Collectio Anselmo dedicata

This extraordinarily rich and well organized collection with over 2000 canons divided into twelve parts was dedicated to the archbishop Anselm II of Milan (882–896). Using the Ms Paris, BN lat. 15392 (Verdun, early 11th century) Jean-Claude Besse edited the prologue and first part of the collection and analysed the rest. Giuseppe 71 Russo edited the Roman law texts using the copy of the collection in the Ms Modena, BC Eusebiana O. II. 2 (late 10th century). Irene Scaravelli has just published an description of the surviving manuscripts which will hopefully lead to an edition of the collection as a whole.

Paul Fournier divided the copies into Italian and cisalpine groups, which does not mean, however, that all copies of the cisalpine group were copied north of the Alps. The „Italian“ group is represented by two related copies in the Mss Vercelli, BC XV and Modena. The manuscript Vercelli was at Vercelli in the 10th century. Texts were added to it there during the bishopric of Atto of Vercelli (924–960). The „cisalpine“ group consists of the late 9th century Ms Vat. Pal. lat. 580, which contains the first three parts, and the closely related Ms Vat. Pal. lat. 581. The Ms Pal. lat. 580, which according to Bernhard Bischoff may have been copied at Milan, is incomplete at the beginning and breaks off in the capitulation of the fourth part. The Ms Vat. Pal. lat. 581 begins with the last words of chapter 18 of the first book and ends with chapter 18 of part 3. Also part of that group are the early 11th century Ms Bamberg, StB Can. 5 (Italian, present at Bamberg sometime after 1007) and the Ms Paris, BN lat. 15392 (Verdun), which was completed for Bishop Haimo of Verdun in March 21, 1009. The 11th century Ms Metz, BM lat. 100, which also belonged to the cisalpine group, was destroyed in 1944. There is a fragmentary copy of parts 5 through 10 in the Ms Karlsruhe, Badische LB Aug. CXLII (according to Hartmut Hoffmann from Reichenau, first half of the 10th century). There are other fragments: in the BC at Vercelli, in the Archivio di Stato at Pavia, in the Archives du Bas-Rhin in Strasbourg and in the Landeshauptarchiv in Koblenz (according to Hoffmann from Mainz).

The present analysis (DE) is based on the Bamberg manuscript, which may be the archetype for Paris, BN lat. 15392. Where folios are missing in that manuscript (between 14/15, 248/249 and 258/259) the analysis was completed using the Paris manuscript. In both manuscripts the texts of the last six canons in part 8 (all in the section containing excerpts from the Register of Gregory) are missing although rubrics for these canons are found in the capitulation. I supplied the missing texts from the Karlsruhe manuscript. Some of the missing canons are found in the 11th century Freising Collectio XII partium with exactly the same rubrics. In the second half of the collection in the Mss Bamberg and Paris the inscriptions of the canons 72 excerpted from the Register of Gregory and the inscriptions of the texts of Roman law are often incomplete or non-existent. This resulted from the fact that the inscriptions were originally copied on the outer margins of the folios – so in the copy in the Ms Vat. lat. 580, in which the margins are unusually broad. In the data base the inscriptions were completed using the Ms Vercelli.

The Ms Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana A. 46 inf., fol. 144r –150r, contains the earliest series of excerpts from the collection. This manuscript, originally from Reims, contains 28 chapters of Roman law excerpted from the first five parts of the Anselmo dedicata.

The titles of the parts are as follows:

– Prima itaque pars huius quod Deo iuvante aggredior, operis continet de primatu et dignitate romanae sedis aliorumque primatuum, patriarcharum, archiepiscoporum atque metropolitanorum.

– Secunda pars continet de honore competenti ac diverso negotio episcoporum et corepiscoporum.

– Tertia pars continet de synodo celebranda et vocatione ad synodum, de accusatoribus et accusationibus, de testibus et testimoniis, de expoliatis iniuste, de iudicibus et iudiciis ecclesiasticis vel saecularibus.

– Quarta pars continet de congruenti dignitate et diverso negotio presbiterorum et diaconorum seu reliquorum ordinum ecclesiasticorum.

– Quinta pars continet de clericorum institutione ac nutrimento vel qualitate vitae.

– Sexta pars continet de proposito monachorum et professione sanctimonialium ac viduarum.

– Septima pars continet de laicis, imperatoribus scilicet principibus et reliquis saeculi ordinibus.

– Octava pars continet de norma fidei christianae et gratia Christi ac divinorum mandatorum executione.

– Nona pars continet de sacramento baptismatis et baptizandis ac baptizatis.

– Decima pars continet de templorum divinorum institutione et cultu ac prediis, de sacrificiis, oblationibus ac decimis.

– Undecima pars continet de solemnitate paschali et reliquis festivitatibus ac feriis.

– Duodecima pars continet de hereticis, scismaticis, iudeis atque paganis. 73

Each of the parts has two or three sections. The first section contains excerpts from papal decretals, conciliar decrees and patristic texts. The principle sources are the Dionysio-Hadriana, the Collectio Novarensis and the short version of the pseudoisidorian decretals (A2). Peter Landau, who has examined the canonistic material available in Lombardy prior to the Decretum of Gratian describes these sources as among the most authoritative collections in Lombardy in the 9th century. The shorter form of the pseudoisidorian forgery circulated in the 9th and 10th centuries primarily in northern Italy.

The compiler had access to the letter of pope Zosimus to Hesychius of Salona (JK 339) and the short form of the Roman synods of 743 and 826. All twelve parts have a second section containing excerpts from the letters of pope Gregory I taken from the Register and the Collectio Pauli. Parts 1–3, 5–7 and 11–12 have a third section with texts from secular law, principally from the Codex, Institutes and Epitome Iuliani by way of the Lex Romana canonice compta. Those texts which are not in the one surviving copy of the Lex Romana canonice compta (in the Ms Paris, BN lat. 12448) may simply derive from a better copy of that collection. In the first half of the collection the canons are numbered from the beginning of the part to the end. In parts 7–12 the canons of each section are numbered separately. Following the manner used by Besse, I have numbered the second and third sections in books 7–12: DE …. G.001 …. and DE …. R.001. In the 10th and early 11th centuries the collection was copied and presumably used in northern Italy and at Mainz, Verdun and Reichenau. It did not penetrate into southern or central Italy, which had a legal culture of its own based heavily on patristic texts. The collection was used extensively by Burchard of Worms and by the compilers of the Freising Collectio XII partium. Friedrich Maassen recognized that Anselmo dedicata was still being used in the 12th century. Bernard of Pavia referred to a text from the Epitome Iuliani in the fifth part of a collection, and he was obviously referring to the fifth part of Anselmo dedicata. Peter Landau suspects that Bernard used the Modena manuscript. The amount of space devoted to monastic affairs suggests that Anselmo dedicata originated in a monastery, but, judging from the use made of it, it was valued principally as a source for canons dealing with diocesan administration. 74

Literature

For an edition of the prologue and the first book see Jean-Claude Besse, Collectionis „Anselmo dedicata“ liber primus, RDC 9 (1959), pp. 207–296. For the edition of the Roman law texts and a description of the manuscripts, see Giuseppe Russo, Tradizione manoscritta di Leges Romanae nei codici dei secoli IX e X della Biblioteca Capitolare di Modena (Modena 1980). The preface is translated into English by Somerville and Brasington, Prefaces, pp. 94–97.

For the most recent description of the manuscripts see Irene Scaravalli, La collezione canonica Anselmo dedicata: lo status quaestionis nella prospettiva di un’edizione critica, in: Le storie e la memoria. In onore di Arnold Esch, ed. by Roberto Delle Donne and Andrea Zorzi, Florence 2003, pp. 33–52 and Kaiser, Epitome Iuliani, 550–561.

Philip Levine, Historical evidence for calligraphic activity in Vercelli from St. Eusebius to Atto, Speculum 30 (1955), pp. 573–581, has argued that the collection was compiled at Vercelli. In the Annali di Vercelli composed by a certain G. B. Modena (1557–1637) the notice for the year 904 states that „canonici studenti“ of the abbot Giovanni compiled a volume of canons in the form of the Decretum of Gratian. I find it more likely that Modena was constructing a colorful local legend based on the mere presence of an obviously important manuscript at Vercelli. For the sources available in Lombardy see Landau, Kanonessammlungen in der Lombardei, pp. 439–443. Landau examines the arguments for Milan and Bobbio as the place of origin of Anselmo dedicata. For the use of capitularies, see Valesca Koal, Studien zur Nachwirkung der Kapitularien, pp. 27–32. For the use of JK 339 from pope Zosimus to Hesychius of Salona and the decrees of the Roman synod of 826 see Jasper, The Beginning of the Decretal Tradition, pp. 40 and 103 f. For the use by Burchard see Kerner – Kerff –Pokorny – Schon – Tills, Textidentifikation, pp. 23–24 and 33. For the use in the Collectio XII partium see Müller, Untersuchung zur Collectio Duodecim Partium, pp. 316–325. For the use by Bernard of Pavia see Landau, Vorgratianische Kanonessammlungen bei den Dekretisten, in: Proceedings of the 8th ICMCL, pp. 94 and 100–104. – Kéry, Canonical Collections, pp. 124–128.

Categories

• key is DE
• very large (more than 2000 canons) collection
• from Italy
• terminus post quem 882
• terminus ante quem 896
• saec. IX