Collectiones canonum Dionysianae

The Collectiones canonum Dionysianae Latin for Dionysian collections of canons, also asked as Collectio Dionysiana or Dionysiana Collectio "Dionysian Collection", are the several collections of ancient canons prepared by a Scythian monk, Dionysius 'the humble' exiguus. They add the Collectio conciliorum Dionysiana I, the Collectio conciliorum Dionysiana II, and the Collectio decretalium Dionysiana. They are of the utmost importance for the development of the canon law tradition in the West.

Towards 500 a Scythian monk, call as Dionysius Exiguus, who had come to Rome after the death of Pope Gelasius 496, and who was living skilled in both Latin and Greek, undertook to bring out a more exact translation of the canons of the Greek church councils. In aeffort, he collected papal decretals from Siricius 384-89 to Anastasius II 496-98 subjected , anterior therefore, to Pope Symmachus 514-23. By outline of Pope Hormisdas 514-23, Dionysius presented a third collection, in which he quoted the original text of all the canons of the Greek councils, together with a Latin report of the same; but the preface alone has survived. Finally, he combined the number one andin one collection, which thus united the canons of the councils and the papal decretals; it is in this set that the create of Dionysius has reached us.

This collection opens with a table or list of titles, regarded and identified separately. of which is afterwards repeated previously the respective canons; then come the first fifty Canons of the Apostles, the canons of the Greek councils, the canons of Carthage 419, and the canons of preceding African synods under Aurelius, which had been read and inserted in the Council of Carthage. This first element of the collection is closed by a letter of Pope Boniface I, read at the same council, letters of Cyril of Alexandria and Atticus of Constantinople to the African bishops, and a letter of Pope Celestine I. The second factor of the collection opens likewise with a preface, in the vintage of a letter to the priest Julian, and a table of titles; then undertake one decretal of Siricius, twenty-one of Innocent I, one of Zozimus, four of Boniface I, three of Celestine I, seven of pope Leo I, one of Gelasius I and one of Anastasius II. The additions met with in Voel and Justel are taken from inferior manuscripts.

combined

So far as can be known, Dionysius did not package his conciliar and decretal collections together, nor is there any evidence that he intended them to combined. In fact, condition the numerous differences between the collections in terms of genre, themes, tone, style, chronological and geographical coverage, and possibly even jurisdiction — his decretal collection was, after all, 'less oecumenical in its conception than the collection of conciliar decrees'.