Great Gloss

The (also known as , and ) is a collection of 96,940 marginal annotations () in Latin by the Italian jurist Accursius () on the , a collection of Roman law by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I ().

Modern scholarship contends that the maintained its authoritative status as leading commentary on the in Europe up to the 17th century, which is signified by the adage "" ('Whatever the Gloss does not recognize, the court does not recognize').

Name

The name refers to fact that the gloss by Accursius was the "ordinary" or "standard" gloss on the .

Author, development and usage

Author

Accursius () was an Italian jurist born near Florence who studied at the University of Bologna under Azo and Jacobus Balduinus. Some time before 1220, he started teaching law at this university. He was highly regarded for his teaching and became rich – his large palace in Bologna is now part of the Palazzo d'Accursio. Some scholars contend that he participated in extortionate transactions with students and accepted gifts during examination procedures.

Accursius was part of the school of glossators in Bologna, who annotated the with (' interlinear gloss') or ('marginal gloss') and made this Byzantine law collection of the 6th century practical and useful for the circumstances and needs of Europe in the 13th century.

Development

Work on the probably started in the 1220s and modern scholarship contends that it continued for several decades and was probably completed around 1250. The material for the was gathered from earlier commentary by Azo, Hugolianus and Johannes Bassianus; Accursius did likely also use Odofredus, Symon Vincentius and Jacobus Balduinus.

The was the last of the glosses by the glossators. In the view of the legal scholar Robert Figueira, it "provide an unsurpassed and exact reference to parallel and contrary texts within , and it absorbed, summarized, and perpetuated the work of many important earlier glossators for posterity".

Usage

The was used in teaching and legal practise from the second half of the 13th century in Italy. In Northern Italy, it held a dominant position in legal practise and during the 15th century it was still the starting point for Italian legal inquiry. In France, it was not as well received, but still known. In Germany, the was known since the end of the 13th century. Its enduring influence is signified by the adage "" ('Whatever the Gloss does not recognize, the court does not recognize'), which was coined in 17th century Germany. In Spain, it heavily influenced the , while it even held formal legal value under the Portuguese Alfonsine Ordinances. Modern scholarship argues that the maintained its authoritative status in Europe up to the 17th century.

Content

Overview

The differs from earlier glossatorial work only in its completeness and its size; it is the largest of the glosses. It consists of 96,940 separate marginal annotations () to all parts of the and the , which were compiled by the glossators. The contains about 2,000,000 words.

* 62,577 annotations concern the .
* 21,933 annotations concern the .
* 7,013 annotations concern the (without books 10–12).
* 4,737 annotations concern the .
* 680 annotations concern the .

The uses various to clarify which author is used as the authority for a specific marginal annotation. The referenced authorities are Azo (3,879 references), Johannes Bassianus (1,850 references), Hugolinus (1,030 references), (920 references), Martinus (590 references), Placentinus (520 references), Irnerius (330 references), Bulgarus (315 references), Albericus (230 references), Pillius (165 references), Jacobus (30 references) and Hugo (10 references). Unusually for legal glosses, the also references Canon law, if sparsely: The is cited 260 times, while Papal decretals are cited 125 times.

The popularity and usefulness of the rests on the completeness of its analysis of the and Accursius' ability to avoid contradictions within the . He stated that all contradictions could be resolved ("").

Example

To illustrate what a gloss of the is, the following example is provided – being the gloss to Dig. 47.11.4.

Modern recognition

The modern recognition of the differs: In the 19th century, the leading German jurist Friedrich Carl von Savigny, was critical of the work. He argued that Accursius was a "collector without judgment" (""), nevertheless acknowledging that the was of similar value for later centuries as the itself (""). Afterwards, a more positive reception prevailed. Otto von Gierke, an acclaimed German jurist and historian of the 19th and 20th century, noted that the "remains the starting point of modern jurisprudence".

The most recent evaluation of the work by the German legal scholar in 2017 is glowing:

Editions

Around 1,200 manuscripts of the are known. The first print of the work was done in Mainz in 1476. Additionally, it was, , printed in Venice in five parts in 1487–1489. This edition was reprinted in Turin by Ex Officina Erasmiana as part of the series (volumes 7–11) in 1968 and 1969. The individual volumes are:
*
*
*
*
*

No modern critical edition of the exists.

See also

* – a principle of property law principle traced back to the Glossa by Accursius (note to Dig. 8.2.1)

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

Further reading

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* {{Cite journal , last=Lohsse , first=Sebastian , date=2011 , title=Accursius und 'die Glosse' – eine Bestandsaufnahme zum 750. Todestag. , journal=Zeitschrift für Europäisches Privatrecht , language=de , volume=19 , issue=2 , pages=366–391

13th century in law
13th-century books in Latin
Roman law