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IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 1208: Collecting and Rearranging Canon Law in Merovingian Gaul

Wednesday 3 July 2019, 14.15-15.45

Sponsor:DFG Project 'Der Codex Remensis der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (Ms. Phill. 1743): Der gallische Episkopat als Mittler antiken Rechtswissens und Mitgestalter merowingischer Politik'
Organiser:Michael Eber, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Moderator/Chair:Ralph Mathisen, Department of History, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Paper 1208-aAccumulation and Migration: Creating a Canon Law Collection in 6th-Century Burgundy
(Language: English)
Till Stüber, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Index terms: Canon Law, Ecclesiastical History, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 1208-bNeither Councils nor Decretals: 'Non-Canonic' Material in the Codex Remensis
(Language: English)
Michael Eber, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Index terms: Canon Law, Ecclesiastical History, Manuscripts and Palaeography
Paper 1208-cThe Function of Pope Gregory the Great's Letter Epistola 9.213 in Early Medieval Canon Law Collections
(Language: English)
Anna Gehler, Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut, Freie Universität Berlin
Index terms: Canon Law, Manuscripts and Palaeography, Politics and Diplomacy
Abstract

Compared to the canon law collections of Gratian and his precursors, in the Early Middle Ages, the idea of what could be considered as 'canonic' was still in flux. Notwithstanding some attempts to create standardized collections, early medieval canon law books tended to differ considerably from one another, often betraying features of local recension and selection. This session will show the complex, multi-layered, and localized creation process of early medieval canon law collections by analysing the causa colligendi, as it were, of specific dossiers and sub-collections. These issues will be addressed proceeding mainly, though not exclusively, from on one such local collection: the so called Codex Remensis, an oft-neglected 8th-century law book that was hardly accessible for a long time and was only digitized recently.