Quadripartitus

A collection heavily dependent on the early 9th century southern Gallic Collectio Dacheriana was compiled in the province of Reims in the 2nd or 3rd quarter of the 9th century. It consists of four parts of unequal length. Hence the title: Quadripartitus. The first three parts contain 19, 55 and 84 canons respectively, and part four contains 382. Franz Kerff, who analysed the collection, lists a number of sources other than the Dacheriana: various works of Cassian, the Sententie and De ecclesiasticis officiis of Isidore of Seville, the Regula pastoralis of pope Gregory I and excerpts from his Register, the Rule of St. Benedict and the Exposition of that Rule by Smaragdus, the Pseudo-Cyprian De duodecim abusivis seculi, the 6th century Collectio Remensis and the penitential of Halitgar of Cambrai.

Each book has a prologue and a capitulation. The inscriptions of the canons in the first three parts are in the margin and heavily abbreviated. Those of the fourth part are in the text together with the rubrics. The canons in the first three parts are much longer than those in the fourth part and more exclusively patristic. There is been disagreement about the original form of the collection. Franz Kerff maintains that the four parts belonged together from the beginning. The transmissions of the collection vary considerably. In any case, parts two through four were used in the late 9th century at Reims for the second Collectio II librorum in the Ms Milan, Ambrosiana A. 46 inf. All four parts are transmitted in the Mss Stuttgart, Württembergische LB HB VII 62 (9th century, perhaps Reichenau), fol. 1v–176r. The present analysis (QU) is based on this copy and replaces that in earlier versions of Kanones. Other copies contain only the canons of the fourth part, for example: the Ms Antwerpen, Musaeum Plantin-Moretus M 82, fol. 52r –90v (11th/12th century, northeast France). 60 There are a number of collections which used only the fourth part, for example: Regino of Prüm at Trier at the beginning of the 10th century. This transmission is related to that in the Ms Trier, SB 1098/14 which contains only excerpts from the fourth part. Only the fourth part was used for the 11th century Collectio Sinemuriensis compiled at Reims and the Collectio Tripartita compiled at Chartres and the collection in the Ms Paris, BN lat. 13368. Excerpts from part 4 were used for the appendix to the Collectio Brugensis on fol. 146r– 160v and 165r–v of the Ms London, BL Cotton Cleopatra C. VIII (12th century, northern France). Excerpta from the other parts are found separate on fol. 91r–105v. The fourth book is found in the Ms Vat. lat. 1347, fol. 144r–180v (9th century, Reims). This was apparently the source for the canons in the Ms Montecassino, Archivio e Biblioteca dell’Abbazia Cod. 541, pp. 236a–285b. The material collection in the Ms Vat. lat. 3830, which is associated with Montecassino, also contains excerpts from the fourth part.

Literature:

The fourth part was edited by Aemilius L. Richter, Antiqua canonum collectio qua in libris de synodalibus causis compilandis usus est Regino Prumiensis, Marburg 1844. For an exhaustive study see Kerff, Der Quadripartitus. Kerff published an analysis of the collection, but the incipit-explicit list does not correspond to the beginning and end of the canons in the Quadripartitus, but rather to the beginning and end of the citations from the material sources. – For the use of the Quadripartitus in the copy of the Collectio Brugensis in the Ms London and in the Ms Vat. lat. 3830, see Rudolf Pokorny, Eine Kurzform der Konzilskanones von Trosly (909): Zur Reformgesetzgebung in der ausgehenden Karolingerzeit, DA 42 (1986), pp. 118–144, esp. 125 n. 30. – For the use of the Quadripartitus in the Ms Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 442, see Brett, Urban II, p. 44 n. 56. – Kéry, Canonical Collections, pp. 167–169.

Categories

Clavis entries based on manuscript

Categories (semi-automatic)

• key is QU
• belongs to:
• medium (500 to 1000 canons) collection
• from Reims
• from Northern France
• terminus post quem 825
• terminus ante quem 875
• saec. IX