Roman Law in the Renaissance

Abstract

Although the penetration, prominence, and authority of Roman law in practice varied across Europe, the academic study of jurisprudence, which spread with the gradual foundation of universities in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance, nearly everywhere entailed the mastery of Roman legal texts, terms, and ideas. Local legislation and customs were written and interpreted by Roman lawyers using Roman law principles, and Romano-canonical procedures gained purchase in both civil and criminal matters well beyond the traditional, hegemonic centers of Roman law in North-Central Italy and South-Western France. The Renaissance witnessed both the large-scale reception of Roman law across Europe and the application of humanist practices to Roman legal sources. Scholars have traditionally spoken of a divergence between the traditional jurisprudence of Southern Europe (the mos italicus) and the humanist jurisprudence of France, Germany, and the Low Countries (the mos gallicus). Although this is a compelling and often helpful schematic, the steady diffusion and predominance of traditional works (like the opera omnia of Bartolus) in France and Germany until the end of the sixteenth century speak to a much more complex picture. The appeal of Roman law was largely founded upon its perceived rationality and universality. The traditional practice of Roman law embodied a set of philosophical principles (built upon scholastic dialectic and topical logic) that furnished lawyers with tools for administration and dispute resolution. And humanist-oriented jurisprudence contributed in profound ways to the creation of advanced scholarly, philological, and historiographical techniques.