Hincmar of Laon, Pittaciolus

Title	Hincmar of Laon, Pittaciolus
Key	HA
Size	Very small (less than 100 canons)
Terminus post quem	858
Terminus ante quem	869
Century	saec. IX
Place of origin	Laon
European region of origin	Northern France
General region of origin	Northwestern Europe
Main author	Linda Fowler-Magerl

The Pittaciolus is a brief canon law collection which Hincmar of Laon presented to Hincmar of Reims at the Hoftag of Charles the Bald in November of 869 at Gondreville. It begins with a dedicatory poem to Charles the Bald. The title Pittaciolus found in the dedicatory poem is also used to describe the collection by Hincmar of Reims in his Opusculum LV capitulorum. The intent of the author was to use canon law to demonstrate that a suffragan bishop can have direct access to the pope, that bishops cannot not be accused easily, that in trials involving them numerous formalities must be observed, that bishops are not to be exspoliated before being tried and that metropolitan arbitrariness is not to be tolerated. The canons are almost all taken from the pseudoisidorian forgeries. The occasion was perhaps the trial of bishop Rothad of Soissons. The collection survives in [65] three 9th century manuscripts. Hincmar of Reims countered the Pittaciolus with his Opusculum LV capitulorum. He attacked the rewording of the citations and presented his own concept of accusation procedure. The present analysis of the Pittaciolus (HA) is taken from the edition of Rudolf Schieffer.

The five collections of canonistic material in the Ms Berlin, SBPK, Phillipps 1764 are closely related to the Pittaciolus.

Categories

• key is HA
• very small (less than 100 canons) collection
• Clavis entries based on modern edition
• from Laon in Norhtern France
• saec. IX