Profile Major Works Resources

Francesco Accorso di Bagnolo (Accursius) c. 1182 – 1263.

Italian Scholastic jurist of Bologna,  the great glossator of civil law (Roman law) in the Middle Ages.

Francesco Accorso (nicknamed "Accursius")  of Bagnolo  was originally from the outskirts of Florence, and went on to study civil law  under Azo of Bologna.  Accursius received his doctorate around 1213, and went on to teach in Bologna.

The Justinian code (Corpus Juris Civilis), the great compendium of Roman civil law, originally compiled in the 6th C. had been recovered in Bologna in the late 12th C.  Bolognese scholars, from Irnerius onwards, had written numerous glosses (notes on the margins of the manuscripts) to explain the definitions, content and meaning of the Roman legal concepts in Justinian's texts.  Around 1220,  Accurius began his monumental task of collecting sorting the glosses scattered through numerous manuscripts, and compiling them into a single collection.  Accursius's collection, known as the Glossa Magistralis ("Great Gloss"), of the entire Justinian corpus was completed around 1228, and came out in 1234/35.  (the comparable feat in canon law was the Glossa Ordinaria of Johannes Teutonicus).

The influence of Accursius "Great Gloss" on the development of civil law and jurisprudence in centuries to come can hardly be overstated.   Typical of his authority is the old formula Quidquid non agnoscit glossa, non curia agnoscit ("What the gloss does not recognize, the court does not recognize").

Accursius continued teaching at Bologna throughout the end of his life, sometimes working on the side as a consultant, lawyer and examiner of Bolognese notaries.  He died in 1263.

 

  

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Major Works of Accursius

  • Glossa Ordinaria (or Glossa Magistralis, Magna Glossa, or Glossa Accursii), 1234/35.
    • Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis with Glossa of Accursius (Juntas ed.)
      • 1604 v.2 (Dig Infor)
      • 1606 v.1 (Dig vet), v.2 (Infort),  v.3 (Dig nov), v.4 (Cod), v.5 (Nov) v.6 (thesaurus of Accursius;)
      • 1621 v.1 (Dig vet), v.2 (Infortatium), v.3 (Digestum novum), v.4 (Codici priores),  v.5 (Legum tam posteriores/Novellae)   v.6 (thesaurus of Accursius)
    • Glossa in Justinian's Institutiones [1495 bk]

 
HET

 
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Resources on Accursius

 

 
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