Accursius

Accursius (Italian: ''Accursio'' or ''Accorso di Bagnolo''; c. 11821263) was an Italian jurist. He is notable for his organization of the glosses, the medieval comments on Justinian's codification of Roman law, the ''Corpus Juris Civilis''. He was not proficient in the classics, but he was called "the Idol of the Jurisconsults".

Biography

Accursius was born at Impruneta, near Florence. A pupil of Azo, he first practised law in his native city, and was afterwards appointed professor at Bologna, where he had great success as a teacher. He undertook to arrange into one body the tens of thousands of comments and remarks upon the ''Code'', the ''Institutes'' and '' Digests''. Accursius assembled from the various earlier glosses for each of these texts a coherent and consistent body of glosses. This compilation, soon given the title ''Glossa ordinaria'' or ''magistralis'', and usually known as the ''Great Gloss'', was essentially complete at about 1230. While Accursius was employed in this work, legend has it that, hearing of a similar one proposed and begun by Odofred, another lawyer of Bologna, he feigned indisposition, interrupted his public lectures, and shut himself up, till with the utmost expedition he had accomplished his design.

After the middle of the 13th century, the ''Gloss'' had grown to be the starting point for every exegesis of the Corpus Iuris, and was even given force of law in some jurisdictions. The authority of the ''Gloss'' is probably due to Accursius' very exhaustive coverage of the civil law, in the course of which he not only pointed out its problems but unlike his predecessors also offered solutions for them. Indeed, modern research has shown that Accursius' work contains nearly 100,000 glosses. The best edition is that of Denis Godefroy, published at Lyon in 1589, in six folio volumes.

Apart from his work as a glossator, Accursius was also engaged very profitably as a legal consultant.

He lived and taught during the later years of his life at Bologna where he died in 1263. It was acknowledged that after his death the legal science in Italy suffered a decline.

Family

Three of his four sons were also jurists: Cervottus, Guilelmus and the noted Franciscus. The latter is buried with his father in one of the arcs lining the street near the Basilica of San Francesco, Bologna. There was a legend that he had a daughter, Accursia, who was also a jurist.

Recognition

For his ''magnum opus'', Accursius was extolled by the lawyers of his own and the immediately succeeding age as the greatest glossator, and he was even called the idol of jurisconsults, but those of later times formed a lower estimate of his merits. Eventually, 16th century humanists, including Rabelais in his '' Gargantua and Pantagruel'', polemically criticised Accursius' ''Gloss''.

Accursius' majestic residence on the Piazza Maggiore was later expanded into the Palazzo Comunale, or the town hall.

File:Libri feudorum (with the Glossa ordinaria of Accursius)--German- Das b-uch des kaiserlichen Lehenrecht. - Lower cover (IB6739).jpg , ''Glossa ordinaria'' of Accursius
File:Digesta Justiniani Infortiatum 1997304.jpg, Corpus iuris civilis (Digesta Justiniani) with ''Glossa ordinaria'' by Accursius
File:Libri feudorum (with the Glossa ordinaria of Accursius)--German- Das b-uch des kaiserlichen Lehenrecht. - Upper cover (IB6739).jpg , libre Fedorum by Accursius
File:Digesta Justiniani Infortiatum 1997653.jpg, Digesta Justiniani Infortiatum by Accursius
File:Digesta Justiniani Infortiatum 1997751.jpg, Digesta Justiniani Infortiatum with ''Glossa ordinaria'' by Accursius
File:Digesta Justiniani Infortiatum 1997577.jpg, Digesta Justiniani with 1495 ''Gloss'' by Accursius
File:Digesta Justiniani Infortiatum 1997549.jpg, Digesta Justiniani with 1495 ''Gloss'' by Accursius
File:Digesta Justiniani Infortiatum 1997748.jpg, Corpus iuris civilis (Digesta Justiniani) with 1495 ''Gloss'' by Accursius

See also

*'' Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos'' – credited to AccursiusHarvard Legal Essays, Written in Honor of and Presented to John Henry Beale and Samuel Williston, 1977, Ayer Company Publishers, Incorporated
p. 522
note 8: "He who owns the soil owns it up to the sky." The maxim had no place in the Roman law during its classical period, but is said to have been first used by Accursius of Bologna, a commentator, who flourished in the thirteenth century. It has been suggested that the maxim was introduced into England by the son of Accursius whom Edward I brought with him on his return from the Holy Land and who for many years held high office under the Crown and also was connected with Oxford University. Bouvé, Private Ownership of Airspace, 1 Air Law Rev. 232, 246–248. At any rate, nearly three centuries later the reporter's note to Bury ''v.'' Pope, Cro. Eliz. 118 8 Eng. Rep. 375(1587) ascribes the maxim to the time of Edward I." Clement Lincoln Bouvé, "Private Ownership of Airspace", 1 Air Law Rev. 232, 376 (1930), 246–248Wilkie, Malcolm & Luxton: Q&A: Land Law 2011 and 2012, Oxford University Press
Chapter 2: Definition of Land
, p. 5, "Question 1:''Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos'' (the owner of the land owns everything up to the sky and down to the centre of the earth). … Suggested Answer: This maxim, which was coined by Accursius in the thirteenth century, relates to the extent of the ownership enjoyed by the fee simple owner."
*Henry de Bracton

References

;Attribution
*

Further reading

*
*Text of the ''Glossa ordinaria'' of Accursius is availabl
onlinearchived version
in an edition Lyon (Prost, Iullieron) 1627.

External links

*




Works of Accursius at ParalipomenaIuris

{{DEFAULTSORT:Accursius
Accursius, Franciscus
Accursius, Franciscus
Accursius, Franciscus
Accursius, Franciscus
13th-century writers in Latin
Burials at San Francesco (Bologna)
Accursius, Franciscus