Epitome Hispana

Title	Epitome Hispana
Key	PT
Alternative title	Spanische Epitome (Maassen)
Alternative title	Epitome Hispanica (Stickler, Ferme)
Alternative title	el Epitome Hispánico (Martínez Díez)
Wikidata Item no.	Q127692155
Size	Large (1000 to 2000 canons)
Terminus post quem	598
Terminus ante quem	618
Century	saec. VII
European region of origin	Iberian Peninsula
General region of origin	Southern Europe and Mediterranean
Main author	Linda Fowler-Magerl

The Epitome Hispana is a chronologically ordered collection compiled a decade or two after 598 (the most recent text being a canon from the council of Huesca held in that year). The title in the Ms Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, LXI (59): Capitula omnium conciliorum que a beatis patribus statuta sunt sive epistolarum decretalium que a pontificibus sive apostolicis viris decreta sunt breviter collecta atque conscripta. The collection is divided into titles the first of which contains the Capitula Martini. The next title takes canons from what is called a Liber Complutensis. This was presumably an early 6th century Gallic collection containing the canons of Greek, African and Gallic councils. The compiler of the Liber Complutensis took the canons of the Greek councils from a Gallic, [35] chronologically arranged collection. The most recent canon is from the second council of Arles. Peter Landau recognized that the Bolognese decretist Rufinus used what he called a Brevarium Computense in his Summa to the Concordia discordantium canonum of Gratian. The next title, De epistola Innocentii papae ex concilio Niceno, contains the canons of Nicaea in the version of Rufinus of Aquileia who, after years in Jerusalem, had returned to Italy in 397 and translated Greek material he had brought with him. Then follow titles with canons from Greek, Gallic and Spanish councils and titles containing decretal letters. The letters are from popes Clement, Siricius, Innocent I, Zosimus, Boneface I, Celestine I, Leo I, Gelasius I, Felix III and Vigilius. The collection ends with a letter of saint Jerome to Patroclus. The present analysis of the Epitome (PT) uses the edition of Gonzalo Martínez Díez. The numbering is also taken from there.

The collection survives in several manuscripts, the earliest of which are Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, LXI (59), which was copied in the 7th/8th century, and Lucca, Biblioteca Capitolare Feliniana, 490, copied circa 800. The copy in the Ms Verona was used in the 11th century for the Collectio Veronensis in Verona, BC, LXIV (62). The Epitome was used at an early date in Gaul, in northern and central Italy and in southern Germany (according to Peter Landau in Augsburg, Freising, Regensburg and Niederalteich). A southern French manuscript containing the Epitome, now København, Kongelike Bibliotek, Ny Kgl. Saml. 58 8°, was brought to Regensburg in the 8th/9th century, and a copy of it was made there, now München, BSB, Clm 14468, fol. 3r–11v (circa 821). The copy in the Ms Merseburg, Bibliothek des Domstifts, 104 (10th c.) and the copy in the Cittá del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. lat. 5751 were made in the 10th century, perhaps at Bobbio.

The manuscripts

For manuscripts, see Category:Manuscript of PT (number of entries: 13).

• København, Kongelike Bibliotek, Ny Kgl. Saml. 58 8°
• Lucca, Biblioteca Capitolare Feliniana, 490
• Merseburg, Bibliothek des Domstifts, 104
• München, BSB, Clm 14468
• Paris, BnF, Collection Baluze 270
• Città del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. lat. 5751
• Verona, Biblioteca Capitolare, LXI (59)

Excerpts

• Heiligenkreuz, Stiftsbibliothek, 217
• London, British Library, Add. 16413
• München, BSB, Clm 3853
• München, BSB, Clm 6241
• Sankt Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 676
• Stuttgart, WLB, HB.VI.107
• Città del Vaticano, BAV, Ottobon. lat. 3295
• Wien, ÖNB, Cod. 2232

Literature

The Epitome Hispana was edited by Gonzalo Martínez Díez, El Epítome Hispánico. Una colección canónica española del siglo VII, Miscelanea Comillas 37.2 (1962), pp. 322–466. He describes the collection in volume 36.1 (1961), pp. 9– 90. – For the circulation of the Epitome Hispana see Landau, Kanonessammlungen [36] in Bayern, pp. 143–148. Idem, Kanonessammlungen in der Lombarde, pp. 433–434. For the Collectio Veronensis see Idem, The Collectio Veronensis, ZRG Kan. 67 (1981), pp. 75–120. For the Liber Complutense, Gratian, Rufinus and Collectio Francofortana see Idem, Vorgratianische Kanonessammlungen bei den Dekretisten und in frühen Dekretalensammlungen, in: Proceedings of the 6th ICMCL, pp. 93–116. – Kéry, Collections p. 57–60.