Glossa ordinaria (Accursius)


The Glossa ordinaria is a collection of 96,940 marginal annotations in Latin by the Italian jurist Accursius on the Corpus Iuris Civilis, a collection of Roman law by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I. The name Glossa ordinaria refers to fact that the gloss by Accursius was the "ordinary" or "standard" gloss on the Corpus Iuris Civilis.
Modern scholarship contends that the Glossa ordinaria maintained its authoritative status as leading commentary on the Corpus Iuris Civilis in Europe up to the 17th century, which is signified by the adage "Quidquid non agnoscit Glossa, non agnoscit curia".

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 Corpus Iuris Civilis with glossa interlinearis or glossa marginalis 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

Accursius' work on the Glossa ordinaria probably started in the 1220s, continued for several decades, and was probably completed around 1250. It is generally believed that he glossed the Institutes first, but other details about his process of composition are unknown. The material for the Glossa ordinaria was gathered from earlier commentary by Azo, Hugolianus and Johannes Bassianus; Accursius likely also used commentary by Odofredus, Symon Vincentius and Jacobus Balduinus.
The Glossa ordinaria 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 Corpus Iuris Civilis, and it absorbed, summarized, and perpetuated the work of many important earlier glossators for posterity".

Content

Overview

The Glossa ordinaria 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 Corpus Iuris Civilis and the Libri Feudorum, which were compiled by the glossators. The Glossa ordinaria contains about 2,000,000 words.
The Glossa ordinaria uses various sigla to clarify which author is used as the authority for a specific marginal annotation. The referenced authorities are Azo, Johannes Bassianus, Hugolinus,, Martinus, Placentinus, Irnerius, Bulgarus, Albericus, Pillius, Jacobus and Hugo. Unusually for legal glosses, the Glossa ordinaria also references Canon law, if sparsely: The Decretum Gratiani is cited 260 times, while Papal decretals are cited 125 times.

Example

To illustrate what a gloss of the Glossa ordinaria is, the following example is provided: Within the Corpus Iuris Civilis, Dig. 47.11.4, states: "The deified Severus and Antoninus issued a rescript stating that a woman who obtained an abortion should be sent into temporary exile by the governor. For it would seem shameful for her to have defrauded her husband of children with impunity." Accursius' gloss on this sentence is as follows:

Historical usage and modern recognition

Historical usage

Accursius' Glossa was immediately adopted for teaching and legal practise in Italy. It superseded the previous glosses, and lawyers after 1250 rarely attempted new glosses. According to the legal scholar Robert Figueira, the popularity and usefulness of the Glossa ordinaria rests on the completeness of its analysis of the Corpus Iuris Civilis and Accursius' ability to avoid contradictions within the Corpus Iuris Civilis. He stated that all contradictions could be resolved.
The Glossa ordinaria was widely used in Italy from the second half of the 13th century onwards. 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 Glossa ordinaria was known since the end of the 13th century. Its enduring influence is signified by the adage "Quidquid non agnoscit Glossa, non agnoscit curia", which was coined in 17th century Germany. In Spain, it heavily influenced the Siete Partidas, while it even held formal legal value in Portugal under the Alfonsine Ordinances. Modern scholarship argues that the Glossa ordinaria maintained its authoritative status in Europe up to the 17th century.

Modern recognition

The modern recognition of the Glossa ordinaria 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 Glossa ordinaria was of similar value for later centuries as the Corpus Iuris Civilis itself. Afterwards, a more positive reception prevailed. Otto von Gierke, a German jurist and historian of the 19th and 20th century, noted that the Glossa ordinaria "remains the starting point of modern jurisprudence". An evaluation of the work by the German legal scholar in 2017 says:

Editions

Around 1,200 manuscripts of the Corpus Iuris Civilis with the Glossa ordinaria in the margins are known. On some manuscripts, a previous gloss was erased so that the Glossa ordinaria could be copied into the margins instead.
The first print of the work was done in Mainz in 1476. Another printed edition was produced in Venice in five parts in 1487–1489. This edition was reprinted in Turin by Ex Officina Erasmiana as part of the Corpus Glossatorum Iuris Civilis series in 1968 and 1969. The individual volumes are:
No modern critical edition of the Glossa ordinaria exists.