Books by David De Concilio
The Perpendiculum: Presumptions and Legal Arguments in the 12th Century , 2024
The Perpendiculum (or Summula de presumptionibus), produced in Northern France c.1170, is one of ... more The Perpendiculum (or Summula de presumptionibus), produced in Northern France c.1170, is one of the earliest collections of brocards: a literary genre intended to provide legal arguments for disputation in the medieval schools of law. Its innovative use of dialectical techniques and its theorization of canon law presumptions have attracted the attention of legal historians, raising questions on its origin and milieu.
This book offers the first comprehensive study of this work, with a Latin edition and an English translation of its text, shedding new light on the significance of this collection for twelfth-century legal teaching and learning.
Papers by David De Concilio
Historia et Ius, 2024
This paper studies the canon law regulations on medieval commerce by examining the theories on ju... more This paper studies the canon law regulations on medieval commerce by examining the theories on just price developed around the c. Placuit (X. 3.17.1): a Carolingian capitular inserted in the Liber Extra. After an overview of this legal source, this essay outlines its doctrinal interpretations between the 13th and the 15th century. It will be argued that the c. Placuit represented an original canonical paradigm of just price, independent of Roman law theories of laesio enormis. This was not confined to the internal forum, as conventionally thought. Instead, it served as the normative basis for the establishment of the episcopal intervention in market regulation and the ecclesiastical jurisdiction to enforce justice in ex-change for the protection of miserabiles personae, thus shaping the social role of merchants.
Rivista di Storia del Diritto Italiano, 2024
Secondo la procedura romano-canonica medievale, i testimoni riluttanti potevano essere costretti ... more Secondo la procedura romano-canonica medievale, i testimoni riluttanti potevano essere costretti a deporre in giudizio. Il presente lavoro ricostruisce il dibattito canonistico del XII e XIII secolo intorno a tale principio, sostenendo che la sua affermazione fu molto più controversa di quanto convenzionalmente ritenuto. Ciò, inoltre, rappresenta un caso significativo per lo studio della giuridificazione coeva del diritto canonico, da forma di normatività pastorale a sistema giuridico. In questo saggio, analizzerò le sedes materiae sulla testimonianza forzata nel Decretum di Graziano e nelle decretali papali, mostrando come l’introduzione dello ius novum abbia determinato un punto di rottura sulla questione e suscitato un acceso dibattito tra i giuristi. Successivamente, ricostruirò le caratteristiche principali di questo dibattito, suggerendo che l’elaborazione canonistica sul punto era intrinsecamente diversa da quella del diritto romano, cercando di bilanciare le implicazioni pastorali e disciplinari di questo strumento processuale con la necessità di ampliare l’efficienza nei giudizi nel foro esterno.
According to the medieval Romano-canonical procedure, reluctant witnesses could be compelled to testify in court. This paper reconstructs the 12th- and 13th-century canonical debate around this principle, arguing that its establishment was much more controversial than conventionally thought. This, moreover, represents a significant case study of the contemporary juridification of canon law, from a form of pastoral normativity to a legal system. In this essay, I will analyse the sedes materiae on compelled testimony in Gratian’s Decretum and papal decretals, showing how the introduction of the ius novum determined a breaking point on the matter and aroused a heated debate among jurists. Subsequently, I will reconstruct the main characteristics of this debate, suggesting that the canon law elaboration on this point was inherently different from the Roman law one, trying to balance the pastoral and disciplinary implications of this procedural tool with the need to expand the efficiency of the adjudication of cases in the external forum.
Rivista Internazionale di Diritto Comune, 2023
In the works of the Glossators and the Commentators, it can be noticed a strong presence of poeti... more In the works of the Glossators and the Commentators, it can be noticed a strong presence of poetic citations embedded in the legal reasoning. This paper addresses this practice by using the Summa super decretalibus of Hostiensis (c.1253) as a case study. After a brief overview of the relationship between law, history, and poetry, the present essay will sketch the common habit of thirteenth-century jurists to resort to poetic verses in their writings. Subsequently, the poetic citations in Hostiensis’s Summa that can be attributed to a specific author will be analysed. Finally, I will try to suggest some possible explanations for the choice of certain authors by Hostiensis and more generally for the use of poetry in the legal discourse of the time.
Historia et ius, 2022
This paper looks at the problem of subjectiveness in the legal recon-struction of facts during th... more This paper looks at the problem of subjectiveness in the legal recon-struction of facts during the late twelfth century. After providing a short overview of the interest in facts and intentionality amongst the twelfth-century jurists, this contribution will examine two minor works produced in the Transalpine schools of canon law that focus on the peculiar concept of «intrinsic fact» and on its rele-vance for the legal inquiry of human conduct. Subsequently, it will be argued that the theoretical elaboration behind this concept can be placed at the crossroads of canon law and theology, testifying to the pivotal role of scholasticism in the defi-nition of subjectiveness and intentionality. In the last pages, an edition of one of the sources – here called Tractatus de operibus – will be provided.
Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis, 2019
This paper gives an account of the Medieval legal theories on coinage and money in the Glossators... more This paper gives an account of the Medieval legal theories on coinage and money in the Glossators' era, and especially of the role played by a brocard of the jurist Azo (12th-13th century) in the elaboration of this theories. The matter is not unknown to the scholarship, but the scope of the legal contribution to a monetary thought has been underestimated so far. This article seeks to re-evaluate the Glossators' contribution on coinage starting from the textual reconstruction and the edition of Azo's brocard, then stressing its importance to the developing of a legal monetary thought.
An experimental project mapping ten twelfth-century legal texts across Europe using their places ... more An experimental project mapping ten twelfth-century legal texts across Europe using their places of origin and holding. This website includes a project introduction, the map itself, a list of works, and a list of manuscripts.
Thesis Chapters by David De Concilio
This thesis examines the historical development and the significance of a legal literary genre, b... more This thesis examines the historical development and the significance of a legal literary genre, brocards, from its birth in the 1160s until the stabilisation of brocardic collections around 1215. In particular, this work reconsiders the historiographical understanding of brocards through a re-evaluation of the primary sources. In this regard, a significant case study is offered by the Perpendiculum, the most influential of the earliest collections of brocards. Through a careful textual analysis of the Perpendiculum and other brocardic works, this study draws some general conclusions on the development of brocards during the twelfth century, considered as a dynamic process with precise geographical and intellectual connotations. More specifically, I argue that the historical transformation of brocards during that timeframe corresponds to a path from the Anglo-Norman world to the school of Bologna, and from a technique based on rhetoric to one based on dialectic. For this reason, the twelfth-century collections of brocards shed valuable light upon various aspects of the learned legal milieu of the time. Firstly, they show the existence of a common Western European legal culture, from the British Isles to Sicily, where legal schools seem much more closely connected that conventionally thought. Furthermore, the historical development of brocards vividly exemplifies the impact that the changes in scholastic disputation techniques had on the twelfth-century legal world. The popularity of these argumentative tools can be also connected with the deep procedural changes of the late twelfth and early thirteenth century, and with the establishment of Romanocanonical procedure. Finally, it will be argued that the transformation of brocardic collections reflects the existence of two different attitudes towards law during the twelfth century: an old ecclesiastical, instrumental use of legal norms for practical purposes and a new Bolognese systematic approach.
Drafts by David De Concilio
Civil Law, Common Law, Customary Law Project Publications, 2019
This is an English translation of the ‘Summula de presumptionibus’, based on the edited version t... more This is an English translation of the ‘Summula de presumptionibus’, based on the edited version that will be published for the CLCLCL project, as an appendix to a doctoral thesis on ‘The development of legal texts in late twelfth-century England and Italy’.
Civil Law, Common Law, Customary Law Project Publications, 2019
This is a transcription of the ‘Summula de presumptionibus’, as found in the ms. Vatican, BAV, Pa... more This is a transcription of the ‘Summula de presumptionibus’, as found in the ms. Vatican, BAV, Pal. lat. 653. It is a treatise on legal presumptions in the form of brocards, that constitutes the first part of an unpublished collection of brocarda kown as ‘Perpendiculum’.
Conference Presentations by David De Concilio
Seminari storico-giuridici - DiSSGeA e DPCD Università di Padova, 2023
Towards a Lexicon of Medieval and Early Modern Commercial Law, 1st Workshop of the ERC Project MICOLL – Migrating Commercial Law and Language, University of Padua, 02.12.22, 2022
The aim of this paper is to provide some methodological reflexions on MICOLL from a legal-histori... more The aim of this paper is to provide some methodological reflexions on MICOLL from a legal-historical perspective. For a project that wants to investigate “migrating commercial law and language,” the most straightforward objects of research are those words that migrated from context to context, and those institutions that moved from a local legal practice to another.
We will focus, instead, on two other equally important aspects: those words that did not migrate; and the relationship between commercial legal practices and the theories of the ius commune. To do so, we will use one legal institution as a case study: the regulation of loans in some Italian cities between the twelfth and the fifteenth century. First, we will focus on Venice; subsequently, we will briefly examine the experiences of two other maritime republics, Genoa and Pisa, which were instead part the system of the ius commune.
16th International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, 2022
The irreconcilable opposition between Romano-canonical law and Common law traditions lies in the ... more The irreconcilable opposition between Romano-canonical law and Common law traditions lies in the idea that both are conceived mainly as alternative systems of substantive law. If instead we consider the Romano-canonical sources not as a systematic picture, but as repositories of legal arguments to mobilise case by case, we can find a strong analogy between how they are used on the two sides of the Channel.
This is particularly evident in the genesis of the twelfth-century collections of brocards; this paper aims at showing this analogy by focusing on one of the oldest of these collection, the canonical work known as ‘Perpendiculum’, which today is believed to have an Anglo-Norman origin (Gouron, 2000).
In this perspective, this paper aims at shading some light on the Perpendiculum and at reconsidering the studies on this work, by presenting the planned edition of its text and by analysing again the issue of its origin on the light of the most recent findings.
Finally, this study aims to suggest how the textual history and the origin of the Perpendiculum shows a similar use of the Romano-canonical sources as repositories of arguments, both in England and on the continent: collections of arguments like this work are firstly produced in the Anglo-Norman area, tapping into Canon law, and successively in the rest of Europe, opening to arguments of Roman law. Furthermore, this pattern of legal translation underlines the existence of a twelfth-century common European learned legal culture, which connected together Anglo-Norman England and continental Europe.
Natura e finzione. Seminario di studi dottorali, École française de Rome, 2022
The main aim of my project is to contribute to the existing scholarship on twelfth-century legal ... more The main aim of my project is to contribute to the existing scholarship on twelfth-century legal presumptions, by analysing the treatment that those presumptions provide regarding the inquiry into the subjective element in legally relevant facts. In particular, I will use some twelfth-century canonical works produced in the northern French legal schools as a case study.
Tra diritto e religione: dialoghi e influenze nella storia giuridica, 2022
Lo scopo di questo contributo è di esaminare l’interesse per la dimensione psicologica nel diritt... more Lo scopo di questo contributo è di esaminare l’interesse per la dimensione psicologica nel diritto colto del tempo, e in particolare l’apporto fornito dall’elaborazione teologica sul tema all’esperienza giuridica coeva, inquadrando il problema dalla prospettiva dell’interesse di giuristi e teologi per l’elemento soggettivo nella ricostruzione dei fatti rilevanti per il diritto.
Regulae iuris and maxims of law in the legal historical perspective, 2022
This paper aims at examining the historical development and the significance of brocards from the... more This paper aims at examining the historical development and the significance of brocards from their birth in the 1160s until the stabilisation of brocardic collections around 1215. In particular, this contribution intends to reconsider the historiographical understanding of brocards through a re-evaluation of the primary sources. In this regard, a significant case study is offered by the earliest collections of brocards, and in particular by the Perpendiculum, one of the most influential of these collections.
Borders and the Norman World. New Frontiers in Scholarship, 2021
The aim of this paper is to address the contribution of the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman jurists ... more The aim of this paper is to address the contribution of the twelfth-century Anglo-Norman jurists to the creation of the Western European legal culture, using as a case study the development of a very popular legal device, the brocard.
Monetary Policy in Times of Crisis (5th-16th Centuries), 16th-18th March 2021, University of Manchester, 2021
The twelfth- and thirteenth-century economic transformations had a great influence on the Western... more The twelfth- and thirteenth-century economic transformations had a great influence on the Western European economic thought. In particular, the quick monetisation of the economy, the frequent monetary crises and the practice of the debasement of coinage drew the attention of theologians, political thinkers and intellectuals of the time.
Among the others, the jurists were also sensitive to the monetary problems of their time, and particularly to the needs of the expanding market economy shaken by the frequent monetary crises. More specifically, the legists and canonists sought to protect the private autonomy of contracting parties against the legal effects of the abrupt changes in currency value made by the public authorities.
Although legal historiography repeatedly studied the monetary theories elaborated by the Medieval legal culture, it understated the Glossators’ contribution to the development of a proper, systematic legal theory on money. The aim of this paper is to suggest that the Medieval legal theories on money were a precise, conscious and systematic choice of a generation of jurists deeply concerned by the abuses of the monetary policies of their time, and actively engaged in defending the issues of the emerging merchant class.
Borders and the Norman World - Conference Programme
Pleased to announce a three-day online conference on the borders of the
Norman World, taking pl... more Pleased to announce a three-day online conference on the borders of the
Norman World, taking place on 25-27 March 2021.
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Books by David De Concilio
This book offers the first comprehensive study of this work, with a Latin edition and an English translation of its text, shedding new light on the significance of this collection for twelfth-century legal teaching and learning.
Papers by David De Concilio
According to the medieval Romano-canonical procedure, reluctant witnesses could be compelled to testify in court. This paper reconstructs the 12th- and 13th-century canonical debate around this principle, arguing that its establishment was much more controversial than conventionally thought. This, moreover, represents a significant case study of the contemporary juridification of canon law, from a form of pastoral normativity to a legal system. In this essay, I will analyse the sedes materiae on compelled testimony in Gratian’s Decretum and papal decretals, showing how the introduction of the ius novum determined a breaking point on the matter and aroused a heated debate among jurists. Subsequently, I will reconstruct the main characteristics of this debate, suggesting that the canon law elaboration on this point was inherently different from the Roman law one, trying to balance the pastoral and disciplinary implications of this procedural tool with the need to expand the efficiency of the adjudication of cases in the external forum.
Thesis Chapters by David De Concilio
Drafts by David De Concilio
Conference Presentations by David De Concilio
We will focus, instead, on two other equally important aspects: those words that did not migrate; and the relationship between commercial legal practices and the theories of the ius commune. To do so, we will use one legal institution as a case study: the regulation of loans in some Italian cities between the twelfth and the fifteenth century. First, we will focus on Venice; subsequently, we will briefly examine the experiences of two other maritime republics, Genoa and Pisa, which were instead part the system of the ius commune.
This is particularly evident in the genesis of the twelfth-century collections of brocards; this paper aims at showing this analogy by focusing on one of the oldest of these collection, the canonical work known as ‘Perpendiculum’, which today is believed to have an Anglo-Norman origin (Gouron, 2000).
In this perspective, this paper aims at shading some light on the Perpendiculum and at reconsidering the studies on this work, by presenting the planned edition of its text and by analysing again the issue of its origin on the light of the most recent findings.
Finally, this study aims to suggest how the textual history and the origin of the Perpendiculum shows a similar use of the Romano-canonical sources as repositories of arguments, both in England and on the continent: collections of arguments like this work are firstly produced in the Anglo-Norman area, tapping into Canon law, and successively in the rest of Europe, opening to arguments of Roman law. Furthermore, this pattern of legal translation underlines the existence of a twelfth-century common European learned legal culture, which connected together Anglo-Norman England and continental Europe.
Among the others, the jurists were also sensitive to the monetary problems of their time, and particularly to the needs of the expanding market economy shaken by the frequent monetary crises. More specifically, the legists and canonists sought to protect the private autonomy of contracting parties against the legal effects of the abrupt changes in currency value made by the public authorities.
Although legal historiography repeatedly studied the monetary theories elaborated by the Medieval legal culture, it understated the Glossators’ contribution to the development of a proper, systematic legal theory on money. The aim of this paper is to suggest that the Medieval legal theories on money were a precise, conscious and systematic choice of a generation of jurists deeply concerned by the abuses of the monetary policies of their time, and actively engaged in defending the issues of the emerging merchant class.
Norman World, taking place on 25-27 March 2021.
This book offers the first comprehensive study of this work, with a Latin edition and an English translation of its text, shedding new light on the significance of this collection for twelfth-century legal teaching and learning.
According to the medieval Romano-canonical procedure, reluctant witnesses could be compelled to testify in court. This paper reconstructs the 12th- and 13th-century canonical debate around this principle, arguing that its establishment was much more controversial than conventionally thought. This, moreover, represents a significant case study of the contemporary juridification of canon law, from a form of pastoral normativity to a legal system. In this essay, I will analyse the sedes materiae on compelled testimony in Gratian’s Decretum and papal decretals, showing how the introduction of the ius novum determined a breaking point on the matter and aroused a heated debate among jurists. Subsequently, I will reconstruct the main characteristics of this debate, suggesting that the canon law elaboration on this point was inherently different from the Roman law one, trying to balance the pastoral and disciplinary implications of this procedural tool with the need to expand the efficiency of the adjudication of cases in the external forum.
We will focus, instead, on two other equally important aspects: those words that did not migrate; and the relationship between commercial legal practices and the theories of the ius commune. To do so, we will use one legal institution as a case study: the regulation of loans in some Italian cities between the twelfth and the fifteenth century. First, we will focus on Venice; subsequently, we will briefly examine the experiences of two other maritime republics, Genoa and Pisa, which were instead part the system of the ius commune.
This is particularly evident in the genesis of the twelfth-century collections of brocards; this paper aims at showing this analogy by focusing on one of the oldest of these collection, the canonical work known as ‘Perpendiculum’, which today is believed to have an Anglo-Norman origin (Gouron, 2000).
In this perspective, this paper aims at shading some light on the Perpendiculum and at reconsidering the studies on this work, by presenting the planned edition of its text and by analysing again the issue of its origin on the light of the most recent findings.
Finally, this study aims to suggest how the textual history and the origin of the Perpendiculum shows a similar use of the Romano-canonical sources as repositories of arguments, both in England and on the continent: collections of arguments like this work are firstly produced in the Anglo-Norman area, tapping into Canon law, and successively in the rest of Europe, opening to arguments of Roman law. Furthermore, this pattern of legal translation underlines the existence of a twelfth-century common European learned legal culture, which connected together Anglo-Norman England and continental Europe.
Among the others, the jurists were also sensitive to the monetary problems of their time, and particularly to the needs of the expanding market economy shaken by the frequent monetary crises. More specifically, the legists and canonists sought to protect the private autonomy of contracting parties against the legal effects of the abrupt changes in currency value made by the public authorities.
Although legal historiography repeatedly studied the monetary theories elaborated by the Medieval legal culture, it understated the Glossators’ contribution to the development of a proper, systematic legal theory on money. The aim of this paper is to suggest that the Medieval legal theories on money were a precise, conscious and systematic choice of a generation of jurists deeply concerned by the abuses of the monetary policies of their time, and actively engaged in defending the issues of the emerging merchant class.
Norman World, taking place on 25-27 March 2021.
My main idea is therefore to use the textual sources on the move, their circulation and reception, as a paradigm to inquire the European legal culture in twelfth-century.