Collectio Hispana

Responsible for the lack of impact of the Epitome Hispana and the Collectio Novariensis in Spain was the appearance of the more comprehensive chronologically arranged Collectio Hispana in the 7th century. The structural model and a major source was a copy of the second version of the Dionysiana with both conciliar canons and papal decretals. The Hispana was augmented several times in the course of the century to incorporate the results of conciliar activity in Spain. The most recent canons in the earliest version, the so-called Isidoriana, are from the 4th council of Toledo (633). Martínez Díez would have Isidore of Seville (560–636) responsible for the compilation, but the attribution is not generally accepted. No manuscript copy of the Isidoriana version has survived. Friedrich Maassen recognized that a version anterior to the earliest surviving version must have existed on the basis of an index in two copies of the late 7th century Hispana Gallica.

The most recent canons in the second version, the Juliana, are from the 12th council of Toledo (681). It also contains the canons of the council of Braga (675). The version was named after bishop Julian of Toledo (680–690). The Canones Apostolorum are not taken over from the Dionysiana because, as the compiler states in his prologue, they were written by heretics and lack authority. The text of the Greek councils are in the Versio Isidori antiqua. The Statuta Ecclesiae Antiqua serve as a 4th council of Carthage. Distinctive of the Hispana are the canons taken from Spanish councils beginning with the council of Elvira (307). The Capitula Martini are appended to the 2nd council of Braga. All of the papal decretals in the Dionysiana are used in the Hispana. Decretals attributed to pope Damasus preceed those of pope Siricius as they do in the Frisingensis prima. Numerous decretals from pope Leo I, which are not in the Dionysiana, were taken from a dossier in the mid 5th century compiled to combat the heretical movement of Eutychius, archimandite of a monastery near Constantinople. This version circulated in Spain and in Gaul. It was the basis for the Hispana Gallica and its derivatives including the conciliar part in the pseudoisidorian decretals. The most recent version of the Hispana and the first version to circulate widely is the Vulgata, which contains canons from the 17th council of Toledo (694) and the canons of Mérida (666). This version also adds the canons of several Gallic councils (the Vasense II, Aurelianense II, Epaonense, Carpentoratense 40 and Arvernense I and II) and the canons of the council of Constantinople (682).

Gonzalo Martínez Díez and Felix Rodríguez are in the process of editing the Hispana. They have now reached the canons of the 12th council of Toledo. The present analysis (HO) is based on this edition. The rest of the collection is taken from the edition of Franciscus Antonius González, reproduced in Migne PL 84.93–848.

Categories (semi-automatic)

• key is HO
• belongs to: Hispana group
• large (1000 to 2000 canons) collection
• Southern Europe
• from Spain
• terminus post quem 680
• terminus ante quem 700
• saec. VII