Paris, BnF, lat. 4280

This parchment codex, written in the first half of the 12^th century in a late Caroline minuscule script (probably in Liège), contains three compilations of canonistic and patristic materials:

1) fols. 1ra-7r: 25 short excerpts, mainly taken from late antique papal letters (by Felix III, Gelasius I, Gregory I, Innocent I, Leo I), homilies and exegetic works (by Augustine, Gregory I, Jerome, Ambrose, Zachary of Besançon). The first seventeen excerpts have close textual links to the treatise De misericordia et iustitia, written by the 12^th-century canonist Alger of Liège, making it likely that they have been assembled within Alger's circle or perhaps even by Alger himself. Excerpts nos. 18-25 appear to be later scribal additions.

2) fols. 7va–116r: A chronologically arranged Collection of 19 Church councils (Nicaea, Ancyra, Neocaesarea, Gangra, Sardica, Antioch, Laodicaea, Constantinople 381, Ephesus, Chalcedon, Carthage 419, the Registri Ecclesiae Carthaginensis excerpta, the so-called Second Council of Arles, Agde, Orléans 511, Orléans 541, Orléans 549, Elvira, Toledo 633). The councils are preceded by a detailed table of contents (fols. 7va–15va) and historical notes on the Council of Nicaea (fols. 17r–18v). The historical notes draw from Rufinus's Church history and the Pseudo-Isidorian Praefatio longa de Nicaeno concilio. Concerning the conciliar acts, the anonymous author combined canons and readings from different sources (fontes formales): the conciliar portion of Pseudo-Isidore, the Dionysio-Hadriana, the Collectio Hispana, the Collectio Sancti Amandi and the Collectio Laureshamensis have hitherto been identified as formal sources of the conciliar collection.

3) fols. 116va–117r: Three (partly spurious) excerpts of papal letters, including the Libellus responsionum of Gregory the Great. These texts all aim at liberating monasteries from the obligation to pay tithes and additional levies.

In addition, on fol. 56r-v there are episcopal catalogues of the bishoprics of Liège, Bourges, Rheims, Metz, and Trier; these lists end with Otbert of Liège (1092-1119?), Audebert of Bourges (1092–1096), Radulph of Rheims (1106–1124), Hermann of Metz (1073–1090) and Bruno of Trier (1102–1124).

The manuscript is digitized (from b/w microfilm): https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b9068478s

Literature

None of these three compilations seems to be mentioned in the 2005 handbook. The ms., however, is mentioned twice by Kéry, Collections. On p. 63, it is listed among the mss. of the Hispana (citing Mordek, Kirchenrecht und Reform, 251). On p. 84, the ms. is also mentioned as containing a "partial transmission" of the Collectio Sancti Amandi: "Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, lat. 4280, saec. XII, fol. 81^v-115^v, excerpt [of the Sancti Amandi] following a chronologically arranged collection", again with reference to Mordek, Kirchenrecht und Reform, 251, who briefly comments on the codex as following: "Paris, Bibl. Nat., Lat. 4280 (saec. XII; enthält das Konzil von Nikäa in vier synoptischen Versionen [Dion., Attici, Isid., Hisp.], die griechischen Konzile von Ankyra bis Chalkedon in der Form der Hispana, das Konzil von Karthago [a. 419] nach der Dionysio-Hadriana und einen Auszug aus der Collectio Sancti Amandi." Obviously, Mordek here is referring to the conciliar collection mentioned above under point two. However, as a recent inspection of the Parisinus has shown, the ms. does not contain ordinary, i.e. unaltered excerpts from the two collections mentioned by Kéry and Mordek. Rather, canons from the Hispana (though mainly in its Pseudo-Isidorian form) and from the Sancti Amandi are combined with canons from other chronologically arranged collections, which are used altogether as formal sources to the unusual conciliar collection in Paris BnF lat. 4280, fols. 7va–116r, as mentioned above. For a description of the ms. and a discussion of its contents and sources, see Till Stüber, Der Parisinus latinus 4280 (saec. XII). Eine kanonistische Handschrift aus der Zeit der Kirchenreform, in: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters 78.1 (2022) (forthcoming).

Categories

• digitized
• saec. XII

DEFAUTSORT Paris, BnF, lat. 04280

• Manuscript