Irnerius (c. 1050 – after 1125), sometimes referred to as lucerna juris ("lantern of the law"), was an Italian jurist who taught the newly recovered Roman lawcode of Justinian I, the Corpus Juris Civilis, among the liberal arts at the University of Bologna, his native city. The recovery and revival of Roman law, taught first at Bologna in the 1070s, was a momentous event in European cultural history. Irnerius' interlinear glosses on Justinian's code, his Summa Codicis, stands at the beginnings of a European law that was written, systematic, comprehensive and rational, and based on Roman law.

Of his personal history little is known; his patron appears to have been the Countess Matilda of Tuscany, Hildebrand's friend, who died in 1115. After the death of Pope Paschal II, he defended the rights of Henry V in the papal election and upheld the legality of the election of the imperial antipope Gregory VIII; after 1116 he appears to have held some office under the emperor; and he died, perhaps during the reign of the emperor Lothair II, but certainly before 1140.

Irnerius taught along lines firmly established in the teaching of Scripture, by reading aloud a section of the civil law, which the students would copy, and add to the text his commentary and explanatory glosses. Thus he was the first of the glossators, whose explications of the law became an essential part of the legal curriculum. The text of Justinian's Pandects used in Bologna, referred to as the Littera Bononiensis, closely parallel to the Littera Florentina would be disseminated throughout Europe as students returned home from Bologna: there are versions of the Bolognese Littera with provenances in Paris, Padua, Leipzig and at the Vatican (Purpura 2001).

According to ancient opinion (which, however, has been much controverted), Irnerius was the author of the epitome of the Novellae of Justinian, called the Authentica, arranged according to the titles of the Code. His Formularium tabellionum (a directory for notaries) and Quaestiones (a book of judicial decisions) are no longer extant (EB).

Irnerius was largely forgotten; his name was revived by German historians of the later 19th century. His name is also seen in manuscripts as Hirnerius, Hyrnerius, Iernerius, Gernerius, Guarnerius, Warnerius, Wernerius, Yrnerius.

References

• Friedrich Carl von Savigny, Geschichte des Römischen Rechts im Mittelalter (2nd. ed., Heidelberg, 1834-1851) iii. 83
• Vecchio, Notizie di Irnerio e della sua scuola (Pisa, 1869)
• Julius Ficker, Forsch. z. Reichs- u. Rechtsgesch. Italiens, vol. iii. (Innsbruck, 1870)
• Herman Fitting, Die Anfange der Rechtsschule in Bologna (Berlin, 1888)

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Irnerius
• Archeogate: Gianfranco Purpura, "La Littera Florentina", 2001 (in Italian)

Italian jurists

Irnerius von Bologna | Irnerio | Ирнерий