Michael Dunne

A Pseudo-Grosseteste Treatise on Luxuria at Pavia

This article contains an edition of a text on luxuria which has been attributed to Robert Grosseteste and which is contained in a single manuscript belonging to the University Library of Pavia. Despite the fact that there is historical evidence from the 15th Century Chancellor of Oxford, Thomas Gascoigne, that Grosseteste composed a text Contra luxuriam, the authors conclude that the Pavia text is not to be identified with that work, or with well-authenticated views on a similar topic expressed by Grosseteste. In itself, however, the Pavia text is it itself an interesting treatise on the general theme of luxuria with a particular emphasis on the peccatum sodomiticum, drawing as it does upon a number of traditional sources both Scriptural and Patristic, as well as upon Roman Law.