Legal development in the 12th century: the Regesta decretalium

• Applicants: Professorin Dr. Gisela Drossbach; Professor Dr. Hans-Georg Hermann
• Subject Area: Principles of Law and Jurisprudence ; Roman Catholic Theology ; Medieval History
• Term: from 2015 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 273097864

This project deals with the historic sources as fundamental scientific research that investigates the question of the development of the ius novum in the form of papal decretals from the high medieval period, i.e. papal writings clarifying questions of Church law with claims to universal validit. The phase of production of these collections containing the new decretals starts after the Decretum Gratiani (1140) and came to a close in 1234 with the Liber Extra of Pope Gregory IX.The aim of the project described in first applicatio is the creation of a “Regesta decretalium” which will consist of comprehensive and uniformly structured register entries for each of the approximately 1.200 known decretals from the second half of the 12th century. The register shall take the form of a book publication as well as an electronic information system, thus both a traditional register and a digital text markup, the latter in fruitful cooperation with the Göttinger Papsturkundenwerk Regesta Pontificum Romanorum Online (http://www.papsturkunden.de).Based on the Corpus fontium extravagantium, which was compiled for this very purpose and consists of sources such as decretal sums, ordines iudiciarii, tracts, etc. of the late 12th and early 13th centuries, mostly unknown extravagants, i.e. decretals preserved outside these collections, were indexed for the Regesta decretalium in a first follow-up application. Ignoring these decretal texts would not have constituted a factually justifiable omission. The same applies to the present application:Towards the end of the project pha, it became apparent that this very request is necessary as the reception from the decretal collections turned out to not be limited to the decretals of Alexander III and his successors, but also included pre-Gratian and pre-Alexandrian decretals as well as decretals of Innocent III. (1198-1216) to the same extent.These decretals had not yet been included in the Regesta decretalium at all. Despite that, they are in fact indispensable for a complete record of all decretals in print version as a part of the Regesta Pontificum Romanorum Online. The urgency of this undertaking becomes especially clear considering that these historic records were disregarded in most of the recent edition projects.That is why the papal writings taken from the Corpus fontium extravagantium and the decratal collection shall now be investigated, striving for a completion which documents the continued reception of decretals of the ius novum with the greatest possible degree of detail according to the current state of knowledge; a project that is, therefore, an integral component of basic canon law research up to the creation of the great body of papal legislation, the Liber Extra of 1234.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants