Bishop Leodoin of Modena and the Legal Culture of Late Ninth-Century Italy

Abstract

This article offers an analysis and contextualization of canon law materials found in the manuscript Modena, Biblioteca Capitolare O.I.4. It focuses especially on a letter, transmitted in the manuscript, written by Bishop Leodoin of Modena (ca. 871-ca. 891) to Abbot Theodoric of Nonantola. This letter is noteworthy for containing perhaps the earliest citations of the Pseudo-Isidorian decretais in Italy outside of Rome. Leodoin's arguments in the letter and his use of both the decretais and older canonical authorities are examined. The examination reveais that Leodoin had access to a Bobbiese collection of conciliar canons in addition to Pseudo-Isidore, and that he approached and used these two classes of authorities - decretais and conciliar canons - in quite different ways. Leodoin's letter is also situated in the broader context of the ongoing conflict between the Modenese church and the monastery of Nonantola in the ninth century. This contextualization sheds light on and corroborates some of what is found in Leodoin's letter, and also suggests that Leodoin's canonical-argumentative approach coexisted with other methods of prosecuting the perennial disputes between the two institutions. The article also catalogs the other canon law materials in the Modena codex, giving special attention to a neglected collection of extracts - many heavily edited - taken primarily from the Pseudo-Isidorian decretais, titled De accusatione episcopi. Analysis of the collection reveais that it was not produced using the incomplete text of Pseudo-Isidore found in the Modena manuscript, but rather a different Italian tradition of the A2-redaction of Pseudo-Isidore. This suggests that a creative, engaged approach to canon law (and particularly to the Pseudo- Isidorian decretais) was not unique to Leodoin, but was rather a feature of the broader legal culture of Northern Italy in the final decades of the ninth century. The article concludes with two appendices: an edition and English translation of Leodoin's letter to Theodoric and an edition of the De accusatione episcopi.