Leena Löfstedt

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.
 

A Letter of Thomas Becket

In a recent article (Löfstedt 2016), the author argued that Thomas Becket’s three French letters from his exile preserved by Garnier de Pont-Sainte-Maxence as a part of his versified Vie de Saint Thomas (ed. E. Walberg 1922) were not translated from the Latin letters (ed. Anne Duggan 2000). Further, she raised the suspicion that the Latin letters – considered to be authentic, but preserved only in copies – had been altered. Focusing on the beginning and the end of the letter Expectans expectaui addressed to Henry II, this present article compares its Latin text to the French text. The French letter is written by an intelligent and sincere friend of the King, while the Latin letter has been « retouched » to let the letter-writer appear as verbose and unintelligent, and, then, as a  sanctimonious, vicious enemy of the King. Apparently,the person responsible for this manipulation tried to destroy all affection the King might still have had for Thomas Becket, because he did not want Thomas Becket to be invited to return from his exile.