Codex Epistolaris Carolinus Facsimile Edition

Habent sua data libelli – this saying from Terentianus Maurus copy can only be proudly cited in a few manuscripts, such the Codex Epistolaris Carolinus. The collection of these letters was arranged by order of Charles I and accordingly a statement of introduction followed in 791. This existing copy is no longer the original codex, but rather a later and singular remaining specimen found after a book inventory submission, however without chronological order of the various sections. It contains the most important state and church political documents for the history of the relationship between the Frankish empire and Pope II and this relationship plays a central role during half of the 8th century in the ever changing fate of circumstances surrounding the Pope and King with their ups and downs in trying to find their own direction. This alone shows the enormous historical worth of this manuscript which comes from Cologne under the possession of archbishop Willibert (870-889) and was written by 4 scribes in a more or less continuous Carolingian miniscule.