Versions of a Legal Repertorium Related to the Works of Bartolus

The manuscript copies of works by the jurist Bartolus de Saxoferrato in North American Libraries receive little attention. Fifteen manuscripts, however, have been listed by Patrick Lally and myself.¹ The 'consilia' of Bartolus can be found together with those of others in certain of these manuscripts.² One manuscript containing 'consilia' of Bartolus, Cornell University Consilia Legalia, 4600 (formerly K.5) also contains two 'repertoria', indexes to legal literature with topics arranged alphabetically.³ One of these, an incomplete work covering only A through I, listed by me as Repertorium Bartoli,⁴ deserves further attention to indicate its full contents and its context in the history of the learned law. It indexes the prominent jurist Bartolus de Saxoferrato [DGI 1.177-180, DBI 6.640-669], but it also includes references to other writers on law.

Alphabetical legal 'repertoria' originated as part of a larger development of reference tools, producing by the thirteenth century indexing and the compilation of concordances.⁵ Both canon and civil law developed such tools, some topical in arrangement but others arranged by letters of the alphabet indicating subjects.

In canon law, this process of providing access to a growing literature has a strong connection to the Gratian's Decretum and to the growing number of papal decretals. The great bulk of the Decretum especially needed forms of access and indexing. One approach was abbreviation. Many such treatments of the compilation survive.⁶ An early and influential alphabetical guide to the Decretum was composed in the thirteenth century by Martinus Polonus, a Dominican. As papal decretals became more important, this Margarita martiniana was expanded into a Martiniana aucta. Martinus' work was the first of a series of alphabetical guides to canon law or to individual collections or commentaries.⁷

In the field of Roman law, the recovery of the laws compiled by the order of Justinian, especially to Digest, spawned a large literature, including authoritative commentaries. Even the feudal law, as represented in the learned law, received indexing. 'Repertoria' of Roman law are not common. Among those, one was attributed to Azo [DGI 1.137-139, DBI 4.774-781]. However, jurists compiled indexing of both laws, canon and Roman, usually in the form of an alphabetical guides. Their multiplication in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries show the need jurists felt to provide guidance to the study of both interrelated laws with their burgeoning literatures.⁸ At least one 'repertorium' overlapped disciplines entirely. Johannes Calderinus, the son-in-law of Johannes Andreae, compiled an index of biblical and legal sources, serving as a concordance to both.⁹

The Repertorium in the Cornell manuscript begins at p. 1A: ABBAS. ABBATIA. ABLATIUUS ABSOLUTUS. Quod Ablatiuus absolutus uerificatur de presenti. ff. de incen. rui. nau. [Dig. 47.9] per bar. It ends at p. 55A at v. INTELLIGI: et uer. repudiare et uer. actor in q. 32 et 6. Most of the contents focus on texts from the Corpus Iuris Civilis, with the large majority of these entries making specific references to the lectures of Bartolus. He is usually cited in the form 'per bar.'. There are a few exceptions, citations to 'per bartholum' (p.49B), 'per ba^r' (p. 49B);' per glo. et bar' (p. 37B), 'per bar. et bal.' (p. 7B). Also, in a few cases, consilia of Bartolus are cited briefly, usually identifying on as 'incipiente' with a word or two, e.g. 'incipiente pluries contingitur' (p. 5B). These are found at pp. 5B, 6B, 12B, 15A, 17A, 34B, 36B, with some of these texts identifiable.¹⁰ One disputed question of Bartolus, 'Statuto lucane ciuitatis cauetur' (p. 9A), also appears.¹¹

Bartolus (†1347), however, is not the latest jurist cited. One of the latest is Baldus de Ubaldis (†1400),¹² usually cited as 'per bal.' (e.g. pp. pp. 3B, 4B, 7A, 13B, 16A, 19A, 22A, 23A, 23B, 27B, 32B, 34A, 38B). There are other forms of citation to Baldus: 'per bal. de perusi.' (p. 36B), p. 2A, 'per bal. in lect' sua' (p. 2A), p. 34B, 'per bal. et iac. de are. et sali...