Cavallar/Kirshner: Jurists and Jurisprudence (Toronto Studies in Medieval Law)

Review\n“Jurists and Jurisprudence in Medieval Italy is a fundamental contribution to the teaching of the history of law in medieval society. The translations and commentary are very accessible but their significance and originality make them also a very useful source of documentation with deeper inquiries into medieval law. A major contribution to scholarship and research, this work gives access to original and fundamental legal sources and provides an updated bibliography on each selected topic. It also promotes a method of interpretation of legal texts in their social and political contexts that should be used as a model for legal historical scholarship and teaching.” -- Laurent Mayali, Lloyd M. Robbins Professor of Law, UC Berkeley\n“No book in English has nearly the scope and depth of Jurists and Jurisprudence in Medieval Italy. Sharing a rich variety of documents extending beyond Florence to places like Perugia and Cortona, this book is a serious advance on existing research, and all the more important for the topics the authors have brought to clearer light, including the development of the medieval law system, known as the ius commune, consilia or advice of learned jurists, and the teachings of the learned law with local statutes.” -- Thomas Izbicki, Librarian Emeritus, Rutgers University\nJurists and Jurisprudence in Medieval Italy is an original collection of texts exemplifying medieval Italian jurisprudence, known as the ius commune. Translated for the first time into English, many of the texts exist only in early printed editions and manuscripts. Featuring commentaries by leading medieval civil law jurists, notably Azo Portius, Accursius, Albertus Gandinus, Bartolus of Sassoferrato, and Baldus de Ubaldis, this book covers a wide range of topics, including how to teach and study law, the production of legal texts, the ethical norms guiding practitioners, civil and criminal procedures, and family matters.
The translations, together with context-setting introductions, highlight fundamental legal concepts and practices and the milieu in which jurists operated. They offer entry points for exploring perennial subjects such as the professionalization of lawyers, the tangled relationship between law and morality, the role of gender in the socio-legal order, and the extent to which the ius commune can be considered an autonomous system of law.