CAROLINGIAN STATUTE
ANSEGISUS, Saint, Abbot of Fontenelle, and Benedict LEVITA. Karoli Magni et Ludovici Pii Christianiss. Regum et Impp. Francorum Capitula, sive leges ecclesiasticae et civiles. Paris, Claude Chappellet, 1603.
8vo., ff. [12], 335, [1], pp. 87, [1]; printer's device on title, a fine copy in contemporary vellum, lettered in MS.
This is the second, expanded Chappellet edition (first 1588) of the civil and canon law statutes of Charlemagne and of Louis the Debonair transcribed from a manuscript in the Pithou library. An edition had been printed in Paris by Tilius in 1548. St. Ansegisus (c. 770 - c. 834), equally valued by Charlemagne and his son Louis, had reformed several monasteries before being put in charge of Luxeuil in 817. He later became abbot of Fontenelle (called also St. Vandrille) near Rouen, where he greatly enriched the library. Under his stewardship Fontenelle became an important centre of learning; Ansegisus was sent by Louis on embassies abroad. He collected the laws and decrees of the two Carolingian kings, dividing them into chapters called capitulars; the first and second of the four books of his compilation relate to church affairs and the third and fourth to state affairs. The work was completed by 827, gained the approval of the church in France Germany and Italy and served for a long period as official record of canon and civil law. The capitularies of St. Ansegisus finish on leaf 76 of this edition, the rest of the volume to leaf 327 is taken up by Benedict Levita's collections (see below), the capitularies of Charles the Bald, from leaf 328 to 335, and finally an alphabetically organised glossary of obscure terms to be found in the preceding texts (separately paginated 1 to 87).Benedict Levita "is the name given to himself by the author of a forged collection of capitularies which appeared in the ninth century. The collection belongs to the group of pseudo-Isidorian forgeries ... The work of Abbot Ansegisus was taken as model for the collection ... About one-fourth of it consists of genuine capitularies ... The chief aim of the forger was to enable the Church to maintain its independence in face of the assaults of secular power. The author stands for the contemporary movement in favour of ecclesiastical reform and in opposition to the rule of the Church by the laity" (J.P. Kirsch in the Catholic Encyclopedia, sub Levita).
The work is rare and an important source of Carolingian statute.
£950
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