Glossa ordinaria (Accursius)

The Glossa ordinaria is an old set of notes about laws. It was written by a man named Accursius. He lived a long time ago in Italy, between about 1181 and 1263.

Accursius wrote almost 97,000 notes in Latin on the edges of pages. These pages were from a big book called the Corpus Iuris Civilis. This book is a collection of laws made by the emperor Justinian I of the Roman Empire many years before.

Accursius's notes were very important. People in Europe used them as the main way to understand the laws in the Corpus Iuris Civilis until around the 17th century. There is an old saying: "Quidquid non agnoscit Glossa, non agnoscit curia." This means "Whatever the Gloss does not recognize, the court does not recognize." This shows how important these notes were for understanding the laws.

Author, development and usage

Accursius (c. 1181/1185 – c. 1259/1263) was an Italian lawyer born near Florence. He studied at the University of Bologna and later taught law there. He became well-known and rich, and his big house in Bologna is now part of the Palazzo d'Accursio.

Accursius worked on the Glossa ordinaria, a set of notes about an important law book called the Corpus Iuris Civilis. He started this work in the 1220s and finished around 1250. His notes helped make old Byzantine laws useful for Europe in the 13th century. He used ideas from other teachers, mixing them in his own way.

Content

Overview

The Glossa ordinaria is a big set of notes written in the edges of books about old Roman laws. It has many notes to help explain the laws.

The notes talk about different parts of the laws, like the Digesta, the Codex Iustinianus, the Authentica, the Institutiones, and the Libri Feudorum. The Glossa ordinaria also uses special signs to show which older writers were used for each note.

Example

Here is an example of a note from the Glossa ordinaria. In one law, it talks about a woman who caused a problem with a baby. Accursius wrote a note explaining what this means.

Historical usage and modern recognition

Accursius' Glossa became very important for teaching and legal work in Italy soon after it was created. It replaced older notes and became the main guide for lawyers. Experts say it explains the Corpus Iuris Civilis well and helps solve problems within it.

The Glossa ordinaria was used widely in Italy from the late 1200s. In Northern Italy, it was the go-to guide for many years. Though it was less popular in France, people still knew about it. In Germany, it became known by the late 1200s. Its lasting impact is shown by the saying "Quidquid non agnoscit Glossa, non agnoscit curia" ('Whatever the Gloss does not recognize, the court does not recognize'), which came about in the 1600s in Germany. In Spain, it greatly influenced the Siete Partidas, and in Portugal, it even had official legal importance under the Alfonsine Ordinances. Experts believe the Glossa ordinaria stayed important in Europe until the 1600s.

In more recent times, opinions about the Glossa ordinaria have changed. In the 1800s, a leading German expert, Friedrich Carl von Savigny, was not very positive but still saw its value. Later, others, like Otto von Gierke, praised it as the start of modern legal thinking. A German scholar in 2017 described Accursius as very productive and skilled, with great knowledge and judgment.

Editions

There are about 1,200 old books, called manuscripts, that have the Glossa ordinaria written in the edges.

The first time the Glossa ordinaria was printed was in Mainz in 1476. Later, in Venice, it was printed in five parts between 1487 and 1489. These prints were made again in Turin in 1968 and 1969.