Accursius[1] (Italian:Accursio orAccorso di Bagnolo; c. 1182 – 1263) was an Italianjurist. He is notable for his organization of theglosses, the medieval comments onJustinian's codification ofRoman law, theCorpus Juris Civilis. He was not proficient in the classics, but he was called "the Idol of the Jurisconsults".
Accursius was born atImpruneta, nearFlorence. A pupil ofAzo, he first practised law in his native city, and was afterwards appointed professor atBologna, where he had great success as a teacher. He undertook to arrange into one body the tens of thousands of comments and remarks upon theCode, theInstitutes andDigests.[2] Accursius assembled from the various earlier glosses for each of these texts a coherent and consistent body of glosses. This compilation, soon given the titleGlossa ordinaria ormagistralis, and usually known as theGreat Gloss,[2] 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 byOdofred, 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.[2]
After the middle of the 13th century, theGloss 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 theGloss 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.[3] Indeed, modern research has shown that Accursius' work contains nearly 100,000 glosses. The best edition is that ofDenis Godefroy, published atLyon in 1589, in six folio volumes.[2]
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.[4]
Three of his four sons were also jurists: Cervottus, Guilelmus and the notedFranciscus. The latter is buried with his father in one of the arcs lining the street near theBasilica of San Francesco, Bologna.[2] There was a legend that he had a daughter,Accursia, who was also a jurist.[5]
For hismagnum opus, Accursius was extolled by the lawyers of his own and the immediately succeeding age as the greatestglossator, and he was even called the idol of jurisconsults, but those of later times formed a lower estimate of his merits.[2] Eventually, 16th centuryhumanists, includingRabelais in hisGargantua and Pantagruel, polemically criticised Accursius'Gloss.
Accursius' majestic residence on thePiazza Maggiore was later expanded into thePalazzo Comunale, or the town hall.
--German-_Das_b-uch_des_kaiserlichen_Lehenrecht._-_Lower_cover_(IB6739).jpg)
--German-_Das_b-uch_des_kaiserlichen_Lehenrecht._-_Upper_cover_(IB6739).jpg)
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Accursius, Franciscus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 134.audivi quod Accursius unam filiam habuit, quae actu legebat Bononiae
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Francesco Accursius".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
