A Living Law

Minor Canonical Collections in the Carolingian Period
Duration
1 May 2021 until 1 April 2023
Project member(s)
Dr S.M. Meeder (Sven)
Project type
Research

These Carolingian codices were filled with works of biblical exegesis, historiography, poetry, educational texts and (late-)antique literature. As a genre that intersects ‘with every aspect of medieval life and society’—to quote Kriston Rennie—, canon law was one of the main focal points of the period’s intellectual energy. In addition to the increased organisation of church councils, considerable learned effort and vast economic funds were spent on copying and distributing late-antique and more recent collections of canon law. It resulted in well over a hundred extant eighth- and ninth-century manuscript witnesses of great canonical collections with names like the Collectio Dionysiana, the Collectio Quesnelliana, the Collectio Quadripartitus, the Collectio Vetus Gallica, and the Irish Collectio canonum Hibernensis—to name a few.

In the shadow of these widely-disseminated canonical collections smaller collections and canonical florilegia were thought out, compiled, copied, and spread. These canonical compilations, assembled by local masters taking authoritative statements (‘canons’) from other works, are not seldomly characterised as ‘unstructured’ or ‘derivative’ in modern catalogues. Yet, the local initiatives testify to the intense interest in and vitality of this ‘living law’ throughout Carolingian Europe.

This two-year project, funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, aims to improve our understanding of eighth- and ninth-century canonical dynamism through a systematic study and analysis of these ‘minor’ canonical collections. Since they remain mostly unedited and unpublished, these works have by and large escaped modern study. Yet, to further our understanding of Carolingian intellectual developments, it is crucial to study precisely these scholarly exploits of ostensibly limited and mostly local influence.

Funding

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