Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana

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Title Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana
Key DZ
Alternative title Collectio Hadriana
Alternative title Codex Hadrianneus (Schulte)
Alternative title Collectio Dionyso-Hadriana (Schulte)
Wikidata Item no. Q1226972
Terminus post quem 772
Terminus ante quem 774
Century saec. VIII
European region of origin Central Italy
General region of origin Southern Europe and Mediterranean
Specific region of origin Rome
Main author Linda Fowler-Magerl


A new version of the Dionysiana was commissioned by pope Hadrian I (r. 772-795). This collection, known as the Dionysio-Hadriana was presented by the pope to Charlemagne in 774 as a collection accurately representing the canon law recognized by the Roman church. It became one of the most influential canon law collection of the early Middle Ages.

Contents

The earliest copies begin with a dedicatory acrostic. The prefaces of Dionysius Exiguus are missing. In the earliest manuscripts there is a capitulatio at the beginning of the collection, in later copies each section has its own. The names of the bishops and their provinces, absent in the Dionysiana, are appended to the canons of the councils. The canons of the African councils are divided into two groups with 1–33 and 1–105 canons, a practice copied apparently from the 6th century collection of Cresconius. Inserted among the papal decretals taken from the Dionysiana are a letter of pope Zosimus to the priests and deacons of Ravenna (JK 345) and a letter of pope Leo I to the bishops of Mauritania Caesariensis (JK 410) which are already found in some copies of the Dionysiana. According to Friedrich Maassen (p. 541): „Es ist allerdings nicht unwahrscheinlich, dass die Zusätze, welche wir in der Hadriana finden, anfangs blosse Anhänge in den Handschriften waren, die erst durch eine spätere Redaction in chronologischer Ordnung der Sammlung einverleibt sind.“ Letters of popes Hilarus, Simplicius, Felix I, Symmachus and Hormisdas and the canons of the Roman council of [45] Gregory II (721) are added to the end of the decretals taken from the Dionysiana. In the present analysis the decretals of the Hadriana not already found in the Dionysiana are in the data base with the key DZ. The numbering of the African councils in the Hadriana is found in the location column of the analysis of the Dionysiana.

Reception

For manuscripts, see Category:Manuscript of DZ (number of entries: 14) and the List of Dionysio-Hadriana Manuscripts.

The Hadriana was very often copied, most often for use in northern France, Germany and northern Italy. Mordek, Kirchenrecht pp. 241-248 counted some 100 extant manuscripts (plus fragments and excerpts). It was often used at Carolingian councils, cited for the first time in the Aachen Admonitio of 789. There was little need for the Hadriana in Spain because of the wide acceptance of the Hispana and there was little need in southern France because of the Collectio Vetus Gallica. A number of manuscripts do contain combinations of the Hadriana and the Collectio Hispana Gallica, however; others combine it with the Collectio Vetus Gallica (Mordek pp. 154-155, who singled out Paris, BnF, lat. 3843 and Vat. lat. 631 as representing the first, and best, version of this combination).

Editions

There is no critical edition of the collection.

Literature

On the Dionysio-Hadriana see Maassen, pp. 441–471 and 965–967; Mordek, Kirchenrecht pp. 151-162 https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110831900; Mordek, „Dionysio-Hadriana“ LexMA 3 (1984/86) 1074–75; Landau, Kanonessammlungen in Bayern, pp. 154–160; idem, Kanonistische Aktivitäten in Regensburg, pp. 62–63; Kéry pp. 13-20; Fowler-Magerl, Clavis pp. 44-45.