Collectio Sanblasiana

Title	Collectio Sanblasiana
Key	?
Alternative title	Collectio Italica
Wikidata Item no.	Q125747559
Century	saec. VI
Place of origin	Rome?
European region of origin	Central Italy
General region of origin	Southern Europe and Mediterranean
Main author	Christof Rolker

Title

The collection is variously known as Sammlung der Handschrift von Sanct Blasien (Maassen), Collectio canonum Sancti Blasii (BnF), or most frequently Sanblasiana (Stürner, Kéry, Elliot, Mirabile web).

Wirbelauer in 1993 argued that the collection should re-named Collectio Italica but this seems not to have been followed by more recent scholarship. Elliot in 2013 argued in favour of the older, "admittedly arbitrary", title.

Manuscripts

For manuscripts, see Category:Manuscript of Collectio Sanblasiana (number of entries: 6). The following manuscripts (including fragments) are known:

• olim Cheltenham, Phillipps Collection, 17849 [a large fragment, now privately owned; see below]
• Köln, Dombibliothek, Cod. 213
• Lucca, Biblioteca Capitolare Feliniana, 490
• Paris, BnF, lat. 3836
• Paris, BnF, lat. 4279
• St. Paul im Lavanttal, Stiftsbibliothek, 7/1 (= Maassen's "Cod. Sanblasianus 6 [sic]", apparently)

olim Cheltenham / Bodmer / Ludwig / Malibu / Los Angeles / N.N.

The ex Cheltenham manuscript has been sold several times since 1945 and thus is referred to in various ways in the literature. See Cheltenham, Phillipps Collection, 17849 for details.

St. Paul im Lavanttal, Stiftsbibliothek 7/1

Maassen, Geschichte, 504 dates "Cod. Sanblasianus 6 [sic] der Klosterbibliothek zu Sanct Paul in Kärnthen" to the sixth (!) century. His description of the manuscript matches today's St. Paul im Lavanttal, Stiftsbibliothek, 7/1, generally dated to the eighth century. It should not be confused with St. Paul im Lavanttal, Stiftsbibliothek, 6/1.

München, BSB, Clm 5508

Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste, p. 122, also counts München, BSB, Clm 5508 as a copy of the Sanblasiana (his Italica), but only with important qualifications: both Paris, BnF, lat. 1455 and Clm 5508 "sollten in den betreffenden Teilen ... als (erweiterte) Italica-Überlieferungen [bezeichnet werden]" (p. 122 n. 48). Kéry, Collections p. 30 only mentions Clm 5508 as a copy of the Collectio Frisingensis I (p. 2) and the Collectio Diessensis (p. 4).

Paris, BnF, lat. 1455

Hoskin p. 143 also counts Paris, BnF, lat. 1455 as a Sanblasiana copy; most other scholars identify this combination of Sanblasiana and Quesnelliana materials as a separate collection, the Collectio Colbertina.

Manuscript Groups

Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste, p. 122 distinguishes five manuscripts (Cologne, BnF lat. 3836, Malibu = Phillipps 17849, Sankt Paul, Lucca) as untouched by Carolingian influence from the other three manuscripts (Clm 5508, BnF lat. 1455 and 4279) which are influenced by Carolingian reworking but still preserve much ancient material ("haben viel Vorkarolingisches bewahrt").

Date

The collection is commonly dated to the sixth century. Maassen described it as one of his four Italian collections of the sixth century (the other three being the Collectio Vaticana in Vat. lat. 1342, Collectio Teatina, and Collectio Justelliana.

It draws on the Collectio prisca and the Dionysiana; the most recent material are the Symmachean materials of 498-514. This suggests a compilation not before the early sixth century.

According to Maassen, the Sankt Paul manuscript (his "Cod. Sanblasianus 6") dates from the sixth century (Geschichte, p. 504), but more recent scholarship (Kéry, Elliot) dates all manuscripts including the Sankt Paul manuscript to the eighth century or later.

Wirbelauer supported an early date on basis of the content; the collection, he argued, was compiled by a supporter of Symmachus ("Werk eines gemäßigten Symmachus-Anhängers", p. 127)

Elliott follows Wirbelauer for an orgin still in the sixth century but stresses that no clear terminus ante quem can be established. He points to the Collectio Colbertina and the Collectio Diessensis I sa drawing on the Sanblasiana, but stresses that both are difficult to date with any precision: "the Diessensis prima seems to have originated in the seventh century, while the Colbertina may be as early as the middle of the sixth or as late as the eighth century" (p. 234).

Content and Structure

Wirbelauer (p. 123) divides the material into five sections (A-E):

1. Conciliar canons (Nicaea to Chalcedon, not in chronological order)
2. Symmachian Documenta (his "SD I")
3. Papal letters (Siricius to Leo, not in chronological order), see Maassen, Geschichte p. 510 who asserts: "Auch die Decretalen desselben Papstes folgen auf einander. Aber die Reihenfolge der Päpste ist ganz willkürlich. Bonifacius steht vor Zosimus; Bonifacius, Cölestinus stehen vor Innocentius." (pace Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste p. 123)
4. Theological explanations of the faith/creeds
5. Appendices: Serdica to Julius and two letters of Gelasius I (JK 636 and 675)

Reception

The number of extant manuscripts suggests that the Sanblasiana had some influence in the early Middle Ages, both in Italy and in North-Western Europe. Lapidge suggested that the Sanblasiana was behind the Leiden glosses in Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Voss. lat. qu. 69 that are thought to have emerged in Canterbury in Theodore‘s time. While Brett in 1995 argued for Dionysiana II as the more likely source of the canon law lemmata of the glosses, Elliot more recently revived the argument that the Sanblasiana was at Canterbury where it became one of several sources used for the Leiden glosses:

In conclusion, there is a good amount of evidence to suggest that there were several Italian collections―among them almost certainly a copy of an enlarged Coll.Dion.II, and very probably a copy of Coll.Sanb.―in Canterbury during Theodore's day.

Literature

Note that the Sanblasiana is not mentioned in the 2005 Clavis handbook (nor is it in the 2005 database).

Elliot, Canon Law, Chapter 5.3 (pp. 228ff.); for an updated version including transcriptions see http://individual.utoronto.ca/michaelelliot/manuscripts/texts/sanblasiana.html

Kéry, Collections p. 29-31.

Maassen, Geschichte p. 500-512.

Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste, 122-125.