Irnerius
Encyclopedia
Irnerius sometimes referred to as lucerna juris ("lantern of the law"), was an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 jurist
Jurist
A jurist or jurisconsult is a professional who studies, develops, applies, or otherwise deals with the law. The term is widely used in American English, but in the United Kingdom and many Commonwealth countries it has only historical and specialist usage...

, and founder of the School of Glossators and thus of the tradition of Medieval Roman Law
Medieval Roman law
Medieval Roman law is the continuation and development of ancient Roman law that developed in the European Late Middle Ages. Based on the ancient text of Roman law, the Corpus iuris civilis, it added many new concepts, and formed the basis of the later civil law systems that prevail in most...

.
He taught the newly recovered Roman lawcode of Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...

, the Corpus Juris Civilis
Corpus Juris Civilis
The Corpus Juris Civilis is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor...

, among the liberal arts at the University of Bologna
University of Bologna
The Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna is the oldest continually operating university in the world, the word 'universitas' being first used by this institution at its foundation. The true date of its founding is uncertain, but believed by most accounts to have been 1088...

, his native city. The recovery and revival of Roman law, taught first at Bologna in the 1070s, was a momentous event in European cultural history. Irnerius' interlinear glosses
Gloss
A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....

 on the Corpus Juris Civilis
Corpus Juris Civilis
The Corpus Juris Civilis is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Eastern Roman Emperor...

stand at the beginnings of a European law that was written, systematic, comprehensive and rational, and based on Roman law.

Life

He was born at Bologna
Bologna
Bologna is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna, in the Po Valley of Northern Italy. The city lies between the Po River and the Apennine Mountains, more specifically, between the Reno River and the Savena River. Bologna is a lively and cosmopolitan Italian college city, with spectacular history,...

 about 1050.

At the urging of Countess Matilda of Tuscany
Matilda of Tuscany
Matilda of Tuscany was an Italian noblewoman, the principal Italian supporter of Pope Gregory VII during the Investiture Controversy. She is one of the few medieval women to be remembered for her military accomplishments...

 he began to devote himself to the study of jurisprudence, taking the Justinian code as a guide. After teaching jurisprudence for a short while in Rome he returned to Bologna, where he founded a new school of jurisprudence in 1084 or 1088, which would rival the law school of Ravenna.

Some jurisprudence had been taught at Bologna, before Irnerius founded his school, by Pepo
Pepo (jurist)
Pepo was an 11th century consultant judge who became the first law teacher at the University of Bologna. His teaching was based on Justinian's compilations of Roman law, including the Code, Institutes, and Digest....

 and a few others, and a tradition of jurisprudence had developed at Pavia
Pavia
Pavia , the ancient Ticinum, is a town and comune of south-western Lombardy, northern Italy, 35 km south of Milan on the lower Ticino river near its confluence with the Po. It is the capital of the province of Pavia. It has a population of c. 71,000...

 since the mid-ninth century. He introduced the custom of explaining the Roman law by means of glosses, which originally were meagre interlinear elucidations of the text. But since the glosses were often too extensive to be inserted between the lines of the text, he began to write them on the margin of the page, thus being the first to introduce the marginal glosses which afterwards came into general use.

After the death of Pope Paschal II
Pope Paschal II
Pope Paschal II , born Ranierius, was Pope from August 13, 1099, until his death. A monk of the Cluniac order, he was created cardinal priest of the Titulus S...

, he defended the rights of Emperor Henry V in the papal election and upheld the legality of the election of the imperial antipope Gregory VIII
Antipope Gregory VIII
Gregory VIII , born Mauritius Burdinus , was antipope from 10 March 1118 until 22 April 1121.He was born in the Limousin, part of Aquitaine, Occitania, France. He was educated at Cluny, at Limoges, and in Castile, where he was a deacon at Toledo. In 1098/1099 his Cluniac connections recommended him...

. After 1116 he appears to have held some office under the emperor. He died, perhaps during the reign of the emperor Lothair II, but certainly before 1140.

Teaching

Irnerius taught along lines firmly established in the teaching of Scripture, by reading aloud a section of the civil law, which the students would copy, and add to the text his commentary and explanatory gloss
Gloss
A gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....

es. Thus he was the first of the glossator
Glossator
The scholars of the 11th and 12th century legal schools in Italy, France and Germany are identified as glossators in a specific sense. They studied Roman Law based on the Digestae, the Codex of Justinian, the Authenticae The scholars of the 11th and 12th century legal schools in Italy, France and...

s, whose explications of the law became an essential part of the legal curriculum.

The text of Justinian's Pandects
Pandects
The Digest, also known as the Pandects , is a name given to a compendium or digest of Roman law compiled by order of the emperor Justinian I in the 6th century .The Digest was one part of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the body of civil law issued under Justinian I...

used in Bologna, referred to as the Littera Bononiensis, closely parallel to the Littera Florentina
Littera Florentina
The parchment codex called Littera Florentina is the closest survivor to an official version of the Pandects, the digest of Roman law promulgated by Justinian I in 530–533....

, would be disseminated throughout Europe as students returned home from Bologna: there are versions of the Bolognese Littera with provenances in Paris, Padua, Leipzig and at the Vatican (Purpura 2001).

Works

According to ancient opinion (which, however, has been much controverted), Irnerius was the author of the epitome
Epitome
An epitome is a summary or miniature form; an instance that represents a larger reality, also used as a synonym for embodiment....

 of the Novellae of Justinian, called the Authentica, arranged according to the titles of the Code. His Formularium tabellionum (a directory for notaries) and Quaestiones (a book of judicial decisions) are no longer extant (EB).

The "Summa Codicis", attributed to Irnerius by Herman Fitting in his 1894 edition is now widely considered a later work of between 1130 and 1159, but remains the earliest known summa on Justinian's Code
Code
A code is a rule for converting a piece of information into another form or representation , not necessarily of the same type....



Another important work, Quaestiones de juris subtilitatibus, was generally ascribed to Irnerius until Hermann Kantorowicz published a ms from the British Museum
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

.

Other juridical works and glosses that are ascribed to Irnerius are extant only in fragments, or their authorship is uncertain.

Reputation

Irnerius was largely forgotten; his name was revived by German historians of the later 19th century and came to prominence with the celebrations marking the octocentennial of the University of Bologna. His name is also seen in manuscripts as Hirnerius, Hyrnerius, Iernerius, Gernerius, Garnerius, Guarnerius, Warnerius, Wernerius, Yrnerius. He called himself Wernerius when he signed documents.

Anders Winroth has questioned much of the received account for Irnerius' life and questioned his importance for the history of Roman law in the Middle Ages.

External links

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