Expert: Maria - 6/13/2011

Question
This Bible has many abb. in it and I was wondering if you can help with this sort of translation ? for example the last book "Quote dubie" has 16 chapters , all have abb. in them . the first ch."Salomon quedam modum exorcifandi inue
nit.xxj.difin.S.j." now i know there are no j's in lati however the j loks like an extended i with the dot. and the f's do not have the middle line,these  i believe are s's . does any of this make sense to you . gary

Answer
Hello,

First of all  the correct quotation from “Concordia Discordantium Canonum “(the harmonizing of discordant canons),also known as the 'Decretum Gratiani' (Gratian’s Decretum), a collection of nearly 3,800 texts touching on all areas of church discipline and regulation compiled (about 1140) by the Italian monk Gratian who taught Church Law at the University of Bologna around the middle of the 12th century, is the following:

“ Salomon quemdam modum exorcizandi inuenit”  (Salomon found out the way of exorcizing).

As for “xxj.difin.S.j.", which is correctly  ”xxi.distin.C.j.”,  it stands for :“XXI distinctio. Corpus Juris” meaning “21st. Reasoning/Argumentation. Body of Law”.

Note that this is medieval Latin where the “j” had begun to be used in place of the “i” of the classical Latin.

Finally, as you know, although the Decretum was not an official collection, it was for centuries  accepted as the fundamental text of Church law. It was glossed and commented on by the most illustrious canonists and  became the first part of the Corpus Iuris Canonici, the great body of canon law.

Best regards,
Maria
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See http://digital.library.ucla.edu/canonlaw/librarian?ITEMPAGE=CJC1&PAGENUM=127