The papal privileges and letters for the abbey of Cluny and the monastic federation of the «Cluniacensis ecclesia» were printed for the first time in the year 1680 in Lyon under the title: «Bullarium sacri ordinis Cluniacensis». Pierre Simon, claustral Prior of Saint-Martial d'Avignon and Secretary of the General Chapter, was responsible for the edition. The collection contains approximately 500 documents almost exclusively of curial origin from the period between 927/928 and 1668. Its appendix provides a list of the monasteries that were connected to Cluny by confraternities of prayer.

Unfortunately this edition is only rarely to be found in libraries. Already Alexandre Bruel noticed at the end of the XIX^th century that there were only four copies at Paris, i. e. in the Bibliothèque nationale and in the libraries of Sainte Geneviève, the Arsenal and the Archives nationales. Before 2002, modern library catalogues on the Internet like the Karlsruher Virtuelle Katalog or the ABES/SUDOC: Système universitaire de documentation only listed the copies of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (including a special edition) and another of the Staatsbibliothek preussischer Kulturbesitz at Berlin. Today, several copies are available as text/scan: Cf. University Library of Berkeley and in the Bibliothèque municipale de Dijon.   WWW:         and in the Bibliothèque municipale de Lyon, [in the catalogue incorrectly under "Bullarium sacris(!) ordini(!) Cluniacensis"] (here as a Google book). Since 2023/2024, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France also presents a copy in two versions
Version A
Version B
in different digital quality (without the special feature described here).

As part of a project preparing the summaries of the papal documents relevant to the monastery of Cluny an Internet version of the «Bullarium» is therefore made available here. Jean-Loup Lemaitre, directeur d'études à l'École pratique des hautes études, IV^e section, kindly provided photocopies of his private copy of the «Bullarium» for purposes of scanning. I would like to cordially thank him here for his support.

Operating Instructions:

The Internet version of the «Bullarium» is made accessible by indices, search functions and concordances. They facilitate finding certain documents and refer to summaries and other editions.

The Index paginarum  allows the user to find particular pages of the «Bullarium».

The Index chronologicus Privilegiorum  offers a chronologically arranged overview of all documents with the conventional information (date, author, etc.) for identifying a piece. If possible,
further editions (e. g.: Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, Migne, Chartae galliae)
as well as
summary-collections (e. g.: Jaffé-Löwenfeld, Bernard-Bruel: Recueil, Regesta Imperii, Gallia Pontificia)
are designated. The abbreviations can be dissolved by clicking.

For the period before the pontificate of Innocent III, the texts of the charters are also presented in a synoptic view.

If a page of the «Bullarium» is represented on the screen, then the author of the charter and the date of the piece on the page can be made visible by clicking.

The technical work was accomplished in the
project Cluny of the
Institute for Early Medieval Studies.
Responsible for contents: Franz Neiske

Please send corrections and additions by email to:   Franz Neiske