": "Manuscript",
"measurements": "Sheet: 44.8 x 32 cm (17 5/8 x 12 5/8 in.); Framed: 63.5 x 48.3 cm (25 x 19 in.); Matted: 55.9 x 40.6 cm (22 x 16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.448,
"width": 0.32
},
"framed": {
"height": 0.635,
"width": 0.483
},
"matted": {
"height": 0.559,
"width": 0.406
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 300926,
"title": "Treasures of Medieval France",
"description": "Treasures of Medieval France. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 16, 1966-January 29, 1967).",
"opening_date": "1966-11-16T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311443,
"title": "Scriptorium: The Illuminated Book in Medieval Art",
"description": "Scriptorium: The Illuminated Book in Medieval Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (November 5, 1991-February 2, 1992).",
"opening_date": "1991-11-05T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311502,
"title": "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art",
"description": "The Decorated Letter and the Illuminator's Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 25-December 19, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-09-25T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302268,
"title": "Devotion and Learning in the Middle Ages",
"description": "Devotion and Learning in the Middle Ages. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 4, 2017-December 3, 2018).",
"opening_date": "2017-12-04T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Vladimir G. Simkhovitch, New York",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"description": "This leaf was excised from a copy of the handbook of church law known as the Decretum written by Gratian, an Italian Camaldolese monk active in Bologna from about 1130 to 1140. The focus of the leaf is a large decorated letter Q with spiraling lotus petals introducing the first Causa, or case of law. The text begins, \"A man having a son offered him to a very wealthy cloister.\" This case concerns the definition of simony (making profit from sacred things). The style of the illumination and the script date the leaf to between 1160 and 1165. In November 1164, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, took refuge at Pontigny as a result of his conflict with King Henry II of England. During his stay, Becket immersed himself in the study of church law, as evidenced by his later use of citations from the Decretum. This leaf could have been part of the original manuscript Becket consulted. The volume was later dismembered following the suppression of the monastery during the French Revolution in the late 1700s.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q80023715"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1954.598-single-leaf-from-a-d"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 87",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n30"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 47",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n71"
},
{
"citation": "Wixom, William D. Treasures from Medieval France. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. no. III 24, p. 92 - 93",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 47",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n69"
},
{
"citation": "Cahn, Walter. \u201cA Twelfth-Century Decretum Fragment from Pontigny.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 62, no. 2 (February 1975): 47\u201359.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 47-49, figs. 1-2",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25152576"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 52",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n72"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Holger A. Klein. Sacred Gifts and Worldly Treasures: Medieval Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2007.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 170-171, no. 60",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1954.598",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1954.598/1954.598_web.jpg",
"width": "653",
"height": "900",
"filesize": "222283",
"filename": "1954.598_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1954.598/1954.598_print.jpg",
"width": "2466",
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"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1954.598/1954.598_full.tif",
"width": "4026",
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},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 132038,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1954-08-11T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1160,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1160\u20131165",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:04:00.791000"
}
}