Kanonistyczne rękopisy z „Catalogus Manuscriptorum” Oksfordzkiego Kolegium Nowego z 1729 r. (New College Library Lc/10)

During the times of the Reformation in England the teaching of canon law was officially prohibited. The needs of ecclesiastical justice, however, forced the lecturers of the Roman law – the only law taught at Oxford and Cambridge universities at the time – to insert canonical matters into their lectures. It is hard to evaluate how large that amalgamation was. Nonetheless, it is certain that the canon law survived the Reformation and flourished in changed circumstances. Besides the lectures, the knowledge of the canon law could be acquired by everyone who was linked with the universities thanks to the library resources that survived the Reformation. One of the most amazing collection of Catholic canon law manuscripts was stored in the library of New College, Oxford. The article presents the content of a catalogue of these manuscripts drawn up in 1729. Its expanded version was published in 1852. The comparative analysis of both catalogues allows us to determine the origins of these manuscripts. Moreover, it sheds light on the condition of canon law studies in the early eighteenth-century England.