The Transmission of the Canons of Piacenza

This chapter involves an intricate analysis of the interrelation among the various versions of the canons of Piacenza. The “Introduction” to this chapter reiterates several facts about the legislation, e.g., that the official rendition of the canons is lost; that the versions of the “textus receptus” are all abbreviations; and, following the points developed in Chapters 2 and 3, that the need for a new edition is obvious. The chapter then analyzes the transmission of the different versions of the “textus receptus” including the provisions occurring in canon law collections and in narrative sources. This involves grouping them, with particular attention to the Gesta and to the longest version of the decrees, which was designated as ф in Chapt.2, under “Survival”, which may lie close to the official decrees. One result of the analysis is identification of one particular manuscript, i.e., Vat. Lat. 629 (=MS Va), that is linked to the version of canons of Piacenza that appears in Gratian’s Decretum . The edition of the decrees at the end of the chapter includes the Latin text, a critical apparatus of variants, and is followed by an English translation.