Collectio V librorum

The Collectio V librorum (not to be confused with the 5L in Vat. lat. 1348) was compiled shortly after 1014 south of Rome. The most recent texts in the collection are edicts issued at the Roman council of 1014 and inscribed Henrici regis. Only three complete copies have survived, but the direct influence of the collection in central and southern Italy was considerable, and excerpts in shorter, less significant collections carried material from the Collectio V librorum further north. The three complete copies are in the Mss Montecassino, Archivio e Biblioteca dell’Abbazia 125; Vat. lat. 1339 and Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana B. 11. The Ms Montecassino 125 was copied in a Beneventan hand in the first half of the 11th century at the monastery, probably during the abbacy of Theobald (1022– 1035). The Ms Vat. lat. 1339, which is the closer of the two other copies to the Ms Montecassino, was copied in Romanesca script in the mid 11th century, probably at the monastery of St. Maria Maggiore at Narnia. The Ms Vallicelliana B. 11 was copied in Carolingian script prior to 1087 by Ubertus, scribe and later abbot at S. Eutizio in Val Castoriana, not far from Norcia. 83

Each of the five books is divided into titles in the form that Roger Reynolds calls divisional rubrics. Mario Fornasari edited the first three books in 1970 using the Ms Vat. lat. 1339. Unfortunately he ignored the division of the canons into titles and introduced a numbering system which has no correspondence to that in the manuscripts. For the convenience of the user, the Vatican manuscript was used as the basis for the present analysis (FU) and the numbering in the edition is noted in the location column (FV). In the Vallicelliana copy the text of the canons is closer to that of the formal and material sources. Klaus Zechiel-Eckes has shown that texts taken directly from the Concordia canonum of Cresconius are reproduced more faithfully and Valesca Koal that the same is true of texts taken directly from capitularies. The Vallicelliana copy was not used as the basis for the present analysis because considerable blocks of canons are missing in books 2, 4 and 5, but the divisional rubrics, which are more numerous in the Vallicelliana, have been taken from it. The apparent differences in the number of canons in the three copies, which has resulted in the belief that the Vallicelliana copy is shorter than the other two, is due largely to the fact that each copy groups the canons in a slightly different way. The capitulationes in the Ms Vallicelliana B. 11 have approximately the same titles as do the other copies. The Mss Montecassino 125 and Vat. lat. 1339 have numerous marginal and interlinear glosses, the Ms Vallicelliana has none.

The first book of the collection is preceeded by four prologues. Only the 1st and 4th were written for the collection. Each of the other four books is preceeded by a single prologue. Each book has a capitulatio. In the first prologue of the first book the compiler claims to be acting ad utilitatem animarum and recommends his work to the reader and to God. He says that the collection was compiled as a gesture of affection for a priest named Lupus. The second prologue is that of the penitential attributed (falsely) to Gregory III and the third is the first part of the preface to the pseudoisidorian decretals. The author of the last prologue paints a desolate picture of the clergy and laity of his time and repeats the claim to be compiling a collection to help in the salvation of souls.

The prologue of the second book is the last part of the preface of Pseudo-Isidore followed by an Ordo de celebrando concilio and the apocryphal letter of bishop Aurelius of Carthage to pope Damasus. This is followed by the preface of Dionysius Exiguus to the second recension of his collection of conciliar decrees. The prologues of the 84 third, fourth and fifth books were written for those books. The books have the following titles: 1.) De gradibus et nominibus, de ministeriis ac meritis, de qualitate vel ordinatione clericorum; 2.) De primatibus ecclesie et de concilii temporibus, de vita et castitate clericorum, precipue de prohibitione consortii cum mulieribus et de feminis que in fornicatione cum clericis deprehense sunt; 3.) De baptismo et chrismate, atque de die dominico ac festivitatibus sanctorum; 4.) De utilitate penitentie et gratia communionis etiam in ultimis positis et de aliis causis christianitatis obtentis and 5.) De legitimis coniugiis et de raptoribus et pluribus nuptiis atque de concubinis. New is the attention given to legitimate marriages. The compiler of the Collectio IX librorum had treated licit and illicit marriages in the middle of his 7th book, between homicide and theft. An increasingly positive attitude toward marriage can be found in a number of 11th century collections, such as that of S. Maria Novella.

The author of the collection is never mentioned by name, but an epilogue in the Mss Montecassino and Vallicelliana mentions the labors of quidam peregrinus frater. And at the end of the preface to the 2nd book the compiler speaks of the perils he endured in gathering material throughout Italy. Koal sees in the preface to the 5th book a possible differentiation between someone who collected the material, someone who compiled the collection and someone who corrected it: congregantibus … vitam, corrigentibus misericordiam, legentibus veniam. Theobald, the future abbot of Montecassino, had a Liber canonum copied in 1019 while still provost at the monastery of San Liberatore near Chieti. This may have been a form of the Collectio V librorum. On the other hand, it may have been one of its sources. Once abbot of Montecassino, Theobald had a Liber canonum copied for that monastery. This was probably the copy in the Ms Montecassino 125. Whoever or wherever the compiler of the collection was, he used a version of the Concordia canonum of Cresconius which is found in the Ms Vat. lat. 1347, and this version of the Concordia was also copied for Montecassino (Ms Archivio e Biblioteca dell’Abbazia 541) during the abbacy of Theobald.

The most important formal source is the Collectio IX librorum. The compiler also used material from writings of saints Augustine and Jerome and Isidore of Seville and material from the treatises of Caesarius of Arles. He used monastic literature, including the rule of saint Benedict and the Diadema monachorum of Smaragdus. He cited 38 texts of secular law, mostly from the Epitome Iuliani, nine edicts 85 from Lombard law and 67 genuine capitula from Frankish capitularies. In addition he cited five constitutions of the emperor Henry II, the Vita St. Fursei and the Visio Wettini and finally, canons from Roman, Spanish and French councils.

Missing in the Ms Vallicelliana B. 11 are the folios between 10/11, 18/19, 31/32, 41/42. Also missing are the folios with an older numbering 61/62 (new 62/63), 144/145 (new 145/146), 177/178 (new 178/179), 191/192 (new 192/193), 218/219 (219/220), 224/225 (new 225/226), 246/247 (new 247/248) and 249/250 (250/251).

Literature

For the edition of the first three books see Mario Fornasari, Collectio canonum in V libris (lib. i–iii) (CCL Continuatio mediaevalis 6, Turnhout 1970). For an analysis of book four see Davide Cito, Collectio canonum in quinque libris. Libro IV (Centro Accademico Romano della Santa Croce. Sezione Romana della Facoltà die diritto canonico dell’Università di Navarra, Roma 1989). For or the origin, diffusion and use of the collection see Reynolds, The South-Italian Canon Law Collection in Five Books, pp. 278–295. For the epilogue and the sources see Fournier, Un groupe de recueils canoniques italiens, pp. 168–186 (= Mélanges de droit canonique 1, pp. 286–304). For the texts taken from Cresconius see Zechiel-Eckes, Die Concordia canonum des Cresconius, p. 276 n. 30. For the determination of the copy used see p. 269–277. For the texts taken from capitularies, see Koal, Zur Überlieferungsgeschichte der Fünf-Bücher-Sammlung, pp. 127–134 and Eadem, Studien zur Nachwirkung der Kapitularien, pp. 67–132. For the canons attributed to Henricus rex see Myron wojtowytsch, Die Kanones Henrici regis. Bemerkungen zur römischen Synode vom Februar 1014, Quellen, Kritik, Interpretation, in: Papsttum, Kirche und Recht im Mittelalter: Festschrift für Horst Fuhrmann zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. by Hubert Mordek, Tübingen 1991, pp. 155– 168. For the Liber canonum that Theobald had copied at Chieti in 1019 see Mordek, Kirchenrecht und Reform, p. 100 n. 12 and 15. See now Richard F. Gyug, The List of Authorities in the Illustrations of the Collection in 5 Books (MS Vat. lat. 1339), in: Ritual, Text and Law: Studies in Medieval Canon Law and Liturgy presented to Roger E. Reynolds, ed. by Kathleen G. Cushing and Richard F. Gyug, Ashgate 2004, pp. 241–254. – Kéry, Collections p. 157–160.

Categories

• might need to be split because of multiple keys?
• belongs to: 5L group
• very large (more than 2000 canons) collection
• from Southern Italy (south of Rome)
• saec. XI

DEFAULTSORT "Collectio 005 librorum"