Letters of Gregory the Great, Paul the Deacon, and Carolingian debate

The manuscript tradition of Gregory the Great’s correspondence increased
significantly in the Carolingian period. At least three different collections of his
letters emerged in course of the period from the mid eighth century to the first
decades of the ninth. The oldest extant witness, Saint Petersburg, Publičnaja
Biblioteka, F.v.I.7, conveys fifty-four letters. Modern scholarship has associated
the manuscript with Paul the Deacon and Adalard of Corbie. When read in the
context of the textual evidence from the Saint Petersburg manuscript, Paul’s
letter to his commissioner, found in that volume, shows that his contribution
to the transmission was rather limited. The emergence, contents and manuscript
tradition of the collection in question, however, attest to a new emphasis
assigned to Gregory as an authority in ecclesiological and theological debate.
Even so, an element of risk was perceived in the republication of his letters,
namely that some readerships might construe them inappropriately.