Legal Humanism

Research Project

4. Humanist philology and the text of the Digest

A monograph currently in course of preparation traces the results of humanist philology on the editing of the Digest from the 15^th century to the definitive edition of Gothofredus published in 1583. Beginning in Quattrocento Italy with the philological works of Philippus Beroaldus (1453-1505) and Politian (1454-94), it examines the continuation of the "lexicographical" tradition in the Annotationes in Pandectas of Gulielmus Budaeus (1468-1540) published in 1508. At the centre of the study stands Andreas Alciatus (1492-1550), whose philological works influenced a generation of editors of the Digest. It is a different tradition, however, which is represented by the Spanish humanist Antonius Augustinus (1517-86), whose work points forward to the Digest edition of Laelius Taurellus (1489-1576). The edition of Taurellus, published in 1553 after a decade of preparation, is one of the great achievements of humanist philology, anticipating to a remarkable degree the modern edition of Mommsen. The edition of Taurellus, shorn of its philological sophistication to make a more readily useable text, forms the basis of the text of Dionysius Gothofredus (1549-1622), which was first published in 1583 and thereafter remained definitive for three centuries. The history of the Digest text in the Renaissance thus represents not only the essential background to the philological work of the succeeding Spanish and Dutch schools of the 17^th and 18^th centuries, but is in itself one of the most remarkable stories of the printed textual tradition of any ancient Latin text.

See: Magnae Jurisprudentiae Injuria: Cornelius van Bynkershoek on early legal humanist philology.
Ius Commune 19 (1992) pp.61-79

Vestigia Doctorum Virorum. Tracking the Legal Humanists' Manuscripts. Subseciva Groningana 5 (1992) pp.77-94

Filippo Beroaldo e l'umanesimo giuridico.
in: Sapere e/è potere. Discipline, Dispute e Professioni nell'Università Medievale e Moderna. Il caso bolognese a confronto. Atti del 4^o. Convegno. Bologna, 13-15 Aprile 1989. vol.I, pp.233-41.

Budaeus and Roman Law.

Ius Commune 13 (1985) pp.195-212 Ius Commune 13 (1985) pp.195-212