Stowe MS 84

From Catalogue of the Stowe Manuscripts in the British Museum, 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1896), I, p. 52 (no. 84):

'PROCESSUS Justificationis Johanne D'Arc": an official copy of the proceedings in the inquiry instituted in 1455-56, under a mandate from Pope Calixtus III., before the Archbishop of Reims, the Bishops of Paris and Coûtances, and Jean Brehal, one of the inquisitors for France, in order to rehabilitate Joan of Arc, and annul the sentence under which she was condemned in 1431. Latin.

Three official copies of the proceedings were made, as is stated in the preface by the two clerks, Dionysius Comitis [Denys le Comte] and Franciseus Ferrebouc, to whom the work was entrusted. Two of these are now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, one known as No. 5970, the other as Notre Dame No. 138, having formerly belonged to the library of Notre Dame. The present MS. is the third official copy, and takes rank with the Paris 5970, the Notre Dame copy omitting to repeat several treatises of which use was made in the proceedings. The writers themselves say in the latter MS., "Tractatus de quibus in hoc octavo articulo fit mentio solum sunt inscripti in duobus magnis processibus propter eorum prolixitatem," which is in fact considerable, occupying about a third of the whole work. This, therefore, is one of the "duo magni processus." There are some differences of text and arrangement between it and the Paris 5970, in which the Notre Dame MS. agrees with this; and as the two fuller versions were made first, it follows that the editors, in preparing the third, preferred this text to that of the Paris 5970. (Cf. Quicherat, Procès de Condamnation et de Rehabilitation de Jeanne d'Arc . . . publiés . . . d'aprés les Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale, Paris, 1841-9.) Each page is signed, as is the case with all the three official copies, by one or other of the clerks, Comitis signing the verso and Ferrebouc the recto. On the last page is the final attestation by the two clerks, with their signatures in ornamental designs, and a statement by them of the number of leaves in the volume, which is wrongly given as 163. The Latin poem given at the end of the Paris 5970 is not found here, and is, of course, not a part of the official record.

Vellum; ff. 182, measuring 20 1/2 inches by 12 1/2. The volume thus corresponds almost exactly in size with the Paris 5970, and is slightly larger than the Notre Dame volume. Modern binding of purple morocco. Large Folio.'