Abstract

The history of the compilation process of the canonical collections that we consider as 'antique' is not an exact science, because the conditions of composition, besides the use and reception of the vast majority of these miscellanies, are in no way documented. As far as those for which we are fortunate enough to have an author's name (e.g. Dionysius Exiguus, Cresconius, etc.) or a context of application (for example, the Roman synod of 531 for the "Collectio (Ecclesiae) Thessalonicensis") are concerned, there are no elements that might permit us to reinsert these works into the overall history completely. This situation, however, has not prevented researchers from studying the content of the canonical collections in depth or from proposing a classification, besides offering many hypotheses about their origin and their respective objectives. While assuming that we are working from pure speculation, this work attempts to draw a picture in three stages of the hypothetically reconstructed history of the compilation process of the Italian canonical collections in Antiquity, viz. until the end of the episcopate of Gregory I the Great.