The MS. Ludwig XIV:2 (the “Getty Gratian”) and the Old French Decretum translation

The MS Ludwig XIV:2 (Getty Center, Los Angeles), from ca. 1170-1180, is a luxury manuscript containing Gratian’s Decretum. The appearance of Ludwig XIV:2 have caused art historians to compare it with a group of manuscripts prepared in Sens for members of Thomas Becket’s exile court. The present paper focuses on the three texts preserved in Ludwig XIV:2: the main text, the marginal notes, and the interlinear annotations. It detects several details proper not only to confirm the art historians’ suggestion of the manuscript’s origin, but also to link the three texts to Thomas Becket. – Also, all three texts have ties to the Old French translation of Decretum.