| When was the University of Bologna founded? It is difficult to define when in Europe an institution which we would today call a "university" came into existence. Let us say that we consider university functions to be those in which: a) a scholar defines the boundaries of a discpline and conducts within these boundaries rigorous research for the desire for knowledge; b) this scholar, whilst carrying out the research, passes on his findings to a community of pupils who are following him freely, outside any other official body, be it the Church or the State; and c) society can eventually turn to this centre of research and make practical use of its findings. Can we say that this conditions were met at Bologna in the 11th century? Reports from the time vary, and the first documents are unclear, but 1088 can be taken as the starting date for the period in which teaching which was free from the ecclesiastical schools started at Bologna. Around the end of the 11th century, teachers of Grammar, Rhetoric and Logic started to study Law. The first figure recorded from that time is Pepone, who gathered and made commentaries on Roman legal texts which had already been codified by Justinian. But if history knows but little about Pepone, firmer evidence exists about Irnerius or Wernerius: his work in collating Roman legal material travelled beyond the boundaries of Bologna and extended across a large area of North-central Italy. | Irnerius, lucerna iurisUniversitas libera magistrorum discipulorumque consociatio ad aliquam disciplinam certis finibus circumscriptam pervestigandam, ubi magister, dum quaerit, docet. Bononiae saeculo XI exeunte logicae, grammaticae, rhetoricae magistri iuri studere coeperunt. Irnerius, "lucerna iuris", leges Romanas glossis interpretatur |
The methods of Irnerius represent a turning-point in the history of the study of Law, even if we are now not sure that he was the true author of all the works which have been attributed to him in the past, such as the Questiones de Iuris Subtilitibus and the Summa Codicis. Two centuries after him Odofredo affirmed that Irnerius was the first person who, "studying for himself", at the same time passed on his research through teaching. Irnerius was master of the "glossa", or commentary. Perhaps he was not the first to write down these commentaries, but certainly those who followed his lectures noted in the margins of ancient texts the interpretations that they heard from the voice of the master. The biography of Irnerius is very sketchy, but posterity calls him "lucerna iuris" (Lantern of Law), and through him we witness the identification of Law as a separate discipline, studied with rigorous methods. The activity of teaching to which Irnerius dedicated himself was recognised, it is said, by Matilda of Canossa, who governed in the name of Henry V. It seems certain that carried out judicial duties for Matilda, as many judgements attest - that is to say, through documents relating to the judgements of the monarch or his representative. In these texts, there are many occurences of the name of Irnerius, whose historical existence can therefore be proved through documentary evidence. |
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