The Trinity Collection of Decretals and the Early Worcester Family
All primitive decretal collections composed in England are conventionally classified in three main groups, described as the English, Bridlington, and Worcester Families respectively. These names are admittedly matters merely of convenience, and are open in all cases either to question or qualificati...
| Published in: | Traditio |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
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| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
1961
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| In: |
Traditio
Year: 1961, Volume: 17, Pages: 506-526 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | All primitive decretal collections composed in England are conventionally classified in three main groups, described as the English, Bridlington, and Worcester Families respectively. These names are admittedly matters merely of convenience, and are open in all cases either to question or qualification. The Worcester Family (the most advanced of English primitive collections in technical construction) is named after the Worcester Collection, on the mistaken assumption that this, authentically Worcester, composition is the oldest surviving member of the group; whereas in fact a hitherto undiscussed manuscript in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, reveals an earlier derivation from their common origin, and there are good reasons for doubting if the family archetype was dependent in any way on the Worcester school of canon lawyers. Six members of this once-numerous family are known at present in manuscript, and two of these are also familiar in published analyses. All are technically primitive in composition, being either divided into books or libri simply, or in the most mature examples subdivided also into titles or tituli, but without the systematic device of dismemberment of the longer decretals. In systematic collections the longer letters, dealing frequently with several different and quite unrelated topics within the limits of a single decretal, are dissected into their component chapters, which are arranged analytically according to subject matter and distributed under various headings. None of the Worcester Family is systematic in this sense, though some record an advanced stage of technical development within the primitive conventions. |
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| ISSN: | 2166-5508 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Traditio
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1017/S0362152900008631 |