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  • The Hibernensis. Book 1: A study and edition ed. by Roy Flechner, and: The Hibernensis. Book 2: Translation, commentary, and indexes ed. by Roy Flechner
  • Paul Russell (bio)
The Hibernensis. Book 1: A study and edition, ed. Roy Flechner. Studies in medieval and early modern canon law 17/1. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-0-8132-3193-8. 166* + 474 pages. $85.00 (cloth).
The Hibernensis. Book 2: Translation, commentary, and indexes, ed. & trans. Roy Flechner. Studies in medieval and early modern canon law 17/2. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2019. ISBN: 978–0–8132–3221–8. 540 pages. $45.00 (paper).

The Collectio canonum Hibernensis (CCH) is probably the most important text (or group of texts) emanating from early medieval Ireland which has yet to be edited to modern standards. Compiled in Ireland in the late seventh or early eighth century from a vast range of canonical sources, it is the largest canon-law collection from Carolingian Europe. Its general importance cannot be over-stated, but it is particularly important for our understanding of the history of the church in early medieval Ireland. If CCH itself has had a long history, then the editing of it has a history that seems almost as long. Detailed discussion about the text began in the mid-nineteenth century between Hermann Wasserschleben (who produced the first edition of CCH A in 1874 [second edition in 1885]: Die irische Kanonensammlung) and Henry Bradshaw, who had discovered some of the important manuscripts of the Breton strand of the tradition on his travels in search of Breton glosses at about the same period. Celticists have always been interested in it as many of its manuscripts are glossed in the Celtic vernaculars. Attempts to produce a new edition all came to nothing during the twentieth century (for discussion, see pp. [End Page 116] 112*–114*),1 though Maurice Sheehy probably came closest. The manuscript tradition falls into two main branches, prosaically known as A and B, and this volume represents the first edition of both branches of the tradition of this important text. The difficulty of the text aside, the burden of history rests upon it.

In Book 1 of this two volume edition, after a very long analytical Contents (pp. 7*–40*) which does not include the contents of Book 2 (even though there is no front matter to Book 2), the Introduction (pp. 52*–161*) falls into two main parts: the first section (pp. 52*–87*) deals with the background to the text, authorship, date of composition, sources, its continental and Irish context, etc., ending with a brief section on the Latinity of the text. This discussion is based on a substantial body of scholarship which has accumulated around the text, especially in the last 30 to 40 years. The next section (pp. 88*–111*) prepares the ground for the methodology of the edition by separating out the different recensions (A and B) of the text and arguing for an original 'undivided' text (perhaps evidenced secondarily and partially by Θ (Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek, Mp. Th. Q. 31), the first part of which contains a series of texts, but not a complete version, derived, apparently, from an undivided CCH). This leads into the methodological section on how the text is to be edited (pp. 112*–124*) followed by brief descriptions of the manuscripts used in the edition (pp. 125*–147*). This is then followed by a series of concordance tables (pp. 149*–166*). The edition takes up the rest of Book 1 (pp. 1–474). The text takes a standard form of edited text with sources and apparatus presented beneath. One non-standard feature is the presentation of the CCH A and CCH B texts combined; they are distinguished by the latter being printed in a sans serif font. The upshot is that we are reading a text which in its ordering, if not its wording, probably never existed. Now, while that can be argued of most edited texts, here the danger is that, without careful and continuous guidance, the unwary reader will treat this text as continuous and authoritative. Book 2 contains the...

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