ABSTRACT
The oldest canon law books are two copies of the Collectio Tripartita traditionally associated with Ivo of Chartres. Romuald Hube, who had collaborated closely with Savigny, correctly identified the Collectio Tripartita in both manuscripts. Succeeding historians took only a passing interest in the manuscripts. In 1933 Adam Vetulani began to prepare a catalogue of the canonical collections and canonistic literature from the Polish libraries up to the Council of Trent. Fundamental studies were also published on the Cathedral Library at Gniezno and its large collection of manuscripts. The issue of the Tripartita in Poland took another turn with Martin Brett’s research on the manuscript transmission of the collection. He discovered that both Polish copies of the Tripartita represent a later revised version of the earlier form, and that the two books were certainly not copied from the same exemplar.
