Collectio Diessensis

Title	Collectio Diessensis
Key	?
Alternative title	Sammlung der Handschrift von Diessen
Wikidata Item no.	Q127692083
Century	saec. VIII
European region of origin	Southern Germany
Specific region of origin	Bavaria/Salzburg?
Author	Till Stüber
Author	Christof Rolker
No. of manuscripts	one

The Collectio Diessensis is extant only in München, BSB, Clm 5508 (fragments of which are now München, BSB, Clm 29550/4). In its present, albeit fragmentary form, the Collectio Diessensis consists of 66 documents in total, primarily including synodal acts (Greek, African, Roman and Gallican), papal letters (from Siricius to Hormisda) and a couple of Symmachan documents, which originated with the Laurentian schism in Rome at the beginning of the sixth century. The Diessensis, as we have it today, is only preserved fragmentarily. In total, eight quires are lost, among them the first two of the manuscript. Given that the documents are numbered continually, we can see how many of them are lost (e.g. as the manuscript begins with number VI, the Canones Apostolorum, there are five documents missing in the beginning).

In the only extant manuscript, the Collectio Diessensis (fols. 1r-130v) is followed by a partial copy of the Collectio Frisingensis I (fols. 131r-213r). As noted by Landau p. 152, the extracts from the Frisingensis only draw on texts not contained in the Collectio Diessensis, apparently aiming to “supplement” that collection.

Contents

No.	Numbering	Document	fols.
Text loss: nos. I–V
1	[VI]	Canones Apostolorum (Dion. I) – end	1ra–vb
2	VII	Antioch 341 (Isid.)	1vb–5rb
3	VIII	Laodicaea 363/4 (Isid.)	5rb–7rb
4		Constantinople 381 (Isid.)	7rb–vb
5	VIIII	Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua	7vb–11ra
6	X–XI	Serdica 342	11ra–15vb
7	XII	Arles 314	15vb–17rb
8	XIII	Carthage, 25 May 419	17rb–23ra
9	XIIII–XVI	Registri ecclesiae Carthaginensis excerpta – beginning	23ra–39vb
Text loss: nos. XVII–XXI
10	[XXII]	Chalcedon 451 (Dion. I) – end	40ra–va
11	XXIII	Siricius: „Directa ad decessorem“ (J3 605)	40va–44rb
12	XXIIII	Epao 517	44va–46rb
13	XXV	Innocent I: „Etsi tibi frater“ (J3 665) – beginning	46va–47vb
Text loss: nos. XXVI–XXVII
14	[XXVIII]	Innocent I: „Magna me gratulatio“ (J3 691) – end	48ra
15	XXVIIII	Zosimus: „Exigit dilectio tua“ (J3 745)	48ra–49ra
16	XXX	Boniface I: „Ecclesiae meae“ (J3 787)	49ra–va
17	XXXI	Rescript of Emperor Honorius „Scripta beatitudinis“	49va–50ra
18		Celestine I: „Cuperemus quidem“ (J3 821)	50ra–51vb
19	XXXII	Celestine I: „Nulli sacerdotum“ (J3 823)	51vb–52rb
20	XXXIII	Gesta de nomine Acacii	52rb–55ra
21	XXXIIII	Leo I: „Quam laudabiliter pro“ (J3 919)	55ra–60rb
22	XXXV	Leo I: „Diuinis praeceptis“ (J3 922)	60rb–63ra
23	XXXVI	Leo I: „Regressus ad nos“ (J3 1086)	63ra–64ra
24	XXXVII	Leo I: „Relatione sancti fratris“ (J3 897)	64ra–65rb
25	XXXVIII	Leo I: „Lectis fraternitatis“ (J3 898)	65rb–vb
26	XXXVIIII	Leo I: „Cum de ordinationibus“ (J3 916)	65vb–68ra
27	XL	Gelasius I: „Necessaria rerum“ (J3 1270)	68ra–73ra
28	XLI	Gelasius I: „Probabilibus desideriis“ (J3 1338)	73rb–va
29	XLII	Gelasius I: „Diligenter inuestigauimus“ (J3 1322) – beginning	73va–vb
Text loss
30	[XLIII]	Rome 499 – end	74ra–75vb
31		Libellus Johannis diaconi	75vb–76ra
32		Rome 502	76ra–79rb
33		Zosimus: „Ex relatione fratris“ (J3 750)	79rb–va
34	XLIIII–XLVIII	Rome 501	79va–85va
35	XLVIIII	Symmachus: „Hortatur nos“ (J3 1460)	85va–86rb
36	L	Hormisda: „Benedicta Trinitas“ (J3 1530)	86rb–87vb
37	LI	Edict of Emperor Glycerius „Supernae maiestatis“	87vb–88vb
38	LII	Order of publication by the PPO Italiae „Quemadmodum“	88vb–88ara
39	LIII	Leo I: „Epistolas fraternitatis“ (J3 1098)	88ara–91ra
40	LIIII–LV	Valence 374	91ra–92rb
41	LVI	Turin 398 – beginning	92rb–vb
Text loss: no. LVII
42	[LVIII]	Orange 441 – end	93ra
43	LVIIII	Vaison 442	93ra–94rb
44	LX	Vaison 529 – beginning	94rb–vb
Text loss: nos. LXI–LXVIIII
45	[LXX]	Ps.-Hieronymus: De septem gradibus Ecclesiae – end	94ara–96vb
46b	LXXI	Agde 506 (cc. 9b–49)	96vb–100vb
47	LXXII	Vannes 461/91	100vb–102rb
48	LXXIII	Letter of the Amoritan bishops „Dominis beatissimis“	102rb–vb
49	LXXIIII	Éauze 551	102vb–103vb
50	LXXV	Paris 614	103vb–106ra
51	LXXVI	Clichy 627	106rb–107avb
46a	LXXVII	Agde 506 (cc. 1–9a)	107avb–108vb
52	LXXVIII	Letter of Lupus and Euphronius „Domino sancto“	108vb–109rb
53	LXXVIIII	Ps.-Vigilius of Thapsus: De Trinitate, book VI	109rb–112ra
54	LXXX	Constitutum Silvestri	112ra–114vb
55	LXXXI	Gesta Liberii	114vb–117ra
56	LXXXII	Gesta de Syxti purgatione	117ra–118rb
57	LXXXIII	Gesta de Polychronii Ierosolymitani	118rb–120rb
58	LXXXIIII	Gesta synodi Sinuessanae de Marcellino	120rb–123va
59	LXXXV	Ps.-Clement: „Quoniam sicut a“ (J3 †27)	123va–124vb
60	LXXXVI	Dicta s. Ambrosii de die prima	124vb–125vb
61	LXXXVII	Synodal letter from Serdica	125vb–126vb
62	LXXXVIII	Definitio fidei from Chalcedon	127ra–128va
63	LXXXVIIII	Symbolum Nicaenum (including the Tomus Damasi)	128va–129vb
64	XC	Expositio fidei	129vb–130ra
65	XCI	Sermo. Credimus Iesum Christum	130ra–rb
66	XCII	De fide catholica. Nos patrem	130rb–va
67		Colophon	130va–vb

Sources

The Collectio Diessensis closes with a colophon (fol. 130v) by the scribe, stating that the collection was composed by drawing on “three books” (ex tribus libris):

EXPLICIVNT CANONES EX TRIBVS LIBRIS EDITAE, QVOD INCHOAVI KL̅ AP̅R ET CONSVMMAVI IDVS SEPT̅B, IDEST DIEBVS CLXVI EBDOMATIB(VS) XXIIII. LEGE LETANTER, INTELLEGE PRVDENT(ER), COMPLE EFFICACIT(ER). LEGENTI VITA, POSSIDENTI PAX P(ER)PETVA, SCRIPTORI PRAEMIA AETERNA. AMEN.

Given striking similarities to other collections, Maassen suggested that these three books had to be copies of the Dionysiana, the Collectio Teatina and the Sanblasiana. While one of the “three books“ might indeed have been a copy of the Sanblasiana, recent studies by Stüber, following up on findings by Wurm, have shown that the materials from the Dionysiana (canons from Chalcedon, Carthage and Canones Apostolorum) and the Teatina (mainly papal letters) reached the Diessensis via an intermediary source, namely an early version of the Collectio Remensis (having taken shape about 550 in South Eastern France; an eighth-century version of the Collectio Remensis is extant in Berlin, Phill. 1743). The primitive version of the Collectio Remensis did not only draw on the Dionysiana I/II and the Teatina, but it also contained forth-century Greek councils following the so-called Interpretatio Isidoriana (antiqua), alongside a number of Gallican church councils. As the Diessensis also includes a number of documents that are neither present in the Remensis nor the Sanblasiana (among them are the synods of Agde, Vannes, Éauze, Paris 614 and Clichy), these documents are probably taken from another source. Given that these texts include a letter by three bishops from the ecclesiastical province of Tours, alongside a letter to the bishop of Angers (likewise in the province of Tours), there is some likelihood that this exemplar took shape in that area. The three exemplars used by the compiler of the Diessensis were then probably the following:

1. A copy of the Collectio Sanblasiana
2. A copy of an early version of the Collectio Remensis
3. A “chronologically” ordered collection from Gaul (perhaps from the area of Tours), no longer extant

Date and place of composition

The most recent material are canons from Clichy 626 (Maassen, p. 631). Most scholars date the formation of the Collectio Diessensis shortly after its youngest component, the collection would then have been assembled in the first half of the seventh century (Gaudemet, p. 148 and Landau, p. 152). However, as some documents seem to have been collated with a Dionysio-Hadriana, the collection is probably much younger than the documents contained therein. Given that the scribe of the colophon claims to have assembled the collection and written the manuscript all by himself, there is good reason to suppose that the codex unicus München, BSB, Clm 5508 is in fact the archetype of the Collectio Diessensis. This is supported by the observation of Bernhard Bischoff, who showed that the part of Munich 5508 containing the Collectio Diessensis was indeed written by a single scribe. If this hypothesis is correct, the Collectio Diessensis took shape in Salzburg at the end of the eighth century, during the pontificate of Arn, who, being likewise abbot of Saint-Amand in Northern France, had access to a fairly large number of canon law books.

Links

• Mirabile https://www.mirabileweb.it/title/collectio-diessensis-title/172990

Literature

Maassen, Geschichte pp. 624-636; Kéry, Collections pp. 3-4; Hoskin, Manuscripts p. 106.

Jean Gaudemet, Les sources du droit de l’Église en occident du II^e au VII^e siècle (Initiations au christianisme ancien, 1985), p. 148.

Peter Landau, Kanonessammlungen in Bayern in der Zeit Tassilos III. und Karls des Großen, in: Regensburg, Bayern und Europa. Festschrift für Kurt Reindel zum 70. Geburtstag, ed. Lothar Kolmer and Peter Segl (1995), pp. 137-160.

Till Stüber, Die sogenannte Collectio canonum Remensis. Die Entstehung eines kirchlichen Rechtsbuchs und seine Rezeption (in preparation).

Eckhard Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste in Rom. Der Konflikt zwischen Laurentius und Symmachus (498-514). Studien und Texte (Quellen und Forschungen zur antiken Welt 16, 1993), pp. 186-187.

Hubert Wurm, Studien und Texte zur Dekretalensammlung des Dionysius Exiguus (Kanonistische Studien und Texte 16, 1939), pp. 99-101 and 165.

Klaus Zechiel-Eckes, Die erste Dekretale. Der Brief Papst Siricius’ an Bischof Himerius von Tarragona vom Jahr 385 (JK 255) (MGH Studien und Texte 55, 2013) pp. 48-49.