JOURNAL: Rivista internazionale di diritto comune (XXXI, 2020)

(Source: Storia del diritto medievale e moderno)

We learned of the publication of a new issue of the Rivista internazionale di diritto comune.

 INDEX OF THE ISSUE

Manlio BELLOMO, Memorie di umanità e diritto. In ricordo di Pietro Barcellona

Law, justice, humanity. Profiles of legal historiography in country and sea life.

Gerhard DILCHER, Statuti comunali italiani del Medioevo: fondamenti costituzionali, materie disciplinate, cultura giuridica

The article gives an overview of the medieval development of Italian city communities and their statutory legislation, the theoretical and practical problems regarding the relation between statutory law and ʻImperialʼ Roman Law, between jurisprudence and legal practice in this situation.

Beginning in the time of Emperor Frederic Barbarousse, there arose a rivalry between the political and theoretical legitimation of law from above (the Emperor, Justinianʼs codification of Roman Law) and from below (Communities and their Statutes). Corresponding to this rivalry there existed a division between pro-imperial theory (universities, doctores) and practice (iurisperiti, iudices in the service of the communities). An important role played the lawyers in the service of the podestà, serving from year to year in different cities. The analysis of eight statutes shows, that they tried to give a theoretical legitimation of their legislation in a prooemium, different in pro-imperial and in pro-papal cities. Mostly, the statutes avoided to regulate problems solved in Roman Civil Law, but gave rules regarding the competence of the communal offices, the process of law, penal law and special problems of urban life. So the lawyers of the urban collegium iudicum could in many cases apply Roman Civil Law. Since the 14th century an integration of ius commune and ius proprium took place by a new and more sophisticated theoretical approach, and parallel to this an integration of theory and practice, of doctores and iudices. So, in the Italian city communities during the Middle Ages an important development of legal culture took place, earlier than in most other parts of Europe.

Andrea PADOVANI, Sulla legittimità dell’imposizione tributaria. Teologi moralisti, giuristi e ius proprium (sec. XIII-XV)

The fiscal drag has always propounded juridical, economic, ethical, religious problems as well since today. After the feudal age, the impressive development of the italian commune and of the national kingdoms required new sources of revenue due to a larger bureaucracy and frequent military enterprises, more and more expensive. The first author who thoroughly examined the issue, around 1236, was Raymond of Peñafort. His Summa de Paenitentia exerted a wide influence over the following moral theologians and some canonists until the XVth century. If civilists did not equally echoed Raymond’s views, it does not mean that they disregarded the ethical and religious facets of taxation. Both, moral theologians and lawyers as well, were forced to admit, at least, that existed a radical contrast between the ius commune and the fiscal praxis and legislation of the italian cities. At the end, the whole question – related to direct and indirect taxation – did not find a positive solution or arrangement. The final section of this paper therefore explores some – few, indeed – statutes issued by medieval italian statutes and by the kings of Sicily.

Atria A. LARSON, Johannes de Deo’s Liber Poenitentiarius and the State of Kanonistik in the Mid-Thirteenth Century

A Portuguese secular priest, doctor decretorum in Bologna, and prolific author of canon law texts, Johannes de Deo wrote a successful Liber poenitentiarius in 1247. This essay reviews the scholarship on this under-studied figure in the history of canon law, provides a summary of his Liber poenitentiarius, and analyzes one section, treating the conditions of a genuine confession, that helps contextualize Johannes’s work. It argues that Johannes was a successful synthesizer of the canons who practiced consistent methods in the discipline of canon law and remained conversant in larger discussions across Latin Christendom in the thirteenth century.

Beatrice PASCIUTA, La Lectura Peregrina di Andrea da Isernia e la costruzione editoriale degli apparati al Liber Augustalis

The history of the Liber Augustalis, from manuscripts to printed editions, makes it possible to follow the path of adaptation of the glosses into two apparatuses, the Glossa Ordinaria by Marino da Caramanico and the Lectura Peregrina by Andrea da Isernia, which includes the notes of other jurists. Although moving in the wake of the literary genres of the school, this kind of interpretation is eminently practical. The aim is to create a link between the Liber Augustalis – still in force but often obsolete – and the law promulgated by Angevin sovereigns, fragmentary and unsystematic. For the legal science of the Regnum, the interpreter’s task is to put together these different legal sources, creating a harmonious system and a ‘set of rules’, functional to practice.

Rosalba SORICE, La rilevanza penale della colpa nel Medioevo. Ricerche sulla Doctrina Bartoli

An important concept on which medieval jurists reflect concerns the need to build in maleficiis figurae of criminal liability that respond to the principle of voluntariness, the cornerstone of the medieval Christian world. This perspective has seen jurists committed to defining the contents of full and intentional responsibility, and at the same time to tracing the procedural and punishable boundaries of all those actions that have produced an event other than the willed, justified in foro poli and not sanctionable from earthly Justice, if not in the compensation dimension of civil damage. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, in a changed political-institutional perspective, Bartolo da Sassoferrato with his thought constructs the juridical dimension of the penal culpa as a psychological element, distinct from the voluntas, but relevant in maleficiis, helping to sculpt one of the most important principles of criminal law.

Osvaldo CAVALLAR, “… in eius memoriam et venerationem conserva”. Due consilia autografi di Baldo degli Ubaldi conservati nei MSS Foligno, Biblioteca L. Jacobilli, 467 e 497

The ‘Biblioteca L. Jacobilli’ of Foligno (Umbria) has preserved two legal opinions (consilia autographa) penned, subscribed and sealed by Baldus de Ubaldis († 1400). Baldus’s vast production of consilia – the early printed editions contain just about 2.500 items each – is well known. His opinions constitute an invaluable source for exploring every conceivable facet of late medieval Italian society, as well as for mapping legal history. In contrast to this vast production, the original consilia the jurist has sent to the requesting party – typically, a judge or one of the parties to a trial – that came down to us are just a minority. The first of these two consilia has been printed and now it is possible to compare the text the jurist conveyed to the commissioning party – the authoritative text – with that of the printed editions. On the plane of content, it foregrounds Baldus’s penchant for abstraction for he had to balance the single penalty and the multiplicity of clauses in an arbitration that was contested by one of the contracting parties. The medieval concept of ordo allowed him to navigate safely between the Scylla of the single penalty and the Charybdis of the multiplicity of the clauses contained in the document. The second one, in fact two pieces, throws light on a conflict of iuspatronatus between the nobility of Foligno, on one side, and the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of San Benedetto al Subasio in Assisi, on the other, over the church of S. Angelo di Rosario. The two texts Baldus wrote for this conflict illustrate how consilia can be used for highlighting a fragment of local history on which local historians have labored with little profit. Last but not least, the two specimens stand as witnesses to Baldus early and very elegant handwriting. Further, the last consilium is also relevant because under Baldus’s signature and seal there is a handwritten note of Tommaso Diplovatazio who saw the document when he was governor of Gubbio. The appendix presents a critical edition of the consilia and related documentation.

Dolores FREDA, Il diritto d’asilo in Inghilterra tra medio evo ed età moderna: una ricognizione critica

The essay, starting from an exam of the existing literature on sanctuary between the middle ages and the early modern period, relates its origins, discipline and evolution, until its final abolition in 1624. It highlights that the role played by canon law in the development of the English institute gives a contribution to the idea of the existence of a common European legal tradition since the middle ages.

Andrea BARTOCCI, John of Capestrano and His Itinerant Library: Some Observations on His Legal Books

Shortly before his death in the Franciscan convent at Ilok (October 23, 1456), on the border between Croatia and Serbia, John of Capestrano instructed the friars, gathered around his deathbed to assist him, to bring his goods (including his books) to the Capestrano convent. After his death, his goods were inventoried (December 3, 1456) and among them many legal books were found.

Manlio BELLOMO, Ricordi… non è mai troppo tardi, nr. 5: Strutture politiche e pensiero giuridico agli inizi dell’età moderna

Ius commune and Iura propria: unity of a legal system in the sequence of centuries.

Manlio BELLOMO, Ricordi… non è mai troppo tardi, nr. 6: Politica della scienza e politica della ricerca

Greek, Roman, medieval and modern antiquity: “centuries of justice” and “centuries of law”.

Manlio BELLOMO, Ricordi… non è mai troppo tardi, nr. 7: Storia del diritto e storia di Sicilia

Law historian and generalist historian for a legal history of Sicily

Manlio BELLOMO, Ricordi… non è mai troppo tardi, nr. 8: la Sicilia dei signori

Social classes. Nobility. Todos caballeros. Bourgeoisie under pressure.

Manlio BELLOMO, Ricordi… non è mai troppo tardi, nr. 9: Die Bedeutung von Land und Stadt in 

der mittelalterlichen Rechtsentwicklung

Medieval law in the dialectic between city life and country life. Political powers, legislators, jurists and social transformations

Mario ASCHERI, Libertà, Tirannia e Giustizia medievali. Suggestioni tra affreschi, giuristi e istituzioni

The paper’s aim is to illustrate the close relationship between Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s frescoes in Siena’s Town Hall on one side and the People’s political culture at the beginning of the XIV century on the other; this one was very much influenced by the tomistic culture and by the religious preaching about Justice and Peace, both of which are to be found in Bartolus’ “political” treaties. Liberty’s value is not explored by jurists but for legal status of the individual.

Paola MAFFEI, Forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit. Un ricordo di Peter Linehan (1943-2020)

A non-conventional portray of Peter Linehan’s brilliant mind.

More information can be found at the following page: http://www.storiadeldiritto.org/home/rivista-internazionale-di-diritto-comune-31-il-cigno-gg-edizioni-roma-2020-erice