IVO OF CHARTRES, Saint. - French canonist, b. at Beauvais in 1040, d. at Chartres on 23 Dec. 1115.
He studied philosophy and theology in Paris, was a canon at Nesle in Picardy, and in 1090 was appointed by Urban II bishop of Chartres, whence the appellation of Carnotensis by which he is remembered. Feast day 23 Dec.
Three important collections of canon law are attributed to him, which represent, together with the works of Burchard of Worms, the major sources to which Gratian subsequently turned for his Decretum. These collections consist of the so-called Collectio tripertita, the Decretum, and the Pannormia or Panormia.
While the aforementioned compilations of I. can be considered, from the material standpoint of a collection of texts, a preparatory work for Gratian's Decretum, the method followed, common to that of his contemporary Bernard of Constance, can be regarded as a precursor of what Gratian set as the chief aim of his own work: namely, the overcoming of the contrariety of the texts.
Another characteristic, later followed by Gratian and already found in I., is that of gathering together both the leges and the canones. The Collectio tripertita is not an original work but a derivative one, inasmuch as, according to the thesis of Fournier (v. bibl.), its first two parts would constitute a chronological collection of texts, drawn from the Decretum of Burchard of Worms and from other collections of Italian origin. On the other hand, it is not even known with certainty whether I. is the actual author or merely the promoter of this first block of the Tripertita. The third part of the aforementioned Collectio would instead appear as a summary of I.'s Decretum. This would increase the suspicion that the entire collection too was not his direct work. As for the Decretum, Fournier holds that it is a disorganized collection compiled between 1090 and 1095, and drawn from Burchard's Decretum, from the first two parts of the Collectio tripertita, from a Collectio similar to the Collectio Britannica, and from the Digest. Fournier casts doubt on whether the Decretum is I.'s direct work.
The Pannormia, finally, again according to Fournier, would be more properly I.'s own work, but even in it the help of others would not be excluded. It would be a systematic collection compiled around 1095, after the Decretum and with its material, but with additions extraneous to it.
Contrary to the thesis set forth, Bliemetzrieder ascribes the Decretum to I., inasmuch as I.'s prologue refers to that work and not to the Pannormia, as Fournier holds. The same author, however, doubts that the Pannormia can be by I. The Decretum, the Pannormia and the Collectio tripertita were published in PL 161, 47-1423.
Bibliography7 works
Antonio Rota