Special Collections Focus:
Liber Decretorum Sive Panormia Ivonis (1499)
MAGNA CARTA’S RETURN VISIT TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Jeanine Cali, Office of Legislative and External Relations, Law Library of Congress
Scott B. Pagel, Director of the Law Library
I
Courtesy of Lincoln Cathedral
vo, Bishop of Chartres, had to be diplomatic in his interactions. He held a highly visible position in the Catholic Church at a time when kings, powerful lords, and equally powerful church leaders jockeyed for leadership in the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries. Yet he also had to be true to his belief in the importance of the reforms promoted by Gregory VII and, consequently, often found his life in peril. Indeed, his opposition to the decision of Philip I of France to divorce his wife, Bertha of Holland, to marry Bertrada of Montfort, led to his imprisonment for several months.
O First leaf of the Panormia, probably the most popular and influential of Ivo’s works. Continued on Page 5
The Lincoln Cathedral Magna Carta, 1215
n a day in June nearly 800 years ago, King John of England made an agreement with a group of barons on green land at Runnymede, near Windsor. King John met the barons’ demands for reform, granting his subjects the right to hold their sovereign accountable to the rule of law. The resulting document, Magna Carta, became the foundation of the constitutional order of the British Commonwealth countries and the United States of America. Continued on Page 2
VOLUME 10, NUMBER 2, AUTUMN 2013 THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW SCHOOL