Preface
Preface n On October 6, 2006, Kenneth Pennington celebrates his sixty-fifth birthday. The present volume, with contributions from his teachers, colleagues, friends, and former doctoral students, was compiled to honor him on this occasion and as a tribute to his outstanding scholarly and academic achievements. From his earliest days as an historian, Kenneth Pennington’s research interests have focused on questions about Church Law and the Origins of Western Jurisprudence, a lifelong pursuit that is recalled in the title of this book. Ken’s scholarly agenda took shape under the influence of his principal academic advisers, who are themselves among the leaders of the modern study of medieval canon law. Mentored by James Brundage, Ken received his master’s degree in history from the University of Wisconsin in 1967; he then moved to Cornell University where he completed his Ph.D. in 1972 under the supervision of Brian Tierney. Ken’s post-doctoral years were marked by prolonged visits to Stephen Kuttner’s Institute of Medieval Canon Law in Berkeley, California. Kuttner’s exacting standards of manuscript study awakened in Ken an enduring fascination, not only with thedevelopmentofmedievallegaldoctrine,butalsowithintricatephilologicalquestions related to the authorship, genesis, and transmission of important juristic texts. While still completing his doctorate, Ken joined the department of history at Syracuse University as assistant professor in 1971 and remained there for the following three decades. In 2001, he transferred to his current academic home and became the Kelly-Quinn Professor of Ecclesiastical and Legal History at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. Through years of successful teaching, writing, and farflung organizational activities, Ken built for himself an international reputation as one of the foremost experts in the history of medieval jurisprudence. Graduate students worldwide who are exploring this subject cannot help but be aware of his name and of his role as a key figure in the field. Ken is indeed very widely known: he is the author of numerous learned articles and has edited any number of books and journals. He has also produced two major scholarly monographs, one of which analyzes the twelfth and thirteenth-century canonists’ teachings concerning the relationship between the Pope and Bishops (1984); the other explores late medieval jurists’ reflections on the proper balix ance between the sovereign will of The Prince and the Law (1993).1 Ken conducted much of the research leading up to these two works while on sabbatical in Florence (1980–81) and in Munich (1985–87), time he also used to establish close and enduring professional friendships with German and Italian medievalists, among them several members of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Ken has also played a prominent role as host or cohost of the quadriennial International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, first at Syracuse University in 1996 and then, together with Uta-Renate Blumenthal, at The Catholic University of America in 2004. Ken’s great charm and tireless work as a promoter of international gatherings have also been in demand in places outside of the United States. In Italy, perhaps his favorite European destination, he has acted (since 1993) as co-director of the International School of the Ius commune, together with Manlio Bellomo conducting annual sesssions at the Ettore Majorana Center in Erice, Sicily. Ken’s impact on the scholarly community is, of course, far too great to be measured within the covers of a single book. Our volume offers but a small selection of potential contributors and topics, in an attempt that barely reflects the range of his interests and of his personal ties. Some of the authors remember him as an undergraduate and as a graduate student at Wisconsin and Cornell, and in Berkeley. Others came to know him later as his own graduate students, or as students from other universities to whom Ken provided advice and support. Still others have been engaged in scholarly exchanges or have been contributors to one or more of Ken’s many editorial enterprises. It is in this last capacity that Ken has repeatedly collaborated with David McGonagle, director of Catholic University of America Press. They have long shared responsibility for the publication of two series, the monographs printed as part of the Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Canon Law (since 1987) and the History of Medieval Canon Law, co-edited by Ken and Wilfried Hartmann (since 1988). When we asked David to lend his support to a Festschrift in Ken’s honor, he immediately threw his full weight behind the project. Our...
OR
