The very core activity addressed by my blog is the study of medieval legal glosses with a focus on those glosses written before the glossa ordinaria created by Accursius in the early thirteenth century using earlier glosses, hence the term pre-accursian. Among the early glossators of the various main texts for Roman law – the Justininian Codex and his Digest, the later Novellae and the Institutiones Justiniani – is the enigmatic figure of Irnerius, also written as Wernerius and Guarnerius. Establishing facts about his life and works has proven to be a very hard challenge. Any major breakthrough achieved by scholars have moved them clearly upwards in the admiration of later generations.
In this short contribution I want to point you to two recent articles concerning Irnerius published in a journal which you would not immediately associate with the study of Roman law, the Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law 40 (2023). The first article I would like to recommmend to your attention has been written by Charles Donahue with a concise title ‘Irnerius: The State of the Question’ (pp. 1-22). Donahue starts with the confession Roman law is not his normal field of activity. He surveys all important scholarly publications on Irnerius since the late nineteenth century, and he also notes some earlier remarks by F.C. von Savigny. Problems such as the attribution of other works to Irnerius and the way to date his activity and location are discussed with clarity and due cautiousness. Donahue rightly mentions how research around some hypotheses has not always affirmed them, but certainly views about Irnerius have been enriched by them. Studyng the glosses with the y. sigle might be the road to better understanding. Donahue ends with humbly inviting younger scholars into what can seem a game for older and seasoned people. He surely shows a masterful grip of this subject. In my view this status quaestionis is a must-read.
The second article in this volume of the BMCL, ‘Guarnerius Teutonicus nel necrologio di Santa Maria di Reno’ by Giuseppe Mazzanti (pp. 23-43). looks first at a notice probably inserted in 1136 into a necrologium of a collegiate church in Bologna. Mazzanti takes you also to the famous canons of Saint-Victoire in Paris where Irnerius’ name, too, was entered in their necrologium for a different date in the month September. The Parisian note is probably younger. Mazzanti approaches both notices with much car, because he takes 1119 as the last year of a secure reference to Irnerius’ life. He invites the reader to contemplate with him the impact of the study of Roman law on canons and theologians during the twelfth century. They were closer to legal matters than one would guess. Mazzanti clearly wants us to open windows we perhaps thought firmly closed or unavailable at all. His article is a fine example of the way scarce information possibly linked to Irnerius has to be probed and made fruitful for further research.
I am convinced you can benefit from both articles, not just for their scholarly argument, but also for their dense annotation. Thus these articles can help us to continue our research into Irnerius and other early glossators, even when you might want to stick with views criticised by Donahue or Mazzanti. Both authors want us to think freshly about matters seeming setteld when you look only from a distance, but on closer inspection things cannot so easily be interpretd at all.
Kenneth Pennington gracefully created PDF versions of the latest volumes of the Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law (from 2013 onwards). He has also ventured deep into the territories of Roman law by adding information on medieval legists at the portal Bio-bibliographies of medieval lawyers of the Ames Foundation. Donahue gives us at this portal a very helpful entry for Irnerius, in particular for relevant manuscripts and scholarly references (last update January 2024).
OpenEdition schlägt Ihnen vor, diesen Beitrag wie folgt zu zitieren:
Otto Vervaart (13. Juni 2025). Studying Irnerius and his glosses. Glossae. Abgerufen am 20. Juli 2025 von https://doi.org/10.58079/144jy