Die Register Innocenz’ III., 16. Band

The 16th volume of the edition of pope Innocent III’s chancery registers is containing 182 letters addressed to recipients all over Europe and in the Middle East. Special attention is paid to the preparation of the crusade and the council, the fight against heresy in Southern France, the reconciliation of the king of England and organisation of the Baltic church. Other letters are dealing with political and ecclesiastical issues from Southern Italy to Scandinavia, matrimonial matters and property questions, privileges and confirmations of rights and possessions of bishoprics and monasteries, matters concerning the episcopate and litigation within the Church, such as contested elections or disciplinary problems, and a variety of decisions offering insights in major and minor problems of the church and the people around 1200. As the 13th, 14th and 15th volume, the register of Innocent’s sixteenth year of pontificate is one of the volumes transmitted not as original but as a copy written at the Curia in mid-14th century and as print published by the French scholar Bosquet in the 17th century. The volume is offering the critical edition of the texts, ample historical comments, identifications of textual parallels and quotations from the Bible, Canon and Roman law, theological, liturgical and classical texts, and the letters' insertion in decretal collections. In the introduction, the manuscript and the editory principles are described, and several indices help to access the contents.