The work on this edition started long before the SOLEMNE project saw the light, but since the text under consideration (the ‘Collection in 400 chapters‘) is relevant to the project, its publication after many years deserves mention here.
Although the Collectio 400 capitulorum is a so-called systematic collection, eminent scholars of canon law commented on its lack of structure. Even ‘with the best will in the world’, the collection’s system eluded them. Despite its flaws, however, there is evidence that the collection gained some popularity in the ninth century, apparently providing the basis for the Poenitentiale Martenianum, directly or indirectly influencing Hrabanus Maurus and Benedictus Levita. The ninth-century appreciation is understandable, for, as one of the many products of the vigorous canonical activity of the eighth and ninth centuries, the Collectio 400 capitulorum impresses in its handling of the canonical material as well as the breadth of sources and the topics covered.
This book constitutes the first in-depth study of this intriguing canonical collection, with a detailed description of the extant manuscript witnesses, its sources, and its influence. The critical edition offers scholars of the early Middle Ages in general and canon law in particular access to an instructive, if unpolished, product of Carolingian legal thought.
The book has now materialised (both as an actual book and an ebook) and is available for order on the website of the Catholic University of America Press, and at your local bookstore.
