Paduan doctoral degree diploma, illuminated manuscript on vellum.

£9,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

A handsome, illuminated doctoral degree certificate from the university of Padova, with a highly unusual and skilfully executed advertisement for the illuminator’s services on the final leaf; and an interesting testament to the career of a Scottish jurist in Italy in the early seventeenth century. The recipient of the degree, a doctorate in ‘iuris utriusque’, canon and civil law, is 20-year-old Benedetto Musalo, who is depicted with piercing gaze and sombre, scholarly attire, in a portrait on the recto of the first leaf (the title to the portrait provides his age). The text, opening on the second leaf, describes the process by which Musalo attained his degree, and begins by naming the senior representatives of the church and conferring university, namely Antonio Martinengo, Padovan prelate and apostolic protonotary, and Luca Stella, archbishop (who died five months after Musalo was awarded his degree). Interestingly, a Scottish jurist, Henry Lindsay, is named here - ‘D. Henrici Lindesaii Nobilis Scoti Alme. Universitatis’ - under whose aegis the law degree is awarded, and through whom Martinengo and Stella act. Lindsay ‘in June 1639 was admitted to the law school at Padua and, in August 1640, became a vice rector and syndic of the English and Scottish Nations at the university for one year’ (Brochard, p.45); thus, at the time that the present degree was awarded, Lindsay was reaching the end of his tenure. Lindsay’s arms can still be found adorning the original university buil

• Year: 1641

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