Collectio Sanblasiana

Title	Collectio Sanblasiana
Key	?
Alternative title	Collectio Italica
Wikidata Item no.	Q125747559
Century	saec. VI
Place of origin	Rome?
European region of origin	Central Italy
General region of origin	Southern Europe and Mediterranean
Main author	Christof Rolker

Title

The collection is variously known as Sammlung der Handschrift von Sanct Blasien (Maassen), Collectio canonum Sancti Blasii (BnF), or (most frequently) Sanblasiana (Sürner, Kéry, Elliot, Mirabile web).

Wirbelauer in 1993 argued that the collection should re-named Collectio Italica but this seems not to have been followed by more recent scholarship. Elliot in 2013 argued in favour of the older, "admittedly arbitrary", title.

Manuscripts

The following manuscripts (including fragments) are known:

• olim Cheltenham, Phillipps Collection, 17849 [a large fragment, now privately owned; see below]
• Köln, Erzbischöfliche Diözesan- und Dombibliothek, 213
• Lucca, Biblioteca Capitolare Feliniana, 490
• Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 1455
• Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 3836
• Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 4279
• Sankt Paul im Lavanttal, Stiftsbibliothek, 7/1 (= Maassen's "Cod. Sanblasianus 6 [sic]", apparently)

Cod. 6 vs. 7/1

Maassen, Geschichte, 504 dates "Cod. Sanblasianus 6 [sic]" to the sixth (!) century. Note that more recent literature always refers to Sankt Paul im Lavanttal, Stiftsbibliothek, 7/1, a manuscript of the eighth century. No reference is made to Sankt Paul im Lavanttal, Stiftsbibliothek, 6/1.

Clm 5508

Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste, p. 122, also counts Clm 5508 as a copy of the Italica, but only with important qualifications: both BnF lat. 1455 and Clm 5508 "sollten in den betreffenden Teilen ... als (erweiterte) Italica-Überlieferungen [bezeichnet werden]" (p. 122 n. 48). Kéry, Collections p. 30 only mentions Clm 5508 as a copy of the Collectio Frisingensis I (p. 2) and the Collectio Diessensis (p. 4).

olim Cheltenham / Bodmer / Ludwig / Malibu / Los Angeles / N.N.

Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste, p. 122 also mentions a manuscript at Malibu, s.n. (olim "ehemalige Sammlung Ludwig XIV. 1"), while Kéry, Collections p. 30 refers to a "large fragment" of the Sanblasiana in a private collection: "Cheltenham, Phillipps Collection, 17849, saec. VIIIex Italy; cf. CLA 2², no. 143, pp. 8, 49, 57. After World War II it was acquired by Dr. M. Bodmer (Cologny near Geneva)." In fact, this is one and the same manuscript. According to Elliot, Canon Law p. 115 this copy (his "D3") after the war was owned first by Peter and Irene Ludwig, then by the J. Paul Getty Museum (shelfmark 83.MQ.162), and in 2008 sold to an unknown collector: "As of 2008 the manuscript was up for sale through Dr. Jörn Günther Rare Books (item no. 1 in their catalogue from that year). D3 has since been sold and is now housed in a private European collection, the location of which is currently unknown"

Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste, p. 122 distinguishes five manuscripts (Cologne, BnF lat. 3836, Malibu, Sankt Paul, Lucca) as untouched by Carolingian influence from the other three manuscripts (Clm 5508, BnF lat. 1455 and 4279) which are influenced by Carolingian reworking but still preserve much ancient material ("haben viel Vorkarolingisches bewahrt").

Date

The collection is commonly dated to the sixth century.

It draws on the Collectio prisca and the Dionysiana; the most recent material are the Symmachean materials of 498-514. This suggests a compilation not before the early sixth century.

According to Maassen, the Sankt Paul manuscript (his "Cod. Sanblasianus 6") dates from the sixth century (Geschichte, p. 504), but more recent scholarship (Kéry, Elliot) dates all manuscripts including the Sankt Paul manuscript to the eighth century or later.

Wirbelauer supported an early date on basis of the content; the collection, he argued, was compiled by a supporter of Symmachus ("Werk eines gemäßigten Symmachus-Anhängers", p. 127)

Elliott follows Wirbelauer for an orgin still in the sixth century but stresses that no clear terminus ante quem can be established. He points to the Collectio Colbertina and the Collectio Diessensis I sa drawing on the Sanblasiana, but stresses that both are difficult to date with any precision: "the Diessensis prima seems to have originated in the seventh century, while the Colbertina may be as early as the middle of the sixth or as late as the eighth century" (p. 234).

Content and Structure

Wirbelauer (p. 123) divides the material into five sections (A-E):

1. Conciliar canons (Nicaea to Chalcedon, not in chronological order)
2. Symmachian Documenta (his "SD I")
3. Papal letters (Siricius to Leo, not in chronological order), see Maassen, Geschichte p. 510 who asserts: "Auch die Decretalen desselben Papstes folgen auf einander. Aber die Reihenfolge der Päpste ist ganz willkürlich. Bonifacius steht vor Zosimus; Bonifacius, Cölestinus stehen vor Innocentius." (pace Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste p. 123)
4. Theological explanations of the faith/creeds
5. Appendices: Serdica to Julius and two letters of Gelasius I (JK 636 and 675)

Literature

Note that the Italica is not mentioned in the 2005 Clavis handbook (nor is it in the 2005 database).

Elliot, Canon Law, Chapter 5.3 (pp. 228ff.); for an updated version including transcriptions see http://individual.utoronto.ca/michaelelliot/manuscripts/texts/sanblasiana.html

Kéry, Collections p. 29-31.

Maassen, Geschichte p. 500-512.

Wirbelauer, Zwei Päpste, 122-125.

Categories

• saec. VI
• Collection
• Italian
• this article is a stub
• not in Clavis