Deusdedit, Collectio canonum

General

While functioning as cardinal priest at the title church of SS. Apostoli in Eudoxia (now San Pietro in Vincoli) Deusdedit compiled a collection in four books and dedicated it to the clergy of the church of Rome and, in particular, to pope Victor III. This means that the collection was completed by 1087. Deusdedit was born in Aquitaine. He may have become interested in canon law while monk at the Benedictine monastery of Tulle near Limoges, for there was interest in canon law at Limoges in the late 11th century. The copy of the first version of the Tarraconensis in the Ms Paris, BnF, lat. 5517 comes from Limoges, as does the excerpt of the collection of Saint-Hilaire in the Ms Paris, BnF, lat. 3454. Deusdedit accompanied Otto of Ostia, later Urban II, to Thuringia and Saxony in 1084/5 and was present at Constance for the ordination of Bernold of Constance. He would return to Aquitaine in his later years.

Manuscripts

Deusdedit left a copy of his collection at SS. Apostoli when he returned to Aquitaine. It served as the prototype for the copy in the Ms Vat. lat. 3833, the only copy which has survived complete. This copy was transcribed at SS. Apostoli during the pontificate of Pascal II (1099–1118). Fragments of complete copies are found in the Mss Vatican, Archivio di San Pietro C.118 and Paris, BnF, lat. 1458. The numbering of the canons is the same as in the Ms Vat. lat. 3833. There are excerpts in the Mss Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense 2010, Vat. lat. 1984, Vat. lat. 8486, Vat. Ottobon. lat. 3057 and Cambrai, BM 554. Reference to Montecassino, Archivio e Biblioteca dell’Abbazia 2110 as a manuscript containing excerpts from all four books are erroneous (see Blumenthal, Reflections, 137 n. 11).

Edition and Division of the Chapters

The collection has been edited twice, once by Pio Martinucci in 1869, and once by Victor Wolf von Glanvell in 1905. Whereas Martinucci reproduced the numbering of the canons in the manscripts faithfully, Wolf von Glanvell did not, although he did note the authentic numbering in parentheses. This was an unfortunate decision. The authentic numbering is essential for an understanding the rubrics in the capitulatio. The more recent edition is the basis for the present analysis (DU), but it was necessary to rectify the numbering of the canons. Since, however, almost all recent descriptions of the collection refer exclusively to the unauthentic numbering of the edition (Ernst Perels, in his work on pope Nicholas I, is a major exception), I have reproduced the numbering in the edition of Wolf von Glanvell in the location column with the key DV. 161 When quoting from the edition, one should always quote both canon numbers, e.g. "Deusdedit 1.109 (90) (ed. Wolf von Glanvell 83)" for the first book's chapter 90 which Wolf von Glanvell printed as no. 109 on page 83 of his edition; in the Clavis databse, this canon has the key DU01.090; the alternative key "DV1.109" is found in the location column.

Description

Deusdedit begins with a preface in which he gives titles to the four books: Privilegium auctoritatis eiusdem Romane ecclesie, De Romano clero, De rebus ecclesie, and De libertate ecclesie et rerum eius et cleri. The divisions are curiously reminiscent of those in the Collectio Farfensis (see above p. 122). Within these four books there is little systematic organization. Deusdedit took blocks of texts from other collections and left them in their original state. This is particularly true of the 4th book, which contains several short series of canons which also circulated independently. Deusdedit apparently copied texts wherever and whenever he found them and never reorganized the material. Deusdedit intended to create order with a new kind of capitulatio.

Four capitulationes preceed the collection. They correspond roughly to the four books. Following each rubric is a number indicating the canon to which it refers. Needless to say, these numbers correspond to the numbering of the canons in the manuscripts, not to the numbering in the more recent edition. When a rubric in one capitulatio refers to a canon in another book, Deusdedit gives both book and canon number. The canons have no rubrics in textu. As for the rubrics in the capitulatio, many refer to more than one canon, many canons correspond to more than one rubric, and some canons correspond to no rubric whatsoever. When more than one rubric refers to a single canon the rubrics are separated in the present analysis by plus signs (+). Deusdedit warned copyists in his prologue to pay careful attention to the numbering of the rubrics. The system worked only if the capitulatio and the text were copied in full. The system found no imitators, and none of the later compilers who used his collection were to search in the capitulatio for the rubric or rubrics of the canons they cited.

Many of the rubrics are not complete in themselves but refer to the rubrics that precede them in the capitulatio. When this is the case the information needed to understand them has been provided within parentheses in the data bank. As can be seen from the book titles, the collection is Roman. Uta-Renate Blumenthal speaks of „stadtrömische Tendenzen“ and points to the importance assigned the role of both Paul and Peter at Rome. At the end of the third capitulatio is a rubric with no reference to a specific canon and perhaps it was intended to stand alone: Quod vincula beati Petri tituli Euxodie sint etiam beati Pauli. The canon 2. 23a (Wolf von Glanvell 2. 32a), a frequently cited text, has the rubric: 162 Quod diaconi sunt oculi pontificis. In all other collections the deacons are considered the eyes of the bishop. Deusdedit used material which would have been available only in the papal archives. He used decrees of councils held by the popes Zachary (745), Eugene II (826), Leo IV (853) and John VIII (877). It is unclear how much came directly from the archives and how much from a source also used by Anselm of Lucca. Deusdedit used the Ordines Romani and the Liber Diurnus. He used the breviary of Atto and the florilegium Pro causa iniuste excommunicationis. He used the Codex of Justinian, the Institutes and the Epitome Iuliani. He used both the long and the short versions of Pseudo-Isidore, including the Capitula Angilramni. In all arguments involving the influence of the collection one fact should be kept in mind. Only one complete copy has survived and there is no reason to believe that that copy represents perfectly the copy that left Deusdedit’s hands. In fact a number of collections which without a doubt used the collection of Deusdedit have longer excerpts from the material sources. The Collectio VII librorum of the Ms Turin, BNU D. IV. 33, for example, transmits an excerpt from the register of Gregory I (as canon 6. 72) in a form more complete than canon 4.49.15 of the collection of Deusdedit (= DV 4. 86 in the edition). The Milanese Ambrosiana I also used a copy of the collection not dependent on that at SS. Apostoli. The collection in the Ms Turin, BNU E. V. 44 used all four books of the collection of Deusdedit, but the compiler rewrote many of the texts and so no conclusions can be drawn from the fact. In the third collection in the Ms Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana F. 54, on fol. 170r–226r of the present manuscript (once separate), are texts from the collection of Deusdedit alternating with texts from the Liber decretorum of Burchard and the Tripartita. The most recent texts are letters of pope Urban II and canons of the council of Clermont (1095). The compiler used Deusdedit here as a source for canons on tithes and ecclesiastical property. Deusdedit may also have been used for the collection in the Ms Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana B. 89. The compiler of the collection in the Ms Vat. lat. 3829 used Deusdedit as did Placidus of Nonantola in his Liber de honore Ecclesiae. The collection was also used for the Gesta pauperis scholaris Albini and the Liber censuum. The collection was used for papal decretals by the compiler of the Britannica, which is based primarily on Roman material. The reliance on Deusdedit is particularly apparent in the 11th book. Ivo of Chartres used Deusdedit indirectly by way of the Britannica. The 163 collection of Deusdedit (or a no longer surviving derivative) was also used for the appendix to the Sinemuriensis in the Ms Orléans BM 306 and for the additions to the second version of the Tarraconensis. It was used by the compiler of the Collectio Caesaraugustana who may well have know the collection at Valence.

Literature

For the more recent edition see Victor Wolf von Glanvell, Die Kanonessammlung des Kardinals Deusdedit, Paderborn 1905, repr. Aalen 1967. It is available | online.
The prologue has been translated into English by Somerville – Brasington, Prefaces, pp. 122–129. – The fragments mentioned above contain the following canons: Paris, BnF, lat. 1458 contains from canon 1. 218 to the middle of 2. 16 (edition 1. 283 – middle of 2. 16), the canons 3. 119–149 (edition 3. 140–207) and the canons 4. 134–156 (edition 4. 268–320). The Ms Vatican, Archivio di San Pietro C.118 contains the canons 1. 211–217 (edition 1. 262–281). – For the methods of Deusdedit see Blumenthal, Fälschungen bei Kanonisten, pp. 241–262. Also Landau, Gefälschtes Recht, p. 36. – For the use of the Lateran archives see Wilhelm Kurze, Notizen zu den Päpsten Johannes VII., Gregor III. und Benedikt III. in der Kanonessammlung des Kardinals Deusdedit, QFIAB 70 (1990), pp. 23–45. – For the use of an intermediate collection by Deusdedit and Anselm and the compiler of the collection in Vat. lat. 3829, for the use of a letter of pope Siricius (JK 260) and of a letter of pope Leo I (JK 473), see Jasper, The Beginning of the Decretal Tradition, pp. 40 n. 168 and 57 n. 237 respectively; these texts appear only here and in the collection in the Ms Vat. lat. 3829. For the letters of pope Honorius I which are also found in the Britannica, see p. 90; for letters of Gregory II (JE 2173) and Gregory III (JE 2253), see p. 99 n. 46; for letters of pope Nicholas I, see pp. 121–123; for letters of popes Iohannes VIII and Stephan V, see pp. 128–132. – On the Ms Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana F.54 see Blumenthal, An Episcopal Handbook, pp. 13–24. See now Robert Somerville, Cardinal Deusdedit’s Collectio canonum at Benevento, in: Ritual, Text and Law: Studies in Medieval Canon Law and Liturgy presented to Roger E. Reynolds, ed. by Kathleen G. Cushing and Richard F. Gyug, Ashgate 2004, pp. 281–292. – Kéry, Canonical Collections, pp. 228–233.

Links

• Find in database: DU
• Manuscripts: Category:Manuscript of DU

Categories

• key is DU
• large (1000 to 2000 canons) collection
• from Rome
• saec. XI
• based on modern edition