Collectio LXXIV titulorum

Origin

The authorship of 74T, and both time and place of origin, of 74T have been subject to considerable debate in the 20th century. Partly, these discussions were linked to the question of the tendency of 74T, which Fournier famously had labelled it the 'first canon law manual of the reform'. Even after John Gilchrist had completed his critical edition of 74T, fundamental questions were still unsolved. In the following decades, views on 74T as a reform collection changed, if only because views on church reform and the reform papacy changed. For the older contributions to the dabate (Fournier, Michel, Fransen, Gilchrist), see the literature listed by Kéry and Fowler-Magerl.

Time of origin

Internal evidence for the date is scare.

Fowler-Magerl, quoting Jasper, argued that the collection must have been compiled before 1073/74 because in this year Bernold of Konstanz quoted from it.

Scholars have sometimes argued that the sole copy of the Collection of Saint-Denis was written in 1068; if so, this would provide a terminus ante quem for 74T as the Collection of Saint-Denis draws on a mature version of 74T. However, while it is clear the manuscript was written not before 1065, and may well have been written soon after, there is not

Place of origin

74T does not contain any material that would link it to a specific place of origin.

According to the title Bernold of Konstanz gave the Swabian version, the collection had been sent 'in Gallias' by way of papal legates, and there have been several attempts to identify either the legates in question or the region they were sent to. However, as there were many papal legates sent to many aread which may be referred to as Gallia, no consensus was reached.

The idea of 74T as a reform manual was the main reason the collection was thought to have been compiled by Humbert of Silva Candida (esp. Michel). John Gilchrist was not convinced of Humert's authorship but reaffirmed the traditional view that the collection was Italian, even if he also highlighted some arguments for an origin north of the Alps. Linda Fowler-Magerl argued that 74T used rare formal sources known in the regions north of the Loire but with no known Italian transmission. In the past 25 years, scholarship has largely followed her argument, but there is still some uncertainty where exactely it was compiled. The region most frequently mentioned is Lotharingia (Fowler-Magerl, Kéry, Strupp), which is also home of some of the earliest copies of 74T. In addition, the earliest collections known to have drawn on 74T (the Collection of Saint-Denis, the collection in Paris, BnF, lat. 13658, and the Collection in Four Books) are all from modern France, suggesting that 74T was available in these regions

Background

Older scholarship has mainly stressed that 74T addressed papal primacy in its opening title and contained a relatively large number of canons against simony. As the False Decretals were also thought to have been valued by the Gregorians, and 74T was linked to Gregory VII and his legated, scholarship well into the 1970s mainly followed Fournier's idea of 74T as a reform collection. Other scholars pointed out that 74T contains considerable materials on monastic liberty, but this was normally seen as another aspect of the reform character of 74T. Following Fowler-Magerl, modern scholarship has reversed this: the emphasis on monastic property and its protection from episcopal interference is seen as the prime concern of 74T, with papal privileges

Formal sources

The vast majority of canons is taken from Pseudo-Isidore. In addition, 74T contain excerpts from the letters of Gregors the Great (specifically the collection known as C+P), from Hincmar of Reims, and Abb of Fleury.

As Fowler-Magerl was the first to point out, the formal source provide the most secure basis to establish where 74T was compiled. Specifically, given that C+P was apparently unknown south of the Alps, an Italian origin of 74T seems very unlikely. Not only were the known manuscripts of C+P written in northern France and neighbouring regions, the same also holds for the reception (Hincmar of Reims, Sinemuriensis, etc.)

Categories (for 74T proper, i.e. MO)

• key is MO

• from Northwestern Europe - Cologne (Linda), Reims (Rolker), Lotharingia (Kéry)?
• belongs to: 74T and derivatives
• small (315 cc) collection
• terminus post quem 1050
• terminus ante quem 1073 according to Linda
• saec. XI