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Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Medieval and Early Modern Jurists

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Report No. r389

Johannes Alphonsus de Mella

1397–1467

 

Alternative Names

Juan Alfonso de Mella

 

Biography/Description

Born at Zamora in 1397, Johannes studied and taught canon law at Salamanca. By 1419, he was decretorum doctor. In 1423, he became auditor of the Roman Rota. In this function he wrote numerous consilia, such as one supporting the English king’s claims to the French throne according to the treaty of Troyes (1420), and was often involved in high politics. Thus, he was sent as a papal envoy to the councils of Basel and Ferrara. His writings are mostly related to these missions. In 1437, he became bishop of León (1437), and was later transferred to Zamora (1440) and Siguenza (1466). He nevertheless spent most of his time at the curia in Rome, where he was named cardinal in 1456. Johannes died in 1467.

 

Entry by: KP rev BP 2015

 

Text(s)

 
No. 1

Consilia.

 
No. 1a

Allegationes in facto regis Francie et Anglie.

 
No. 1b

Allegaciones super XLII legibus factis per dominum regem Portugalie.

 
No. 2

Decisiones reverendi patris domini Iohannis de Mella.

 

Text(s) – Manuscripts

No. 1a

Allegationes in facto regis Francie et Anglie.

 
Manuscript

Città del Vaticano, BAV Vat. lat. 2688, fol. 17r–19r

 
No. 1b

Allegaciones super XLII legibus factis per dominum regem Portugalie.

 
Manuscript

r389Txt1bCittà del Vaticano, BAV Vat. lat. 2688, fol. 1r–2v, 35r–63v (Fragment)

 
 

r389Txt1bCittà del Vaticano, BAV Vat. lat. 2681, fol. 19r–51v (Without prologue.)

 
No. 2

Decisiones reverendi patris domini Iohannis de Mella.

 
Manuscript

Città del Vaticano, BAV Vat. lat. 2665, fol. 198r–302v

 

Literature

E. Garcí Fernández, ‘Herejía y disidencia religiosa en el norte de la península ibérica en el siglo XV: Alonso de Mella y los herejas de Durango’, Heresis: Revue semestrielle d’Histoire des Dissedences médiévales, 41 (2004) 75–94.

T. Izbicki, ‘A tract on the plague falsely attributed to Juan de Mella’, Homenaje a Pedro Sainz Rodriguez III: Estudios historicos (Madrid 1986) 367–72.

A. García y García, Estudios sobre la canonística portuguesa medieval (Madrid 1976) 147–49.

T. Izbicki, ‘Notes on late medieval jurists I’, BMCL, 4 (1974) 49–53.

A. García y García, ‘La Canonística Ibérica Medieval posterior al Decreto de Graciano’, Repertorio de Historia de las Ciencias eclesiaticas de España (Salamanca 1971) 2.191–92.