Abbo of Fleury, Collectio canonum
Abbo and his collection
Abbo entered the monastery Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire at Fleury as a child and later studied at Paris and Reims. He became abbot at Fleury in 988 and compiled a collection of 44 chapters ad defensionem monastici ordinis between 995–996. He dedicated this collection to the kings of France Hugo and Robert. The one complete copy to survive, in the Ms Paris, BnF, lat. 2400, fol. 154r–162v, is the basis for the present analysis (AX). The manuscript was copied by Adémar de Chabannes (988–1034) at Angouleme. It should be noted that the edition in Migne PL 139 supplies information that is not found in the manuscript. The inscriptions in the manuscript do not distinguish 76 between the councils of Toledo, for example. No pseudoisidorian texts are used, instead conciliar canons from the Dionysiana and Hispana. Valeska Koal has analysed the sources of titles 6, 19 and 20 of the collection and established the use of the capitulary of Ansegis.
Abbo's Epistola XIV
A letter of Abbo, now numbered XIV, contains excerpts from letters of pope Gregory I in defense of monasteries. Olivier Guillot maintains that the emphasis on the libertas monasteriorum found in this letter is the response to the attempt made in 993/994 at an assembly of bishops at Saint-Denis outside Paris to stop monks from retaining demes. Abbo opposed the deposition of Arnulf, bishop of Reims at the council of Saint-Basle (991) maintaining that the decision could not be made at the council but must be referred to Rome. Both the defense of monastic rights and the insistence on direct appeal to the pope were to become essential themes in the reform movement of the 11th century. The choice of the excerpts of letters of Gregory I in letter XIV certainly influenced the compiler of the Diversorum patrum sententie (74 Titles). A complete collection of the letters survives in only one 11th century manuscript: London, BL Additional 10972. This manuscript was purchased in 1837 from the library of the château de Rosny, having belonged previously to the duchess of Berri and before that, in the 16th/17th century, to Pierre Pithou.
Literature
For Abbo see Marco Mostert, Gerbert d’Aurillac, Abbon de Fleury et la culture de l’an mil: étude comparative de leurs oeuvres et de leur influence, in: Gerberto d’Aurillac da abate di Bobbio a papa dell’anno 1000. Atti del congresso internazionale, Bobbio, Auditorio di S. Chiara, 28–30 settembre 2000, ed. by Flavio G. Nuvolone, Bobbio 2001, pp. 397–432. The collection of Abbo was edited by Jean Mabillon, Vetera analecta 2 (Paris 1676) 248–348. This edition was reproduced by 77 Migne PL 139. 473–508. See Gérard Giordanengo, La Collectio canonum d’Abbon de Fleury, in: Autour de Gerbert, le pape de l’an Mil. Album de documents commentés réunis par Olivier Guyotjeannin – Emmanuel Poulle (Matériaux pour l’histoire publiés par l’École des chartres 1, Paris 1996), pp. 157–163. Titles 4–6 of the collection are transcribed and translated into French. For the sources of the collection, see Valeska Koal, Studien zur Nachwirkung der Kapitularien, pp. 61–65. – Epistola XIV is edited in Migne PL 139. 440–460. For the intentions of Abbo in composing the letter and for the manuscripts he used see Olivier Guillot, Un exemple de la méthode suivie par Abbon de Fleury pour recueillir et ordonner les textes: à partir des lettres de Grégoire le Grand incluses dans l’Epistola XIV, in: Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche della „societas christiana“ dei secoli XI–XII. Diocesi, pievi e parrochie. Atti della sesta Settimana internazionale di Studio, Milano, 1–7 settembre 1974 (Pubblicazioni dell’Università cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Miscellanea del Centro di studi medievali 8, Milano 1977), pp. 399– 405. – Kéry, Canonical Collections, pp. 199–201. Franck Roumy, Abbon de Fleury. Un abbé de l’an mil (Actes du colloque d’Orléans des 10–12 juin 2004 – Bibliothèque d’histoire culturelle du Moyen Age, Brepols 2006, [forthcoming]).
Categories
- key is AX
- very small (less than 100 canons) collection
- from Fleury
- saec. X
