Collectio Dionysio-Hadriana

A new version of the Dionysiana was commissioned by pope Hadrian I. It was intended for Charlemagne and was meant to represent accurately the canon law recognized by the Roman church. This so-called Dionysio-Hadriana was presented by the pope to Charlemagne in 774. The earliest copies begin with a dedicatory acrostic. The prefaces of Dionysius Exiguus are missing. In the earliest manuscripts there is a capitulation at the beginning of the collection, in later copies each section has its own. The names of the bishops and their provinces, absent in the Dionysiana, are appended to the canons of the councils. The canons of the African councils are divided into two groups with 1–33 and 1 –105 canons, a practice copied apparently from the 6th century collection of Cresconius. Inserted among the papal decretals taken from the Dionysiana are a letter of pope Zosimus to the priests and deacons of Ravenna (JK 345) and a letter of pope Leo I to the bishops of Mauritania Caesariensis (JK 410) which are already found in some copies of the Dionysiana. According to Friedrich Maassen (p. 541): „Es ist allerdings nicht unwahrscheinlich, dass die Zusätze, welche wir in der Hadriana finden, anfangs blosse Anhänge in den Handschriften waren, die erst durch eine spätere Redaction in chronologischer Ordnung der Sammlung einverleibt sind.“ Letters of popes Hilarus, Simplicius, Felix I, Symmachus and Hormisdas and the canons of the Roman council of 45 Gregory II (721) are added to the end of the decretals taken from the Dionysiana. In the present analysis the decretals of the Hadriana not already found in the Dionysiana are in the data base with the key DZ. The numbering of the African councils in the Hadriana is found in the location column of the analysis of the Dionysiana.

The Hadriana was very often copied, most often for use in northern France, Germany and northern Italy. It was often used at Carolingian councils, cited for the first time in the Aachener Admonitio of 789. There was little need for the Hadriana in Spain because of the wide acceptance of the Hispana and there was little need in southern France because of the Vetus Gallica. A number of manuscripts do contain combinations of the Hadriana and the Hispana Gallica, however.

Edition

• The editio princeps is Johannes Cochlaeus, Canones apostolorum [...], Mainz 1525 (= VD16 C 4272). Online at https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10196505?page=4,5
• PL 67 https://archive.org/details/patrologiaecurs108unkngoog (low quality) https://books.google.de/books?id=LcEYeL-4ZuEC (slightly better)
  • PL 67, 315 (decretals) https://books.google.de/books?id=LcEYeL-4ZuEC&pg=PA315#v=onepage&q&f=false

Literature

The conciliar texts added to the Dionysio-Hadriana are edited in Migne PL 67.135–137 and the decretal texts in Migne PL 67. 315–346. – On the Dionysio-Hadriana see Maassen, Geschichte der Quellen, pp. 441–471 and 965–967. Also Mordek, „Dionysio-Hadriana“ Lex.MA 3 (1984/86) 1074–75. Also Landau, Kanonessammlungen in Bayern, pp. 154–160. idem, Kanonistische Aktivitäten in Regensburg, pp. 62–63. For the additional texts in the Dionysiana adaucta see René Massigli, Sur l’origine de la collection canonique dite Hadriana augmentée, Mélanges d’archéologie et d’histoire 32 (1912), pp. 363–383. 46

Categories

• key is DZ
• belongs to: Dionysiana group
• small (100 to 500 canons) collection
• from Rome
• terminus post quem 750
• terminus ante quem 774
• saec. VIII
• Clavis entries based on early printed books
• sort key "Dionysiana-Hadriana"