Liber decretorum Dionysii

Title	Liber decretalium Dionysii
Key	DX
Alternative title	Sammlung der Decretalen (Maassen)
Alternative title	Dekretalensammlung des Dionysius (Wurm)
Alternative title	The Decretal Collection (Firey)
Alternative title	Collectio Decretorum (d'Avray)
Size	Very small (less than 100 canons)
Terminus post quem	496
Terminus ante quem	523
Century	saec. VI
Place of origin	Rome
European region of origin	Central Italy
General region of origin	Southern Europe and Mediterranean
Main author	User:Christof Rolker

Dionysius compiled a collection of decretals, using previous collections (not papal registers). Importantly, he distinguished between different kinds of papal letters and selected only "legal" (as opposed to "dogmatic") letters, a distinction that had a profound impact on Western canon law (d'Avray). The Liber decretalium began with a dedicatory letter to a certain priest Julian followed by a capitulatio in the form of a numbered list of all rubrics of the decretals (Wurm p. 62).

Contents

The Liber decretalium does not have an independent manuscript tradition; it has to be reconstructed from later collections. According to Wurm's analysis, it originally contained 38 decretals and one imperial rescript (see Wurms pp. 62-81):

1. Siricius, JK 255
2. Innocent I, JK 311
3. Innocent I, JK 286
4. Innocent I, JK 293
5. Innocent I, JK 314
6. Innocent I, JK 315
7. Innocent I, JK 316
8. Innocent I, JK 304
9. Innocent I, JK 317
10. Innocent I, JK 313
11. Innocent I, JK 297
12. Innocent I, JK 302
13. Innocent I, JK 301
14. Innocent I, JK 309
15. Innocent I, JK 306
16. Innocent I, JK 308
17. Innocent I, JK 305
18. Innocent I, JK 310
19. Innocent I, JK 307
20. Innocent I, JK 318
21. Innocent I, JK 299
22. Innocent I, JK 303
23. Zosimus, JK 339
24. Zosimus, JK 345
25. Boniface, JK 353
26. Honorius see Maassen 320 / Wurm p. 71
27. Boniface, JK 349
28. Boniface, JK 362
29. Celestine, JK 381, followed by a short florilegium
30. Celestine, JK 369
31. Celestine, JK 371
32. Leo I, JK 402
33. Leo I, JK 405
34. Leo I, JK 414
35. Leo I, JK 416
36. Leo I, JK 544
37. Leo I, JK 411
38. Leo I, JK 536
39. Leo I, JK 410
40. Gelasius I, JK 363
41. Anastasius, JK 744

The latter three are additions not found in the "reine Dionysiana" according to Wurm p. 75:

The Collectio Dionysiana adaucta contains further additions from the letters of Leo I (Wurms p. 77)

The manuscripts

There are 2 manuscripts containing the Liber decretalium described in this Wiki. See Category:Manuscript of DX and the individual entries.

Scholars disagree about the number of extant manuscripts of the decretal collection, partly because they disagree about its relation to the collection of conciliar canons. In any case, there are different lists of manuscripts:

• Maassen p. 431-432 lists Paris, BnF, lat. 3837 and Città del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. lat. 5845 as the only two complete manuscripts (decretal collection including praefatio).
• Wurm, Studien pp. 31-32 lists Paris, BnF, lat. 3837 (his Da), Città del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. lat. 5845 (his Db) as copies of the pure form ("Die (reine) Dionysiana (D)"). Under the same heading he also lists two manuscripts:
  • "cod. Sessorianus LXIII" (his Ds) which he describes as a "vermehrte Dionysiana, ähnlich der Hadriana". See Roma, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Sessor. LXIII.
  • "cod. bibl. capit. Mutinensis, Ord. I nr. 12." (his Dm) which he describes as "die aus der D ausgeschriebene coll. Mutinensis" (p. 32). See Modena, Biblioteca Capitolare, O.I.12.
• Green, Innocent p. 17 follows Maassen (only two complete mss).
• Kéry p. 21 follows Maassen for Paris, BnF, lat. 3837 and Città del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. lat. 5845 plus two more containing "small collections of excerpts", namely Paris, BnF, lat. 3847 and Paris, BnF, lat. 10399.
• Firey, Collection lists Paris, BnF, lat. 3837, Città del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. lat. 5845, but also Paris, BnF, lat. 3845 as containing the second version of the conciliar collection and the decretals.
• Zechiel-Eckes, Erste Dekretale, pp. 50-51 assumes that the decretal collection was an integral part of the second version of the Dionysiana. Like Wurm, he lists Paris, BnF, lat. 3837 (his Da), Città del Vaticano, BAV, Vat. lat. 5845 (his Db), and Modena, Biblioteca Capitolare, O.I.12 (his Dm) as "Codices der Dion. 2" (p. 50) containing JK 255.
• Heith-Stade does not list manuscripts but suggests that the decretal collection was only known from the Dionysio-Hadriana: "The Liber decretalium is known today from versions found in or retrieved from the Collectio Dionysiana-Hadriana" (p. 330).
• d'Avray, Papal Jurisprudence p. 26, referring to the different lists in Kéry and Zechiel-Eckes, speaks of "two or three manuscripts" of Dionysius' decretal collection.
• Hoskin, Letters pp. 151-152 largely follows Kéry (only two mss of the collection plus excerpts; the latter, however, are not relevant to Hoskin as they do not contain Leo's letters) and cites Firey. He comments (p. 151 n. 174) on Paris, BnF, lat. 3845 which Kéry p. 10 describes as containing decretals as the source of Firey's assertion that it was a copy of the Liber decretalium Dionysii

Editions and Literature

For Justel's problematic edition, and scholarly literature, see Collectio Dionysiana II. In addition, see

Categories

• key is DX
• belongs to: Dionysiana group
• very small collection (i.e. 38 letters - not canons!)
• from Rome
• saec. VI
• entries based on Migne