Volterra II Colloquium VI

The Projet Volterra sessions at the Leeds IMC 2015:

The Roman Legal Heritage between Continuity and Reformation

Session 712: Tuesday, 7 July 2015, 14.15-15.45

The Roman Legal Heritage between Continuity and Reformation, I. Texts and Tradition

(Moderator: Benet Salway, UCL)

Magali Coumert (Université de Bretagne occidentale): “Medieval rulers and the Lex Romana around A.D. 900.”

Abstract: The manuscript Paris BN Lat. 4409 is a legal collection containing Roman law in two forms: the Lex Romana Visigothorum and its Epitome Aegidii, and the Lex Salica (mss. E 12 by Eckhardt’s edition). I would like to show that the other small texts, the glossae and the colophon of this manuscript, reveal how, around AD 900, the legal heritage was conceived as a whole, built gradually by different rulers, from the Roman emperors to the Carolingian kings but also through the Visigothic and Merovingian kings, and taught to the new king.

Michael Crawford (UCL): “The selection and transmission of Roman law in the Collectio Britannica.”

Abstract: The selections from the Digest in the Collectio Britannica (BL Add. MS 8873) have always been discussed separately from those from the Institutes, which have in any case attracted little attention. Consideration of both together reveals something of the purpose and date of the selections, and of their use over a substantial period in the Middle Ages: the selections from the Digest do not form part of the story of its supposed re-discovery in the late eleventh century AD.

Tammo Wallinga (Erasmus University, Rotterdam): “Justinian’s Digest and its text before the School of Bologna.”

Abstract: Justinian’s Digest is by far the most important part of the Corpus iuris civilis, and its renewed study from the 12th century onwards in Bologna epitomises the rise of Roman law in Italy and Western Europe in general. Yet compared to the other parts of the Corpus iuris, there is far less evidence for any use of the Digest during the centuries between the introduction of Justinian’s magnum opus in Italy in 554 and its eventual resurgence as the backbone of legal studies in Bologna and other universities. Nevertheless, there are some documents – mainly from Northern Italy – from the second half of the eleventh century that show some use of the Digest. These will be examined, keeping in mind that the vulgate text of the Digest that the Glossators used as a basis for their comments, must have been formed by the end of the eleventh century as well. This should result in a more complete picture of the interest in the Digest on the eve of its complete revival.

Session 812: Tuesday, 7 July 2015, 16.30-18.00

The Roman Legal Heritage between Continuity and Reformation, II: Law in Practice

(Moderator: Michael Crawford, UCL)

Simon Corcoran (UCL): “Justinian between Rome and Ravenna in the Ottonian renaissance.”

Abstract: This paper seeks to draw a contrast between Rome and Ravenna around the year 1000 in their knowledge and use of Justinianic and pre-Justinianic texts. Consideration is given to the copying and compilation of normative texts, both the Justinianic corpus itself and other Roman-based miscellanies (Summa Perusina, Collectio Gaudenziana), and to their use in charters and court-hearings. Although Rome and Ravenna shared a strong notarial tradition deriving ultimately from the Byzantine reconquest Italy, they also demonstrate distinctions in the dynamism of their engagement with this legacy during the period of Ottonian renovatio.

Leidulf Melve (University of Bergen): “Peter Crassus and the legal renovatio of the 11th century.”

Abstract: Written in the heat of the Investiture Contest, Peter Crassus’ fierce pro-imperial pamphlet Defensio Heinrici IV is one of the more enigmatic results of the polemical warfare of the 1080s. If the author was a lawyer from Ravenna, he was the only layman involved in the polemical warfare, the libelli de lite. More important perhaps, while the Defensio is not the only polemic that musters Roman law, Crassus’ application of the Corpus iuris civilis is by far the most extensive and, I dare say, sophisticated appropriation of Roman law during the Investiture Contest. The paper will discuss Crassus’ appropriation of Roman law as a specific and unique aspect of the legal renovatio of the eleventh century.

Piotr Alexandrowicz (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań): “Contract law in the canon law collections of the pre-Gregorian reform. Towards freedom of contract?”

Abstract: The paper refers to the canon law compilations from the first half of the 11th century, especially to the Decretum of Burchard of Worms. The aim is to examine these works for slight changes in contract law, which may finally have led to the development of freedom of contract by canonists. This is an accurate example of rethinking the solutions derived also from Roman law: taking advantage of advanced law institutions and adapting these institutions to new circumstances.