AVELLANA COLLECTIO

A canonical collection of the letters of emperors and popes, beginning with a rescript of Valentinian I, dated 368, and ending with a letter of Pope vigilius to Justinian, dated May 14, 553. Evidence available indicates that the collection was prepared shortly after a.d. 553. The collection reproduces in succession: letters of the emperors (from Valentinian to Honorius) interspersed with a few letters addressed to the emperors, letters of the popes from Innocent I to Vigilius, and letters and acts from the pontificate of Pope St. hormisdas. (The best edition is the work of O. Günther in Corpus scriptorum ecclesiasticorum 35.) The interest of the collection lies above all in the compiler's intention of providing texts not included in collections then in existence, and of seeking them directly in the archival deposits, e.g., a reference to the use of the gesta after Hormisdas' letter. But the author also collected apocryphal writings, e.g., the correspondence of Peter of Antioch relating to monophysitism. The collection was not widely disseminated because the Gelasian Collections had summarized ancient law, and the legislative activity of the papacy suffered as a result of political crises. However, through the Avellana Collectio, we know a good portion of the letters of Vigilius and certain imperial letters.

Bibliography: p. fournier and g. lebrasm, Histoire des collections canoniques en occident depuis les fausses décrétales jusqu'au Déret de Gratien 1:35–41. f. maassen, Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechts im Abendlande bis dem Ausgang des Mittelalters 787–792. o. gÜnther, "Avellana-Studien," Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien 134.5 (1896). r. naz, ed., Dictionnaire de droit canonique 1:1491.

[j. gaudemet]