Palermo, Archivio Storico Diocesano, ms. 5

Library	Palermo, Archivio Storico Diocesano
Shelfmark	ms. 5
Olim shelfmark	Palermo, Archivio di Cattedrale, 14
Century	s. XI2-XII
European region of origin	unknown, possibly France and specifically Chartres
Collection	Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii)
Collection 2	Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana
Collection 3	Abbreviatio Ansegisi et Benedicti Levitae
Collection 4	Collectio Dacheriana
Main author	Bruno Schalekamp
Main author	Gideon de Jong

Palermo, Archivio Storico Diocesano, ms. 5 (olim Palermo, Archivio di Cattedrale, 14) is a late eleventh to twelfth-century miscellaneous manuscript of diverse legal materials.

Shelfmark

The literature normally refers to the manuscript as no. 14. The 2021 catalogue cites it as no. 5. Note that Fournier/Le Bras, Histoire pp. Histoire 2.150-151 cite no shelfmark at all while Rambaud-Buhot, Corpus inédit p. 273 wrongly refers to it as "2 Qq E 17".

Codicology and Palaeography

Palermo, Archivio Storico Diocesano, ms. 5 is a late eleventh to twelfth-century manuscript of 163 folios in 1 col. and 37 lines. It is made of parchment with paper flyleaves. It measures 200 x 170 mm (190 x 125 mm). Its codicological composition reads as follows: 20 extant quires, 21 including a now lost quire (fols. 80-87); quire structure is 3 x IV²⁴ + (III + 1)³¹ + 6 x IV⁷⁹ (+ IV⁸⁷, now removed) + 9 x IV¹⁵⁹ + II¹⁶³. No quire signatures were included, with modern foliation in Arabic numerals in distinct black ink are found on the recto side of each folio.

It was written by one main hand signed Rainerus in the colophon on fol. 163r (Rainerus Christi servus me canones scripsit). Includes some minor corrections in two other hands, all in ‘Caroline minuscules already on the way of transitioning to gothic’ according to Besta, who has stated the ms. contains only ‘very rare glosses’. However, many notae and some minor commentary can be found in the margins of the manuscript from beginning to end. These seem to appear especially next to the Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana and indicate a later student of the manuscript excerpted a formidable amount of canons. In the marginalia of the Abbreviatio Ansegisi et Benedicti Levitae collectionis later additions can be found that repeat ‘about the same [topic]’ (de eodem) as a way to inform the reader.

Date and Place of Origin

The manuscript can be dated to the second half of the eleventh century according to Fournier and Le Bras or the twelfth century according to Frauenknecht, Mordek, and Rambaut-Buhot. The manuscript's origins are from France according to Frauenknecht and Schmitz, possibly from Chartres according to Besta and Rambaut-Buhot, or its second half may have been from Italy according to Fournier and Le Bras. Its provenance is still unknown; as Schmitz states: ‘wie er nach Sizilien gelangte, ist unbekannt’.

Contents

Palermo, Archivio Storico Diocesano di, ms. 5 is a medium to large-sized codex and contains almost exclusively canonical material with some small works relevant to the theme of the genre and the general interest of its medieval readers. The manuscript opens with the Notitia provinciarum et Galliarum but is dominated by canonical collections. These include the Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana, Collectio Dacheriana, Abbreviatio Ansegisi et Benedicti Levitae collectionis, Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii), some abbreviated excerpts of the Collectio CCCXLII capitulorum, and possibly the start of the collection in 114 titles. It also includes Pseudoisidore's preface and some excerpts of the False Decretals, various papal decretals and epistles, various ordines, a fragment of Fulbert of Chartres' Penitential and some unknown later additions, possibly decretals by popes and/or canonists.

The manuscript's contents is dominated by canonical and closely related material. It is clear the intentions of its compilation were to present a large corpus of legal legislation to its patron. Strikingly, the legal corpus contains some (fragments of) penitential works as well as works that underscore episcopal authority and regional rule. These seem to point to the area around Chartres, or at least northern Francia, as the origin location of the codex. Due to the inclusion of the Notitia, Fulbert of Chartres' works, and various collections that probably originated from Francia or (modern) Western Germany, we might assume its audience resided in that same area. More research on its contents would shed much-needed light on this topic.

folios	content
	Front cover
	Paper flyleaf with current and previous shelfmarks.
1r-2r	Notitia provinciarum et Galliarum, with a clear incipit-explicit: incipiunt nomina XI regionum […] expliciunt noma terraum ciuitatum.
2r-3v	Preface to Pseudoisidore.
3v-5v	Ordo de celebrando Concilio, incipit reads: Incipit ordo qualiter a fidelibus concilium universale (= Ordo 2 in Schneider).
5v-6v	Letter of Pope Clement to St. James (which is actually Pseudo-Clemens II’s Clemens romae ecclesiae praesul).
6v-31v	Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana. According to Mordek: ‘Konzilsteil bis einschliefflich Chalkedon und Synode Gregors II (a.721)'.
31v-32v	Letter to Nestorius, titled De hereticis.
32v-69r	Collectio Dacheriana, with the incipit: Liber de utilitate penitentie et quomodo credendum sit. According to Fournier-Le Bras, ‘l’auteur [du Dacheriana] omet les chapitres communs avec l’Hispana et déjà transcrits’.
69v-71r	Letter of pope Gregory the Great (a. 721).
71r-112v	Abbreviatio Ansegisi et Benedicti Levitae collectionis, which includes the following books:
71r-74v	Book I.
74v-75r	Book II.
75rv	Book III.
75v-79v	Book IV, cut off due to removal of eleventh quire.
88r-89v	Book V, begins near the end due to missing quire.
89v-99r	Book VI.
99r-103r	Book VII, which fluently continues into:
103r-106r	Interrogationes et responsiones Augustini episcopi et doctoris Gregorii.
106r-113r	Continuation of the Abbreviatio, unknown which particular books.
112v-113r	Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii), chapters I-VIIII (or ch. 1-2, 13, 3-6, and 11-12 of the Collectio Hibernensis). Possibly preceded by a few other canons of the Hibernensis.
113r-117	26 canons of the council of Meaux-Paris (845 x 846).
117r-128v	Start of the Collectio CCCXLII capitulorum and abbreviation of that collection.
128v-131v(?)	Start of what has been called ‘Collection grégorienne’ by Fournier-Le Bras. Or ‘le debut de la collection en 114 chapitres’ according to Rambaut-Buhot. It is unknown to what extent the following contents are part of such a ‘collection’ or should be considered separate excerpts in their own right.
129rv	Canons of the council of Vannes (a. 465).
129v-130	Decretum beati Gregorii pape de libertate monachorum (Ep. VIII 17).
130v-131v	Decretal by Gregory VII, or ‘Ein Brief aus dem Jahr 1077’ according to Schmitz (JL 5042). These include canons of a Roman synod from 1073 according to Fournier-Le Bras or 1078 according to Schmitz.
131v-147r	Various excerpts of papal decretals, dominated by Pseudoisidore, False Decretals, alongside the canons of the council of Tribur (895), and fragments of patristic texts, possibly all part of a large ‘collection’. Fournier-Le Bras, Histoire pp. Histoire 2.150-151) called it a "Gregorian collection". Rolker, Genesis p. 92 asserted that 61 canons were taken from a version of the Collectio canonum in Paris, BnF, lat. 13368.
147r-148r	Two ordines.
148rv	Fragment of the penitential attributed to Fulbert of Chartres.
148v-150v	Ordo romanus qualiter concilium agatur generale (= Ordo 7 in Schneider).
150v-154v	Ordo qualiter agatur concilium provincile (= Ordo 14 in Schneider).
154v-157v	Six ordines: Qualiter episcopus exommuinicare infideles; Item alia excommunicationis allocutio; Item alia excomunicatio; Item alia terribilior excommmunicatio; Excommunicatio brevis.
157v-159v	Letter of Fulbert of Chartres.
159v-162r	Letter of Udalricus to pope Nicholas, attributed to Fulbert of Chartres. Fol. 162r includes the signature by the scribe of the manuscript: ‘Rainerius Christi seruus me canones scripsit;’
162v-163r	Unknown later additions, possibly texts by or attributed to pope Leo (the Great?) and Deusdedit. Respective incipits read as follows: ‘Leo papa uniuersis episcopis per siciliam constitutis.’ and ‘D[e]usdedit sancteque apostolice romane ecclesie episcopus.’
163v	Blank page.
	Paper flyleaf
	Back cover

Literature

Behrends, Letters and Poems of Fulbert of Chartres (1976) p. lx; Besta, 'Di una collezione canonistica palermitana' (1909), pp. 8-21; Besta, 'Scritti di storia giuridica meridionale' (1962), p. 395-409; Fournier/Le Bras, Histoire pp. Histoire 2.150-151; Frauenknecht, Die Verteidigung der Priesterehe in der Reformzeit, pp. 184 and 187; Kéry, Canonical Collections (1999) pp. 16, 76, 81, 89, 107, 122, 181, and 277; Millesoli, Magionami, and Messina, Catalogo dei Manoscritti dell'Archivio Diocesano di Palermo (2021), pp. 50-53; Mordek, Kirchenrecht und Reform (1975), pp. 181 and 246, n. 394; Rambaud-Buhot, Corpus inédit (1968), pp. 273, 276, and 279; Rolker, Genesis pp. 92 and 96-103; Rolker, Letters esp. p. 58; Schneider, MGH Ordines p. [1].

An edition of the Collectio XXX capitulorum (De ratione matrimonii) is currently being prepared by Sven Meeder, Gideon de Jong, and Bruno Schalekamp.