Abstract

The canons traditionally attributed to a council held in Elvira (Granada) drew on normative ecclesiastical materials that belonged to at least three collections (without reproducing them literally). Known only in their 'pseudoiliberritan' version, these texts of different origins and chronologies also underwent some (basically explanatory) modifications and amplifications after they had already become part of the 'new' collection: at that point, interpolations and even other canons were added. The non coherent nature of these precepts (whose composition appears to be established starting from the second half of the sixth century) clearly emerge from philological and comparative analysis, the main results of which are set forth here. It is also possible to detect a textual mixture between the 'preface' of the Hispanical Canonical Collection (CCH) and the beginning of the canonical series. This is not to say that the Hispanic assembly linked to these canons was not an historical event. In point of fact, it probably took place shortly after the council of Nicaea.