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Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Medieval and Early Modern Jurists

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Report No. c034

Odofredus

c.1200–1265

 

Alternative Names

Odofredus de Denariis; Odofredo Denari; Odofredo

 

Biography/Description

Eminent jurist from the noble de Denariis family of Bologna. His professor was Jacobus Balduini, but he also sat in lectures under Hugolinus and Bagarottus. Achieved his doctorate in the late 1220s and then travelled extensively, at his own cost, to various Italian and also French cities, where he acquired a broad knowledge of local laws, customs, and culture which is reflected in his writings. Was active as legum professor and as judge in Bologna from 1232. After 1243 increasingly involved as legate and peace negotiator for Bologna in dealings with other cities. As professor, developed a rivalry with Accursius, but a personal animosity does not come through in O.’s writings. Died 3 December 1265, survived by three children.

O. wrote extensively, even verbosely; among the glossators, only Accursius surpassed O. in volume and breadth. His style often gives the reader much to read through (including lengthy accounts of the opinions of others and observations on contemporary persons, law students and schools, towns, and customs) without gaining much substance. The excess of information, however, can be of the greatest interest to the historian. Along with Jacobus Balduinus, influential in the school of Orléans, where Accursius’ work did not have as much exclusive success as elsewhere. O. was a man of his class who looked down on the illiterate masses; his works also express a certain arrogance combined with disdain for what he considered to be erroneous positions. His work bears one of the following sigla: ‘od’, ‘Odo’, ‘odof’, or ‘odofr’.

 

Entry by: AL viii.2016

 

Text(s)

 
No. 01

Lecturae, 1236–63. Apparently very accurate reportatio of lectures on the Digest, Codex, and Tres Libri. Does not survive in many manuscripts or in many early editions, and Prooemium survives only in Paris, BNF lat. 4489.

 
No. 02

Additiones ad Summam Codicis Azonis.

 
No. 03

Summa feudorum. Widely used summa on feudal law (cited extensively by Andreas de Isernia and Baldus de Ubaldis). Does not follow the order of the Libri feudorum.

 
No. 04

Compilationes feudorum. Reorganization of the individual parts of feudal law into a more systematic order; consists of rubrics for 36 titles.

 
No. 05

Apparatus ad pacem Constantiae, 1234–50. Commentary on the Treaty of Constance (1183); not clear whether Odofredus conceived of this as a self-standing work or as an appendix to his Summa feudorum. Much of the text was taken up by Baldus de Ubaldis in his commentary on the same treaty.

 
No. 06

Glossae ad Librum statutorum et legum Venetorum, post 1242. On extensive book of statutes, divided into five books, issued in Venice in 1242. O.’s layer of glosses is one of many and is distinctive for its references to Roman and Lombard law.

 
No. 07

Quaestiones. 44 questions surviving in a single manuscript.

 
No. 08

Consilia. Numerous consilia survive, many of the them in the Bolognese archives. They have never been collected, but a few have been printed separately.

 
No. 09

Brevis et utilis tractatus iudiciorum in causis civilibus.

 
No. 10

De libellis formandis.

 
No. 11

De positionibus.

 
No. 12

De primo et secundo decreto.

 
No. 13

Tractatus de curatore bonis dando.

 

Text(s) – Manuscripts

No. 07

Quaestiones.

 
Manuscript

Paris, BN lat. 4604, fols. 95–101

 

Text(s) – Early Printed Editions

No. 01

Lecturae, 1236–63.

 
Early Printed Editions

Lyon, 1550–52.

 
No. 09

Brevis et utilis tractatus iudiciorum in causis civilibus.

 
Early Printed Editions

Tractatus universi iuris. Venezia: F. Ziletti, 1584, 3.1.32vb.

 
No. 10

De libellis formandis.

 
Early Printed Editions

Tractatus universi iuris. Venezia: F. Ziletti, 1584, 3.2.79vb.

 
No. 11

De positionibus.

 
Early Printed Editions

Tractatus universi iuris. Venezia: F. Ziletti, 1584, 4.2ra.

 
No. 12

De primo et secundo decreto.

 
Early Printed Editions

Tractatus universi iuris. Venezia: F. Ziletti, 1584, 3.2.136rb.

 
No. 13

Tractatus de curatore bonis dando.

 
Early Printed Editions

Tractatus universi iuris. Venezia: F. Ziletti, 1584, 8.2.405va.

 

Text(s) – Modern Editions

No. 01

Lecturae.

 
Modern Editions

Opera iuridica rariora (Bologna 1967–69). (Reprint of ed. Lyon 1550–52.)

 
No. 03

Summa feudorum.

 
Modern Editions

Über die Entstehung und älteste Bearbeitung der Libri feudorum, ed. E. Laspeyres (Berlin 1830; repr. Aalen 1969) 417–18;. (Laspeyres printed some passages from Baldus’s super feudis that included excerpts from Odofredus’s work.)

 
No. 04

Compilationes feudorum.

 
Modern Editions

Ed. E. Seckel in ‘Quellenfunde zum lombardischen Lehnrecht, insbesondere zu den Extravaganten-Sammlungen’, Festgabe der Berliner Juristischen Fakultät für Otto Gierke zum Doktorjubiläum, 21. August 1910 (Breslau 1910) 68.

 
No. 08

Consilia.

 
Modern Editions

Ed. P. Colliva in ‘Documenti per la biografia di Accursio’, Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi Accursiani: Bologna, 21–26 ottobre 1963, G. Rossi, ed. (Milano 1968) 406–407.

 
 

De claris archigymnasii Bononiensis professoribus a saeculo XI usque ad saeculum XIV, ed. M. Sarti (Bologna 1769) 2.52–55. (Consilium dated July 9, 1262.)

 
 

Consilium sapientis iudiciale: Studi e ricerche per la storia del processo romano-canonico (secoli XII–XIII), ed. G. Rossi (Milano 1958) 264n5 (from the year 1255).

 

Literature

J. de los Mozos, ‘Odofredo’, in Juristas universales 1.439–42.

E. Spagnesi, ‘Odofredo Denari’, in DGI (2013) 2.1450–52.

A. Padovani, ‘La glossa di Odofredo agli Statuti veneziani di Jacopo Tiepolo del 1242’, RIDC, 20 (2009) 71–111.

M. Bellomo, Quaestiones in iure civili disputatae: Didattica e prassi colta nel sisterna del diritto comune fra Duecento e Trecento (Fonti per la storia dell’Italia medievale, Antiquitates 31; Roma 2008) passim.

U. Bruschi, Nella fucina dei notai: L’ars notaria tra scienza e prassi a Bologna e in Romagna (fine XII–metà XIII secolo) (Bologna 2006).

P. Maffei, ‘Collectio repetitionum tholosana (ca. 1280)’, in Manoscritti, editoria e biblioteche dal medioevo all’età contemporanea: Studi offerti a Domenico Maffei per il suo ottantesimo compleanno, M. Ascheri, P. Maffei, and G. Colli, ed. (Roma 2006) 2.577–79, 585–88. (P. Maffei is listed as ‘with’ the two main editors.)

A. Errera, Il concetto di scientia iuris dal XEE al XIV secolo (Milano 2003) 141–42.

M. Bellomo, I fatti e il diritto: Tra le incertezze e i dubbi dei giuristi medievali (secoli XIII–XIV) (Roma 2000) passim.

H. Lange, Glossatoren (1997) 323–34.

E. Cortese, Il diritto nella storia medievale (Roma 1995) 2.passim.

G. Speciale, La memoria del diritto comune: Sulle tracce d’uso del Codex di Giustiniano (secoli XII–XV) (Roma 1994).

P. Weimar, ‘Odofredo’, in LMA (1993) 6.1361.

A. Padovani, L’archivio di Odofredo: Le pergamene della famiglia Gandolfi Odofredi. Edizione e regesto (1163–1499) (Spoleto 1992).

M. Ascheri, Diritto medievale e moderno (Rimini 1991) passim.

E. Spagnesi, ‘Denari, Odofredo’, in DBI (1990) 38.700–705.

G. Dolezalek, ‘The Lectura Codicis of Odofredus, recensio I, and Jacobus Balduini’, in The Two Laws: Studies in Medieval Legal History Dedicated to Stephan Kuttner, L. Mayali, ed. (Washington DC 1990) 97–120.

P. Weimar, ‘Die Handschriften des Liber feudorum und seiner Glossen’, RIDC, 1 (1990) 68–69.

M. Bellomo, L’Europa del diritto comune (Roma 1988) 183–89.

G. Dolezalek, ‘I commentari di Odofredo e di Baldo alla Pace di Costanza’, in La Pace di Costanza, 1183: un difficile equilibrio di poterifra società italiana ed Impero, A. Boscolo, ed. (Studi e Testi di Storia Mediovale 8; Bologna 1984) 59–75.

G. Nicolosi Grassi, ‘Una inedita “quaestio” di Odofredo in tema di “iurisdictio”’, Quaderni catanesi di studi classici e medievale, 3 (1981) 215–30.

R. Cessi, ‘La “Glossa veneta” e l’influenza bolognese’, in Atti del Convegno internazionale di studi Accursiani: Bologna, 21–26 ottobre 1963, G. Rossi, ed. (Milano 1968) 1.177–92.

D. Maffei, ‘Il “Tractatus percussionum” pseudo-bartoliano, e la sua dipendenza da Odofredo’, Studi Senesi, 78 (1966) 7–18.

E. Seckel, ‘Quellenfunde zum lombardischen Lehnrecht, insbesondere zu den Extravaganten-Sammlungen’, in Festgabe der Berliner Juristischen Fakultät für Otto Gierke zum Doktorjubiläum, 21. August 1910 (Breslau 1910) 59–73.

N. Tamassia, ‘Odofredo: studio storico-giuridico’, in Atti e memorie (Romagna), ser. 3 (1893/94) 12.1–83, 330–90. Reprinted in: idem, Scritti di storia giuridica pubblicati a cura della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza dell’Università di Padova (Padova 1969) 2.335–464.

N. Tamassia, ‘Odofredo: studio storico-giuridico’, in Atti e memorie (Romagna), ser. 3 (1892/93) 11.183–225. Reprinted in: idem, Scritti di storia giuridica pubblicati a cura della Facoltà di Giurisprudenza dell’Università di Padova (Padova 1969) 2.335–464.

F. von Savigny, Geschichte 5.356–80.