Category: Collections

The last seven folios of Vesoul, Bibliothèque municipal, MS 73 (79) contain an intriguing canonical florilegium, which derives from the late eighth- or early ninth-century Collectio canonum Sangermanensis. The Florilegium Vesulensium(Flor.Ves.) is thereby one of several (partial) reworkings and extracts of the Collectio canonum Sangermansis—itself highly dependent on the Hibernensis.^⁠1Roger E Reynolds, ‘Unity and diversity in Carolingian canon law collections: the case of the Collectio Hibernensis and its derivatives’, in: U.-R. Blumenthal (ed.), Carolingian essays: Andrew W. Mellon lectures in early Christian Studies (Washington, DC, 1983), pp. 99–135, at 119-23. Internal evidence demonstrates that the immediate exemplar for the Flor.Ves. was the Sangermanensis as it survives in Paris, BnF lat. 12444. A study of the Flor.Ves. is therefore particularly interesting, not only because we know what the compiler included from the Sangermanensis, but also because we have a good sense of what he/she chose to omit.

A transcription of the Florilegium Vesulensium is provided here.

This post is a copy taken from svenmeeder.nl

• 1
  Roger E Reynolds, ‘Unity and diversity in Carolingian canon law collections: the case of the Collectio Hibernensis and its derivatives’, in: U.-R. Blumenthal (ed.), Carolingian essays: Andrew W. Mellon lectures in early Christian Studies (Washington, DC, 1983), pp. 99–135, at 119-23.

Normative texts need to be authoritative to be effective in communicating norms and rules. Recent scholarship has shown a renewed interest in the authoritative status of the texts within early medieval works of canon law and the ways in which authority is reflected in the practice of attribution, promulgation, or organization. A small canonical collection known as the Collectio 91 capitulorum appears to flout the received knowledge. My recent article in Early Medieval Europe presents this modest collection. It explores the relationship between ‘authority’ and canon law in general, and examines the negotiation of authority within this collection in particular.