Particular Bullaria
Bullaria have been compiled collecting the papal documents relating to a religious order, institution or locality. For example, eight volumes have recently been published by R. de Martinis under the title "Jus Pontificium de Propaganda Fide" (Rome, 1888–98). This is in substance the bullarium of the Congregation of Propaganda brought up to date. Similarly, an exhaustive collection or rather calendar of early papal documents concerning the churches of Italy has been undertaken by P. F. Kehr under the title "Italia Pontificia" (Berlin 1906). The expense is defrayed by the Gottinger Academy. Of the more important religious orders, nearly all have at some time or other collected their privileges in print. Among the most extensive of such compilations, which formerly often went by the name "Mare Magnum" (the Great Ocean) may be mentioned the Bullarium of the Dominicans, edited by Ripoli and Bremond (eight vols., Rome, 1729–40); that of the Franciscans, edited by Sbaralea (4 vols., Rome, 1758–80), with a more modern continuation by Eubel, (3 vols., Rome, 1897–1904); that of the Capuchins (7 vols., Rome, 1740–52); that of the Benedictines of Monte Cassino (2 vols., Venice, 1650). All the volumes mentioned here were folios, mostly of considerable bulk.
Historically speaking, the most interesting papal volumes are often those contained in the "Regesta" which have never been included in the general Bullarium. Since the archives of the Vatican were thrown open to students by Leo XIII in 1883, immense labor has been spent upon the copying and publication of the Bulls contained in the "Regesta." but even before this date, facilities for research were not infrequently accorded. Many hundreds of copies of documents relating to Great Britain were made for the British Government by Marino de Marinis in the early part of the nineteenth century and are now preserved in the British Museum.
In 1873 the Reverend Joseph Stevenson was sent to Rome for a similar purpose and transcripts made by him during four years' residence may be consulted at the Record Office, London. Since then, Messrs Bliss and Tenlow have been engaged in the same task and have published at the expense of the British Government seven volumes of a "Calendar of Entries in the Papal Register illustrating the History of Great Britain and Ireland." These are primarily papal letters, and they extend from the beginning of the thirteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century. The members of the Ecole Française de Rome have been equally active, with the publication of the "regesta" of various pontificates, mostly of the thirteenth century. Those of
- Honorius IV (1285–87),
- Nicolaus IV (1288–92),
- Benedict XI (1304–04)
have been published and are complete. Those of
- Innocent IV (1243–54),
- Urban IV (1261–64),
- Clement VI (1265–68)
are all but complete; while great progress has been made with those of
- Gregory X and John XXI (1271–77),
- Nicolaus III (1271–80),
- Martin IV (1281–85),
- Boniface VIII (1291–03),
- Gregory IX (1227–41), and
- Alexander IV (1254–61).
Besides these, the "Regesta" of Clement V (1305–1314) have been published by the Benedictines in nine volumes folio at the cost of Leo XIII, and those of John XXII (1316–34), as far as they relate to France, are being printed by A. Coulon, while those of the other Avignon popes are also in hand. The Regesta of Innocent III and his successor Honorius III have long been printed, and they are among the last volumes printed in the Patrology of Migne. Finally among local bullaria we may mentioned the considerable collections published some time ago by Augustin Theiner for various countries under the general heading of "Vetera Monumenta."
With regard to the early centuries, where no originals of official copies exist to which we can make appeal, the task of distinguishing genuine from spurious papal letters becomes exceedingly delicate. The collection of Dom Coustant, "Epistolae Romanorum Pontificorum" (Paris, 1721), is of the highest value, but the compiler only lived to carry his work down to the year 440, and A. Thiele, who continued it, brought it no further than 553. Some further help has been provided by Hampe, regarding the papal letters to Charlemagne and to Louis the Pious, and by Herth-Gerenth for Sergius II. For practical purposes the chief court of appeal for an opinion on all papal documents is the "Regesta Pontificorum Romanorum" of Philipp Jaffé, much improved in its second edition by its editors, Wattenbach, Ewald, Kalterbrunner, and Löwenfeld. In this a brief synopsis of given of all existing papal documents known to be in existence, from the time of Peter to that of Innocent III (1198), with indications of the collections in which they have been printed and with an appendix dealing with spurious documents. This has been continued by August Potthast to the year 1304 (2 vols., Berlin).
It may be added that compendiums have also been published of the "Bullarium Romanum" as printed in the eighteenth century. Of these the most valuable is probably that of Guerra "Pontificarium Constitutionem in Bullario Magno contentarum Epitome" (4 vols., Venice, 1772), which possesses a very complete and useful index. Commentaries on the bullarium or on large portions of it have been published by the Jesuit J. B. Scortia (Lyons, 1625), by the Dominican, M. de Gregorio (Naples, 1648), and by Cardinal Vincent Petra (Rome, 1705–26). Finally, attention may be called to the bulls contained in volume edited by Galante, "Fontes Juris Canonici" (Innsbruck, 1906).
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