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Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Medieval and Early Modern Jurists

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Report No. t008

Andreas ab Exea

c. 1500–1575

 

Alternative Names

André d’Exéa; Andrés de Exea

 

Biography/Description

A. was descended from one of the oldest houses in Aragon. His surname derives from the town of Ejea de los Caballeros (prov. Zaragosa, ESP) where his family possessed a fief. One branch, headed by the celebrated knight Pierre d’Exéa, settled in the county of Foix (now dép. Ariège, FRA) during the reign of Charles VI. A.’s grandfather, Louis, became chief of the sovereign council in Perpignan, and later moved to Narbonne. A.’s father, a medical doctor named Bernardin, was drawn to the Dauphiné by the baron de Tournon and settled in Valence. A. himself was born in Valence around 1500 and lived in a turreted house called ‘la Saudeyra’ in the rue Perollerie. He was married twice, first to Peyronne de Blachin and then to Germaine Mayaud, daughter of the seigneur Pierre Mayaud of Fauconnières. A.’s only daughter, Bernardine, born from his first marriage, became the wife of François Bovier (Bouvier, de Boyer), a councillor in the parlement of Grenoble from 1553 to 1580.

It is unclear precisely when or where A. received his doctorate utriusque, but his lengthy career in civil law took place mainly at the university of Valence, where he may have begun teaching as early as 1517 and where he was still presenting candidates for doctoral degrees in 1571. For seven years (1526–1533) he also taught at Montpellier. He obtained the position of juge-mage of that city in 1546; it is unclear how often and for how long he functioned in that position. (A’s connection both with Valence and Montpellier is confirmed by the prefaces to his works. Earlier literature that tries to make him a professor at Valencia is simply mistaken.) He was eventually appointed vice-seneschal of Montélimar in 1563, serving in that capacity until his death in 1575 as an ally and advisor to the baron de Gordes.

Intellectually, A. is said to occupy an intermediate position between the mos italicus and the mos gallicus. He is like the latter in his willingness to augment the authority of contemporary jurists with abundant references to the ancients – from Plato and Aristotle to Cicero and Thomas Aquinas. He departs, however, from both schools in his broad focus on natural law and the law of nations, in contrast to the narrower historical focus of the humanists or the traditionalism of the scholastics. (Carpintero, p. 143.) His printed works consist of two treatises: De aerario fiscoque (1st ed. 1532) and De pactis (1st ed. 1542); two commentaries: De constitutionibus (X 1.2) (1st ed. 1545) and De jurisdictione omnium iudicum (Dig. 2.1) (1st ed. 1559), and a ‘commentariolus’ on mortgages of moveables in French customary law: In eam Galliæ consuetudinem qua dicitur: Meubles n’ont point de suyte en hypothèque quand ils sont mis hors la puissance du débiteur, printed with the commentary on Dig. 2.1. A. also contributed to the work of others. He edited for publication the Responsorum of Girolamo Grati of Bologna (Lyon 1544, reprinted 1572, 1585). Grati held the chair of civil law at Valence from 1540 to 1544, the year in which he died. (S. Mazzetti, Repertorio di tutti i professori . . . di Bologna, p. 163 [online].) A. also attended the lectures that Jean Coras gave at Valence and encouraged him to publish them. (Johannes Corasius, In titulum FF. de Servitutibus Commentarii [with three other commentarii] [1st ed. Lyon 1548] [online], see avis au lecteur.)

 

Entry by: CD/DC v.2017

TUI database

 

Text(s)

 
No. 01

De aerario fiscoque, 1532. Dedicated to Francis I.

 
No. 02

De pactis, 1542. Dedicated to Guillaume Poyet, chancellor of France (1538–1545).

 
No. 03

De constitutionibus (X 1.2), 1545.

 
No. 04

De jurisdictione omnium iudicum (Dig. 2.1), 1559.

 
No. 05

Commentariolus in eam Galliae consuetudinem: Meubles n’ont point de suyte en hypothèque, quand ils sont mis hors la puissance du débiteur, 1559.

 

Text(s) – Early Printed Editions

No. 01

De aerario fiscoque, 1532.

 
Early Printed Editions

De aerario, fiscoque, ac utriusque ratiociniorium praefectura libellus nunc primum in lucem editus. Lyon: S. Gryphius, 1532 (online).

 
No. 02

De pactis, 1542.

 
Early Printed Editions

Pactorum liber unus: omnem prope materiam pactorum et contractuum continens: nimirum fraternisans (vt uerbo Iasonis vtar) cum rubr. ff. De verb. oblig. Lyon: Seb. Gryphius, 1542 (online).

 
 

Tractatus de pactis (with works with same title by Baldo degli Ubaldi and Giovanni Battista Caccialupi). Berlin: Voltz, 1582 (online).

 
 

Tractatus universi iuris. Venezia: F. Ziletti, 1584, 6.2.1ra.

 
 

Tractatus de pactis (with works with same title by Baldo degli Ubaldi and Giovanni Battista Caccialupi). Basel: Ludovicus Rex, 1606 or 1607 (online).

 
No. 03

De constitutionibus (X 1.2), 1545.

 
Early Printed Editions

In titulum de Constitutionibus, libro primo eius tomi, quem Decretales uocant, Commentaria & Praelectiones. Lyon: Seb. Gryphius, 1545 (online).

 
No. 04

De jurisdictione omnium iudicum (Dig. 2.1), 1559.

 
Early Printed Editions

Praelectiones in rubricam & 11. 1 & 3 ejus tituli, qui de jurisditione omnium judicum, lib. Pandect. 2 inscribitur. Ejusdem Commentariolus in eam Galliae consuetudinem. Lyon: haeredes Seb. Gryphius, 1559 or 1560. Not available online. Includes following item.

 
No. 05

Commentariolus in eam Galliae consuetudinem: Meubles n’ont point de suyte en hypothèque, quand ils sont mis hors la puissance du débiteur, 1559.

 
Early Printed Editions

Commentariolus in eam Galliae consuetudinem: Meubles n’ont point de suyte en hypothèque, quand ils sont mis hors la puissance du débiteur. Lyon: haeredes Seb. Gryphius, 1559 or 1560. Not available online. Included with preceding item.

 

Literature

P. Arabeyre, ‘Exéa, André d’’, in DHJF, 2nd ed. (2015) 412–413.

R. Menini, ‘Franciscus Rabelæsus – sauf son nom: pour l’attribution de l’avertissement au lecteur du De Aerario fiscoque d’André d’Exea (Lyon, S. Gryphe, 1532)’, Réforme, Humanisme, Renaissance, 77 (2013) 215–245 (online).

P. Arabeyre, ‘Manière d’enseigner chez les bartolistes français des XVe et XVIe siècles: la fin d’une écriture?’, in L’écriture des juristes: XVIe-XVIIIe siècle, L. Giavarini, ed. (Études et essais sur la Renaissance 90; Paris 2010) 75–76.

F. Carpintero, ‘Mos italicus, mos gallicus y el Humanismo racionalista. Una contribución a la historia de la metodología jurídica’, Ius commune, 6 (1977) 108–171 (online).

F. de P. Vilanova y Pizcueta, ‪Historia de la Universidad literaria de Valencia (Valencia 1903) 100 (online). (Unreliable.)

J. Brun-Durand, ‘Exéa, André d’’, in Dictionnaire biographique et biblio-iconographique de la Drôme (Grenoble 1900) 1.303–304 (online).

R. Vallentin, ‘‪Du taux de l’intérêt à Valence sous Charles VIII et sous Louis XII (1483–1515)’, Bulletin d’archéologie et de statistique de la Drôme, 29 (1895) 54, 65 (online).

J. C. Nadal, ‪Histoire de l’Université de Valence et des autres etablissements d’instruction de cette ville depuis leur fondation jusqu’a nos jours, suivie de nombreuses pièces justificatives‬ (Valence 1861) 379–380 (online).

P. L. Lainé, ‘d’Exéa’, in Archives généalogiques et historiques de la noblesse de France, ou, Recueil de preuves, mémoires et notices généralogiques, servant à constater l’origine, la filiation, les alliances et les illustrations religieuses, civiles et militaires de diverses maisons et familles nobles du royaume‬ (Paris 1834) 4.23–32 (online).