Collectio canonum in Vat. lat. 3830
The Ms Vat. lat. 3830, like the Ms Vat. Barb. lat. 538 described above, was copied in north central Italy. The two manuscripts are similar in a number of ways. Both contain several distinct blocks of texts copied at different times by different scribes. Both contain sections compiled in the mid 11th century.
The first quire in the Ms Vat. lat. 3830 is missing. The present folios 1–24 were the second through fourth quires; the texts in these quires belong together. The manuscript in its present state begins with excerpts from letters of pope Gregory I opposing simony similar to a series of canons in the Diversorum patrum sententie (74T), the Collectio IV librorum and the Libri tres adversus simoniacos of Humbert of Silva Candida. The compiler used the Register of pope Gregory for those letters as did the compiler of Collectio IV librorum and Humbert whereas the compiler of the 74T used the Vita Gregorii of Johannes Diaconus. Folios 4r–6r contain excerpts from the Epitome Iuliani. Texts taken from the Liber decretorum of Burchard follow, along with two texts taken from the fourth part of the Quadripartitus, see above. Folio 16v contains a decree of the Roman council held in the presence of pope Benedict VIII and the emperor Henry II in 1014. Folios 17r–19v contain an Epistola de simoniaca heresi written by a person who calls himself francigena, which would mean someone from the Rhine valley or west of the Rhine. Ryan attributed the Epistola to Humbert of Silva Candida. The attribution is uncertain, but the collection in the manuscript can with safety be called Humbertinish. Folios 20r–23v contain an excerpt from the Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (8. 5), De heresibus christianorum, a somewhat longer version of which is the first item in the Ms Vat. Barb. lat. 538. Folios 23v–24r contain texts from the Collectio V librorum. On folio 24v in another hand is the anti-simoniacal text Nam de eo qui donum, which is derived ultimately from the Collectio V librorum but which is also found in the Barberini manuscript.
In the course of the most recent rebinding the fourth to eighth quires were put together in the wrong order. Folios 25–32 contain the fifth quire, folios 48–53 the sixth, folios 40–47 the seventh and folios 33–39 the eighth. The sixth and the eighth are incomplete. The fifth quire begins with a long series of texts from the Epitome Iuliani. The rest of the manuscript contains excerpts from the Liber decretorum of Burchard, the pseudoisidorian decretals, the Collectio V librorum and 99 the Liber diurnus. It also contains the Capitula of Radulfus Biturcensis. On fol. 72r is the Pseudo-Urban text on the common life. On fol. 75v in yet another hand are decrees from the Lenten synod of 1078. The manuscript ends with excerpts from the 19th book, the Corrector, of the Liber decretorum of Burchard.
The texts in the manuscript are not numbered. They have been numbered for the present analysis in accord with the original sequence of the quires (XC).
Literature:
For attribution of the manuscript to central-northern Italy see Paola Supino Martini, Roma e l’area grafica romanesca (secoli X–XII) (Biblioteca di Scrittura e Civiltà 1, Alessandria 1987), pp. 315 f. – I am much indebted to Martin Bertram for identifying the original sequence of the quires and for help with almost illegible passages. – For an attempt to determine the authorship of the anti-simoniacal treatise see Joseph Ryan, Letter of an Anonymous French Reformer to a Byzantine Official in South Italy: De simoniaca heresi (MS Vat. lat. 3830), Mediaeval Studies 15 (1953), pp. 233–242, the letter is edited on pp. 239–242. – For the use of the Quadripartitus see Kerff, Der Quadripartitus, p. 69 n. 16. – The text Nam de eo qui donum appears for the first time to my knowledge in the Hibernensis alpha (Wasserschleben 2. 13a, see above p. 46). In the copies of the Hibernensis in the Mss Karlsruhe and Livorno it is attributed to Gregorius. In the Ms Paris, BN lat. 3182 and in the Hibernensis beta in the Ms Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana Tome XVIII (2. 15a) it is attributed to Gregorius Nazianzenus. In the latter manuscript the rubric reads: De indignis mercantibus sacerdotium et vendentibus donum Dei. The text begins: Nam quicumque hoc donum … in profundum descendat. In the Collectio IX librorum in the Ms Vat. lat. 1349 (canon 1. 184) the word indignis is missing from the rubric and the text is attributed simply to Gregorius. In the Collectio V librorum (1. 40. 3) the rubric is reduced to De mercantibus sacerdotium. The text appears a second time in the Collectio IX librorum (9.39). Here it is attributed again to Gregory. The text begins Nam de his qui donum dei studet mercari. The same text appears in the Collectio V librorum (1.188) attributed to Gregorius Nazianzenus. The text: Nam de eo qui donum Dei studet … iudicamus. The text was apparently attributed to Gregorius Nazianzenus here because in the tradition of central and southern Italy pope Gregorius was often called Gregorius Romanus to distinguish him from the Greek father. Apparently the text was transmitted to the Barberiniana, the Ambrosiana II (see below) and the Libelli de lite by way of a derivative of the Collectio V librorum. – Kéry, Canonical Collections, pp. 198–199. 100
