The Collectio Burdegalensis

The Collectio Burdegalensis is an important example of a late eleventh-century, regional collection of canon law. While specialists have long known of the Bordeaux collection, they have until now accorded it scant attention. Kriston Rennie's new edition, the first, reveals its considerable value to scholars concerned with the process of ecclesiastical reform, the history of church councils, the activity of papal legates, and the transmission and compilation of legal texts in the age before Gratian. The author has furnished a complete register of the canons together with a thorough introduction to its historical context. Rennie's work admirably links the Collectio to the wider social, cultural, and political forces which produced it, mutually enriching the fields of canon law and ecclesiastical history. It deserves our attention. - John S. Ott, Portland State University