Corpus Iuris Civilis — with marginal glosses

100,000 marginal glosses, in Latin

Issue 01 — Fall 2019 — Session 04 — Microliteratures: In the Margins of the Law
By Jesús R. Velasco | Published on September 12, 2019

There are hundreds of manuscripts and printed editions of the Corpus Iuris Civilis. In the thirteenth century, a lawyer and law scholar at the University of Bologna, Francesco Accursio, took it upon himself to create a workshop to produce copies of the “Corpus Iuris Civilis” and to constitute a body of marginal glosses from the teachings and experiences of previous professors, scholars, and lawyers (that he identified, when possible, with their initials). This gloss became the most frequent and authoritative one, making of Accursio a very rich man. The gloss acquired the name of “Magna glossa” or “Glossa ordinaria.”

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Among those manuscripts and editions, it is difficult to make the right choice. Indeed, it would be necessary to take into account every single piece of a jigsaw puzzle that crosses periods, legal schools, languages, etc. However, this is not possible, as it was not for most editors of the 16th or the 17th century. Not only because of the vastness of the materials, but also because of the fact that another several hundreds of manuscripts have vanished from the surface of the earth, recycled, consumed because of excessive use, and so on.

At any rate, there are some editions that can be used from the perspective of the work we do, as readers. One of them is the following edition, that we will be looking at and understanding:

Corpus Iuris Civilis. Lyon: Hugue de La Porte, 1558–1560.

Whereas there are some complete and partial translations of the Corpus Iuris Civilis, none of them translates the glosses, which remain confined to the margins of the manuscripts and printed editions in Latin.

Corpus Iuris Civilis — with marginal glosses

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Corpus Iuris Civilis — with mar­ginal glosses

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Corpus Iuris Civilis — with marginal glosses