Collectio Hispana Systematica

The canons of the chronological Collectio Hispana were rearranged between 675 and 681 to form the Hispana systematica. It is divided into ten books: 1.) De institutionibus clericorum, 2.) De institutionibus monasteriorum et monachorum atque ordinibus penitentium, 3.) De institutionibus iudiciorum et gubernaculis rerum, 4.) De institutionibus officiorum et ordine baptizandi, 5.) De diversitatibus nuptiarum et scelere flagitiorum, 6.) De generalibus regulis clericorum ceterorumque Christianorum et regimine principum, 7.) De honestate et negotiis principum, 8.) De Deo et de his que sunt credenda de illo, 9.) De abdicatione hereticorum et usibus eorum and 10.) De idololatria et cultoribus eius ac de scriptis pacis et muneribus missis. The books are divided into titles and each canon has its own rubric. Martínez Díez edited the inscriptions and the titles using the Mss Paris, BnF, lat. 1565 (10th/11th century, southern France) and Paris, BnF, lat. 11709 (early 9th century, Lyon). For the present analysis (SH) I relied on the same manuscripts and also included the incipits, explicits and rubrics of the individual canons. The texts and rubrics are almost always identical with those in the chronological Hispana although the compiler sometimes did add to them.

Roger Reynolds argues that the Hispana systematica was compiled in Spain and carried to Lyon by Spanish émigrés. He points out that the Ms Paris, BnF, lat. 11709 was copied from a Visigothic-script exemplar and that the copy in the Ms Paris, BnF, lat. 1565 contains, after the end of the second book, a list of all bishoprics in Spain. Both 41 manuscripts have glosses in Visigothic script. It was, moreover, in Spain that the Hispana systematica was translated into Arabic. Reynolds suggests, moreover, that those who brought the Hispana systematica to France also brought with them a letter attributed to Isidore of Seville and adressed to Leudefredus. This influential letter, the last text in the Hispana systematica, deals with the duties of clergy. It would later be integrated into the pseudoisidorian forgeries.

The Hispana systematica takes its form from the Excerpta Hispana, a systematic index of the canons in the chronological Hispana compiled in Spain between 656–675. The Excerpta accompanies numerous Spanish copies of the chronological Hispana. It is divided into ten books each of which is divided into titles. Most of these titles would later be used for the Hispana systematica. The compiler of the Excerpta refers to the relevant canons in the same order in which they appear in the chronological Hispana; the compiler of the Hispana systematica often rearranged them. The compiler of the Excerpta indicates which canons support the precepts in its titles, but does not provide the texts of the canons. For those who possessed the chronological Hispana such texts were superfluous. The systematic version of the Hispana was compiled for those not in possession of the chronological Hispana. It was used in southern France by the compiler of the Dacheriana and by Florus of Lyon. It was presumably at Lyon that it was also used by the compiler of the Collectio CCCXLII capitulorum. This has led to speculation that the Hispana systematica was compiled at Lyon.

Categories (semi-automatic)

• not in Clavis database
• belongs to: Hispana group
• large (1000 to 2000 canons) collection
• from Spain
• terminus post quem 680
• terminus ante quem 700
• saec. VII