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Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Medieval and Early Modern Jurists

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Report No. a057

Bernardus Compostellanus antiquus

fl. 1200–1217

 

Alternative Names

Bernard of Compostella the Elder; Bernardo da Compostella; Bernard de Compostelle l’ancien; Bernhard von Compostela der Ältere

 

Biography/Description

Canonist teaching and writing at Bologna from the end of the twelfth century well into the second decade of the thirteenth. Bernardus was unique among canonists in holding that the Emperor in Constantinople was the ‘verus imperator’. Bernardus wrote glosses on the Decretum (c.1206–10) which have been preserved in the last layer of glosses in Gniezno MS 28. Bernardus wrote glosses on Compilatio prima, and may also have written on Compilatio secundathough such glosses have not been found. In two manuscripts from Vienna and the monastery of Zwettl may be found a reportatio of quaestiones from Bernardus which he put together while teaching at the short-lived school of Vicenza (1204–1209). His most important work was a collection of Innocent III’s decretals, the Compilatio Romana. Other sources attest that Bernardus wrote glosses on Compilatio secunda and a tract on marriage, though these works have never been identified. A manuscript in Douai contains an epilogue to Compilatio tertia bearing Bernardus’ sigla. Bernardus’ last work was a group of additiones to Johannes Teutonicus’ gloss on the Decretum written in 1216–1217. Bernardus’ identification with the homonymous archdeacon of Santiago, attested between 1183 and 1232, is not certain.

 

Entry by: KP rev AL 2015

 

Text(s)

 
No. 1

Glosses on the Decretum (1201–05).

 
No. 2

Glosses on Compilatio prima (1205–06, Bologna).

 
No. 3

Glosses on Compilatio secunda (lost).

 
No. 4

Compilatio Romana, 1208, Bologna. This collection was made up of Decretals from the first ten years of the reign of Pope Innocent III. Bernardus relied on the compilations of Alanus and Gilbertus for the texts of decretals, but there is evidence that he also consulted the Papal registers. Bernardus seems to have been a cavalier editor, cutting out much material from the texts of Decretals. For this reason, perhaps, Petrus Beneventanus was inspired to create another compilation of Innocent’s decretals, the Compilatio tertia, which quickly superseded Bernardus’ work.

 
No. 5

Quaestiones disputate. (1204–09).

 
No. 6

Summa de materia electionum. (lost).

 
No. 7

Epilogue to Compilatio tertia.

 
No. 8

Additiones ad Glossam ordinariam Johannis Teutonici, (1216–17).

 

Text(s) – Manuscripts

No. 1

Glosses on the Decretum (1201–05).

 
Manuscript

Gniezno, Arch. Kap. 28

 
No. 2

Glosses on Compilatio prima (1205–06, Bologna).

 
Manuscript

a057Txt2Modena, Bibl. Estense α.R.4.16 (lat. 968), fol. 1–76 (third stratum)

 
 

Erlangen, Universitätsbibl. 349

 
 

Freiburg im Breisgau, Universitätsbibl. 361a

 
No. 4

Compilatio Romana, 1208, Bologna.

 
Manuscript

London, BL Harley 3834, fol. 202–356v

 
 

London, BL Royal 9 B. XI

 
 

Modena, Bibl. Estense XII L. 8

 
 

Paris, BN lat. 18223

 
No. 5

Quaestiones disputate.

 
Manuscript

Wien, ÖNB 2163, fols. 86va–90v

 
 

Zwettl, Stiftsbibl. 162, fols. 173–178v

 
No. 7

Epilogue to Compilatio tertia.

 
Manuscript

Douai, BM 598, fol. 120r

 
No. 8

Additiones ad Glossam ordinariam Johannis Teutonici, (1216–17).

 
Manuscript

a057Txt8Città del Vaticano, BAV Vat. lat. 1367 (second layer)

 

Text(s) – Modern Editions

No. 4

Compilatio Romana.

 
Modern Editions

Ed. H. Singer in ‘Die Dekretalensammlung des Bernardus Compostellanus antiquus’, SB Wien, 171, ii. (1914) 1–119.

 
No. 5

Quaestiones disputate.

 
Modern Editions

Summary analysis by G. Fransen in Traditio, 21 (1965) 492–501.

 

Literature

K. Pennington, ‘Decretal Collections 1190–1234’, in The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140–1234: From Gratian to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, W. Hartmann and K. Pennington, ed. (History of Medieval Canon Law 6; Washington DC 2008) 301, 303, 306–11, 314–16.

K. Pennington, ‘The Decretalists 1190–1234’, in The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140–1234: From Gratian to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, W. Hartmann and K. Pennington, ed. (History of Medieval Canon Law 6; Washington DC 2008) 221–24, 226.

R. Weigand, ‘The Development of the Glossa ordinaria to Gratian’s Decretum’, in The History of Medieval Canon Law in the Classical Period, 1140–1234: From Gratian to the Decretals of Pope Gregory IX, W. Hartmann and K. Pennington, ed. (History of Medieval Canon Law 6; Washington DC 2008) 80–81, 86, 95.

S. Kuttner, ‘Retractationes VII’, in Gratian and the Schools of law 1140–1234 (London 1983) 7–23.

A. García y García, ‘La Canonística Ibérica (1150–1250) en la investigación reciente’, BMCL, 11 (1981) 55.

K. Pennington, ‘The Making of a Decretal Collection: The Genesis of Compilatio tertia’, in Proceedings Salamanca, S. Kuttner, ed. (MIC C–4; Città del Vaticano 1980).

H. Müller, Der Anteil der Laien an der Bischofswahl: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Kanonistik von Gratian bis Gregor IX. (Kanonistische Studien und Texte 29; Amsterdam 1977) 148–51.

K. Pennington, ‘The French Recension of Compilatio tertia’, BMCL, 5 (1975) 53–71.

F. Liotta, La continenza dei chierici (Milano 1971) 230–39.

J. Brundage, Medieval Canon Law and the Crusader (Madison WI 1969) 88.

J. Brundage, ‘The Votive Obligations of Crusaders: The Development of a Canonistic Doctrine’, Traditio, 24 (1968) 103–104. Reprinted in: idem, The Crusades, Holy War and Canon Law (Collected Studies CS 338; Aldershot 1991) no. VI.

M. Taranta, ‘Bernardo da Compostella’, in DBI (1967) 9.267–69.

R. Weigand, Die Naturrechtslehre der Legisten und Dekretisten von Irnerius bis Accursius und von Gratian bis Johannes Teutonicus (Münchener Theologische Studien 3, Kan. Abt. 26; München 1967) 280–81 and passim.

R. Weigand, ‘Neue Mitteilungen aus Handschriften’, Traditio, 21 (1965) 482–84.

G. Fransen, ‘Deux collections de Questions’, Traditio, 21 (1964) 492–501.

R. Weigand, Die bedingte Eheschliessung im kanonischen Recht (Münchener Theologische Studien 3, Kan. Abt. 16; München 1963) 1.290–94.

S. Kuttner, ‘Bernardus Compostellanus Antiquus’, Traditio, 1 (1943) 277–340.

P. Ourliac, ‘Bernard de Compostelle l’ancien’, in DDC (1937) 2.775.

J. von Schulte, QL 1.85, 190.