Thott 2061 4°: Ius civitatis Lubicensis

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Thott 2061 4°: Ius civitatis Lubicensis

Parchment, 19 ff. (A + 1-18 = IV, 1+III, II), c. 20,5 × 15 cm; Germany: Lübeck, 1243

A copy of Ius civitatis Lubicensis (the Latin version of Lübisches Recht) made by Henricus de Bruneswich (Heinrich from Braunschweig) in his capacity as ‘scriptor civitatis lubicensis’ in the year 1243, and sent by the counsellors of Lübeck as a gift to the town Tønder in southern Jutland (DK). It is the oldest known copy of the Latin version of the text dated by the scribe

The text from the end of § 91 to § 104 + the epilogue is missing. According to the Thott-catalogue of 1795 the end of the manuscript was missing already then (“sub finem mutilus”). The missing text as transmitted in Thott 2061 4° is known from a direct descendent, MS Thott 591 8°

The manuscript was foliated at an unknown date after 1951. The first leaf was not given a number; it is marked A in the present facsimile. The recto page of A is blank; the verso page contains notes about convicted citizens of Tønder added in the 15th century

In the Thott-catalogue the codex was described as being in a bad condition (“male habitus”). The present state is fairly good, to some extent due to modern conservatory measures which have taken place at least once after 1951. During the process the inner bifolium of the first quire was placed upside down: the leaf foliated as 4 is actually f. 3 in the manuscript, and vice versa

In the eighteenth century the manuscript belonged to the jurist and historian Andreas Hojer (1690-1739), born near Tønder, where he was also buried. Afterwards it belonged to count Otto Thott (1703-1785), who bequeathed his collection of c. 4000 manuscripts to the Royal Library

Bibl.: Catalogus Bibliothecæ Thottianæ, tom. VII, Hauniæ 1795, p. 496. - Ludwig Andresen, Acta Tunderensia, in: Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft für Schleswig-Holsteinische Geschichte, 38, Leipzig 1908, p. 357-371. - Ellen Jørgensen, Catalogus codicum Latinorum medii ævi Bibliothecæ Regiæ Hafniensis, Hafniæ 1926, p. 398. - Danmarks gamle købstadlovgivning, I. Sønderjylland, ed. Erik Kroman, København 1951, p. 215-232. - Wilhelm Ebel, Lübisches Recht, I, Lübeck 1971, p. 37f. - Bernhard Am Ende, Studien zur Verfassungsgeschichte Lübecks im 12. und 13. Jahrhundert, Lübeck 1975, p. 47 & passim. -Diplomatarium Danicum, I.7, København 1990, no. 109 p. 103f.

Erik Petersen