Collectio canonum in Vat. lat. 4977

Two manuscripts were bound together to make the present Ms Vat. lat. 4977. The first of these, on fol. 6v–23v of the present manuscript, contains canons 1–27 and 29–129 of the Diversorum patrum sententie (74T). The last of these canons is incomplete. The rest of the original manuscript is missing. According to John Gilchrist the „Liège“ version was used. In the present analysis this first part has as its key XA.

The beginning of the second manuscript is missing. In the present analysis it has as its key XB. On fol. 24 is the end of an excerpt from an unidentified papal letter. This is followed by extracts from other papal letters and conciliar canons taken from the Dionysio-Hadriana. This manuscript also contains excerpts from the Liber decretorum of Burchard and the Beneventan Collectio V librorum. The most recent text in the collection deals with sacrifice and is what Robert Somerville calls an „enigmatic fragment“: Sive per bonos sacerdotes … custodit et benedicit (canon 189). It is attributed to Gregorii pape et Urbani secundi pape. The same inscription appears in the Beneventan Collectio Casinensis which also has extracts from Burchard and the Collectio V librorum. Folios are missing in the manuscript between the present folios 49 and 50 and between folios 58 and 59.

The manuscript has been used as an example of how canons of the 74T were transmitted together with Burchard and the Collectio V librorum. It has been pointed out that folio 24 is the last folio of what is now the third quire. Closer observation reveals, however, that the first (fol. 17) and last folios (fol. 24) of the third quire are merely pasted together by means of a strip of parchment. The outside of the first folio of the quire belongs to a different side of parchment than the outside of the last folio. It is a case of two separate fragmentary manuscripts being bound together in a way that the resulting manuscript appeared complete. [S. 205]

Literature:

For the use of the Collectio V librorum see Reynolds, The South-Italian Canon Law Collection, pp. 278–295. – For the first six folios of the present manuscript see Kuttner, Some Roman Manuscripts, pp. 7–9. He recognized the use of Gratian. – For the canon attributed to both Gregory VII and Urban II see Somerville, Urban II, p. 124 n. 203. – Kéry, Canonical Collections, p. 280.