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The Writings of John of Legnano with a List of Manuscripts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

John P. McCall
John P. McCall*
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University of Cincinnati
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Extract

John of Legnano (ca. 1320–1383) was the foremost professor of law at Bologna in the last half of the fourteenth century. Although he has received recognition for his early study on the ethics of warfare, his importance today might better be ascribed to the breadth of his writings, to his close connections with the papal and civic affairs of his day, and to his role as the chief apologist for Urban VI at the outbreak of the Great Western Schism.

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Articles
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Traditio , Volume 23 , 1967 , pp. 415 - 437
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 There is a good brief biography with bibliography by Stelling-Michaud, S. in DDC 4.111–12. The fullest study is Bosdari's, F. Giovanni da Legnano canonista e uomo politico del 1300 (Atti e mem. della R. Deputaz. di storia patria per le provincie di Romagna 19 [1901]) 1–137. Research for this paper was made possible by grants from the American Council of Learned Societies and the American Commission for Cultural Exchange (Italy), and by a sabbatical leave from Georgetown University.Google Scholar

2 Tractatus de bello, de represaliis et de duello by Giovanni da Legnano , ed. Holland, T. E. (Classics of International Law 8; Oxford 1917).Google Scholar

3 The most useful works have been Ermini, G., I trattati della guerra e della pace di Giovanni da Legnano (Studi e mem. per la storia Università di Bologna 8; Imola 1923) esp. 42–55; ed. Holland, T. E., op. cit. esp. xxi-xxvii; Cook, A. S., ‘Chauceriana II: Chaucer's “Linian”,’ Romanic Review 8 (1917) 353–82; and Schulte, J. F., Die Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des canonischen Rechts von Papst Gregor IX bis zum Concil von Trent II (Stuttgart 1877) 260–1.Google Scholar

4 Legnano dedicated his De bello (1360) to Cardinal Albornoz. In his Somnium (1372) he refers to de Luna, Cardinal (‘Cardinalis Yspalensis’) as an authority on civil law, and at the outbreak of the Great Western Schism he directed a personal letter to him (item 23, below). In a Vatican manuscript, Bibl. Vat. Barb. lat. 3180 fols. 1–24 there is a catalogue of books belonging to Cardinal de Luna; works by Legnano, , listed on fols. 5r-v, 7 and 21, include his Commentaria in decretales, Commentaria in Clementinas, De pluralitate beneficiorum, De potestate (i.e. De principatu), Somnium, De pace and De censura ecclesiastica. Google Scholar

5 Legnano, wrote his De pluralitate beneficiorum for Urban, V (‘jussu Urbani V’) and also dedicated his De pace to him. He directed three works to XI Gregory (Somnium, De juribus ecclesiae, De arbore consanguinitatis) and negotiated for peace with Robert, Cardinal of Geneva (later Clement, VII) during Bologna's revolt of 1376. In his letter to Cardinal de Luna (1378) Legnano asked to be remembered to several of the French cardinals: ‘si placet recommendare me dominis meis singularibus singulariter Ambianensis, Gebenuensis, Eustachii, Agrifolio, Pictanensis et Vivariensis.’ As early as Gilles Mallet's inventory (1373) of Charles V's famous library, a substantial number of Legnano's works were known in France: ‘Une piau de parchemin ou sont plussieurs ystoires que fist maistre Jehan de Lignan.’ Boivin Le Cadet, M., Inventaire ou catalogue des livres de l'ancienne bibliothèque du Louvre (Paris 1836) 146. This entry is discussed in Appendix B 1., below.Google Scholar

6 The manuscripts in Prague may be associated not only with the growing importance of the, then, new University, but also with the fact that Charles IV had made Legnano a Count Palatin in 1368, doubtless during the Emperor's visit to Urban V in Italy that year. Cook, A. S. (n. 3, above) refers to Tyrwhitt's edition of Chaucer to cite two British manuscripts of Legnano's works, but actually many more than that survive: a large collection in Cambridge Univ., Peterhouse MS 273, two Commentaria in decretales, three De bello, two De fletu ecclesiae (frags.), a De principatu, a De statutis and four Consilia. There was also a Commentaria in Clementinas at Christ Church, Canterbury, in the fifteenth century.Google Scholar

7 It has been suggested that Legnano's first appointment at the University of Bologna, coming after the Visconti take over of the city in 1350, might have been due to his Milanese birth. In his preface to the De bello, however, Legnano makes it clear that he sided with the papacy against the Visconti. Furthermore, in his De amicitia, he casually mentions the tyranny of Lombardy: ‘… ut sepe hodie fit altissimo permittente gubernationem tyrranicam, maxime in partibus Lombardiae sine dubio propter demerita subditorum… .’ Tractatus universi juris (Venice 1584) 12.236v. The early catalogues of the Visconti and Sforza libraries confirm the present-day absence of Legnano manuscripts in Milan: none of his works is mentioned in the inventories of 1426 and 1459. Pelligrin, E., La Bibliothèque des Visconti et des Sforza, Ducs de Milan, au XVe siècle (Paris 1955).Google Scholar

8 The printed catalogues for the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, and the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, indicate that the De pace manuscript at the former and the De juribus ecclesiae manuscript at the latter do not contain materials outlined in their proems. Two works mentioned below under De adventu Christi have an uncertain place in Legnano's canon, as does a brief De arbore at Florence which is mentioned under item 26, below.Google Scholar

9 In his scientific De arbore consanguinitatis Legnano refers to a fuller, practical treatment of perspectiva, ‘in tractatu de pace ad arborem in circhulo perspective.’ In the same work he also refers to other sections of his De pace: ‘ad arborem in circhulo yconomice’ and ‘ad arborem descriptam in circhulo scientie civilis et canonice.’ From my brief look at the text of the De pace in Vat. lat. 2639, I have not been able to make sense of these references. Could Legnano actually be alluding to other works which he viewed as parts of one great work? (V. items 27 [cf. n. 29, below], 20 and 18.) Furthermore, the incipits for items 20–21 and 30–32, below, suggest that these works might be taken as parts of a larger work even though they are not so treated in manuscripts. What Legnano's intentions were in these cases is not at all clear, but it is certain that he sometimes incorporated one of his works in another (items 5–6, 17–18, 22 and 24).Google Scholar

10 There is a detailed description of Vat. lat. 2639 (old foliation) in Fantuzzi, G., Notizie degli scrittori bolognesi 5 (Bologna 1786) 38–44.Google Scholar

11 For example, Cambridge Univ., Peterhouse MS 273; Valencia, , Bibl. de la Catedral MS 45; and probably Prague, Bibl. Univ. Cod. lat. 1432 (VIII A 24). The Valencia manuscript is not fully described in its catalogue, but Dr. Ramón Robres Lluch has kindly informed me that MS 45 begins with the De virtutibus theologicis (fols. 1–45) and De adventu Christi (fols. 46–137v) which are followed by the De continentia, De virtute heroyca, De amicitia and political writings (including the Somnium). An Ulm manuscript recorded in a fifteenth-century inventory shows the same sense of order (Lehmann, P., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz I [Munich 1918] 363) but, like the Prague manuscript, it had the De cometa preceding the De amicitia. Google Scholar

12 See, for example, Maffei, D., La Donazione di Constantino nei giuristi medievali (Milan 1964) 221–30. I have noted elsewhere that scholars have generally considered Legnano's writings as unoriginal: ‘Chaucer and John of Legnano,’ Speculum 40 (1965) 486 n. 7.Google Scholar

∗ An asterisk next to the title indicates that additional manuscripts are listed in Appendix A, below.Google Scholar

13 Other incipits are as follows: Bk. 2 ‘Visum est supra de preparatoriis ad judicia …’; Bk. 3 ‘Finito tractatu judiciorum …’; Bk. 4 ‘Postquam satis tractavimus ea que spectant …’; Bk. 5 ‘Proxime tractavimus de accusatione matrimonii … .’ Explicit: ‘… qualitas culpe debet ponderari.’ Google Scholar

14 Ermini, G., ‘Il commentario “in Clementinas” di Giovanni da Legnano,’ Rivista di storia del diritto italiano 1 (1928) 349, 353–4.Google Scholar

15 Although this printing is normally linked with the Commentaria in Clementinas, it may be that the text is actually Legnano's De horis canonicis (item 4). The Vatican Library's inventory for Cod. Rossiano 1038 fols. 409–14 reads: ‘Repetitio Clementinae de celebratione missarum … seu Tractatus de horis canonicis.’ Google Scholar

16 See n. 15.Google Scholar

17 The estimated date is Sutermeister's, G. in ‘Gli editori De Legnano 1470–1525 [Pt. 2],’ Società arte e storia Legnano memorie 12 (1948) 234.Google Scholar

18 In some early printings the De pluralitate beneficiorum appears together with a De permutatione that is not Legnano's. See Sect. VII, below: ‘Doubtful and Spurious Works.’ Google Scholar

19 Gottlieb, T., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreich I (Vienna 1915) 439.Google Scholar

20 This manuscript contains at least two of Legnano's works (De pluralitate beneficiorum and De principatu); it also has two other anonymous works that may be Legnano's: two De horis canonicis and a De emptione. Google Scholar

21 For manuscripts listed in fifteenth century inventories at Ulm and Erfurt, see Lehmann, P., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz I 383; II (Munich 1928) 146.Google Scholar

22 See ed. Holland, T. E. (n. 2, above) xxvii and Sutermeister, G. (n. 17, above) 16.Google Scholar

23 The incomplete character of the printed text has been noted by Maffei, D. (n. 12, above) 226 n. 14.Google Scholar

24 This is the incipit of the proem; on the various parts of the work see Ehrle, F., Martin de Alpertils: Chronica actitatorum temporibus Domini Benedicti XIII (Quellen und Forschungen a. d. Gebiete des Geschichte herausgegeben v. d. Görresgesellsch. XII 1; Paderborn 1906) 430–9.Google Scholar

25 For information on Legnano's schism writings see: Valois, N., La France et le Grand Schisme Occident (Paris 1896) 1.126–31; Ehrle, F. (n. 24, above); Bliemetzrieder, F., Litterarische Polemik zu Beginn des Grossen Abendländischen Schismas (Publikationen des Österreichischen Historischen Instituts in Rom 1; Vienna and Leipzig 1909/10) 47ff; Baluzius, S., Vitae paparum avenionensium ed. Mollat, G. 2 (Paris 1927) 911–16; Seidlmayer, M., Die Anfänge des Grossen Abendländischen Schismas (Spanische Forschungen der Görresgesellschaft herausgegeben von ihrem Spanischen Kuratorium II 5; Münster 1940) 122–8, and the same author's ‘Die spanischen “Libri de Schismate” des Vatikanischen Archivs,’ Spanische Forschungen der Görresgeselleschaft herausgegeben von ihrem Spanischen Kuratorium I (Gesammelte Aufsätze zur Kulturgeschichte Spaniens 8; Münster 1940) 199–262; and Ullmann, W., The Origins of the Great Western Schism (London 1948) ch. 8.Google Scholar

26 Kristeller, P. O., Iter Italicum 1 (London 1963) 424.Google Scholar

27 Some of Legnano's works which include astrological material are noted in Speculum 40.486 n. 8.Google Scholar

28 Ullman, B. L., The Humanism of Coluccio Salutati (Padua 1963) 184–5.Google Scholar

29 The Vatican manuscript dates the work prior to 1376; the list of Mallet (Appendix B 1, below) seems to date it prior to 1373 (under the title De angelica hierarchia). Finally there is a negative argument for dating it prior to the De arbore consanguinitatis (1371–3): where the De adventu treats the devil's ability to deceive men's sight (Vat. lat. 2639 fols. 88v-91) there is no cross-reference by Legnano, to his lengthy discussion of optics in Part Two of the De arbore. Google Scholar

30 A more detailed account of the contents is given in Fantuzzi's description of Vat. lat. 2639 (old foliation): Notizie degli scrittori bolognesi 5. 38–41.Google Scholar

31 A fifteenth-century inventory at Ulm lists a manuscript which included: ‘tractatus Johannis de Legnano super titulum de summa trinitate.’ See Lehmann, P., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge I 364.Google Scholar

32 Ermini, G. (n. 3, above) 82.Google Scholar

33 On the contents of the De pace see also Fantuzzi's description of Vat. lat. 2639 (Notizie degli scrittori bolognesi 5. 42) and the printed catalogue entry for MS lat. 3199 at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.Google Scholar

34 Ed. Holland, T. E. (n. 2, above) xxiv. I am not sure what the evidence is for this dating, but it is reasonable to put the De amicitia after the De pace (1364).Google Scholar

35 Ed. Holland, T. E. (n. 2, above) xiii.Google Scholar

36 Iter Italicum 1.265.Google Scholar

37 For example, in Argellati, F., Bibliotheca scriptorum mediolanensium (Milan 1745) II 2000; ed. Holland, T. E. (n. 2, above) xxiii.Google Scholar

38 Argellati, F., loc. cit. and Cook, A. S. (n. 3, above) 370.Google Scholar

39 Fantuzzi, , Notizie degli scrittori bolognesi 5.48; Cook, A. S., loc. cit. Google Scholar

40 Fantuzzi, , loc. cit. and Cook, A. S., loc. cit. Google Scholar

41 For example, ed. Holland, T. E. (n. 2, above) xxi–xxii.Google Scholar

42 For manuscripts reported in early inventories at Ulm and Vienna, see Lehmann, , Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge I 385–6 and Gottlieb, T., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Österreich I 421. There are also reports of a manuscript in Spain (Bk. 2) and of several in Leningrad: Hispania Sacra 4 (1951) 434; and Halban-Blumenstok, A., ‘Die canonistischen Handschriften der kaiserlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek in St. Petersburg,’ Deutsche Zeitschrift für Kirchenrecht III 5 (1895) 243.Google Scholar

43 On the Leningrad manuscript see also Halban-Blumenstok, A., loc. cit., For a manuscript reported at Bibl. Ecclesiae Parcensis, Ord. Premonst. (1635–5), see Sanderus, A., Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta II (Lille 1644). Manuscripts are also reported in early inventories at Ulm, Nürnberg, Vienna and Canterbury: Lehmann, , op. cit. I 385; Ruf, P., Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz III (Munich 1939) 3.845; Gottlieb, T., op. cit. I 487; and James, M. R., The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge 1903) 150.Google Scholar

44 For manuscripts reported at Ulm and Nürnberg, see Lehmann, , op. cit. I 395 and Ruf, P., op. cit. III 3.465, 533.Google Scholar

45 For a manuscript reported at Ulm, see Lehmann, , op. cit. I 363.Google Scholar

46 On the Leningrad manuscript see also Halban-Blumenstok, A., loc. cit., For manuscripts reported at Bibl. Ecclesiae Parcensis, Ulm and Erfurt, see Sanderus, A., op. cit. ; Lehmann, , op. cit. I 363, II 199. A manuscript reported in Haenel, G., Catalogi Librorum Manuscriptorum … (Leipzig 1830) 458 at Strasbourg is not noted in the recent printed catalogue. Finally, there are short excerpts from the Tabula remissoria and De interdicto in Florence, Bibl. Laurentiana Aedil. Cod. 54 fol. 167.Google Scholar

47 For manuscripts reported at Bibl. Joannis Gisleni Bultelii Nipaei, Ulm and Erfurt, see Sanderus, A., Bibliotheca Belgica Manuscripta I (Lille 1641); Lehmann, , loc. cit.; and Ruf, P., op. cit. III 3.468, 533.Google Scholar

48 For a manuscript reported at Ulm, see Lehmann, , op. cit. I 364.Google Scholar

49 For a manuscript reported at Nürnberg, see Ruf, P., op. cit. III 3.456, 533, 563.Google Scholar

50 For a manuscript reported at Ulm, see Lehmann, , op. cit. I 363.Google Scholar

51 For manuscripts reported at Ulm and Nürnberg, see Lehmann, , loc. cit. and Ruf, P., op. cit. III 3.468, 533. The printed catalogue entry for Valencia, Bibl. de la Catedral MS 45 lists an Objecto felicitatis among Legnano's works; this may be the De pace, or part of it.Google Scholar

52 For a manuscript reported at Ulm, see Lehmann, , loc. cit. Google Scholar

53 For example, in Bosdari's biography (n. 1, above) and Cook's article (n. 3, above), and more recently in histories of the University of Bologna: Sorbelli, A., Storia della Università di Bologna (Bologna 1944) I 144–5) (interleaved), and Calcaterra, C., Alma mater studiorum: L' Università di Bologna nella storia della cultura e della civilità(Bologna 1948) 96–7 (interleaved).Google Scholar

54 Papò, R., ‘Il più bel codice della Biblioteca Universitaria di Cagliari (MS 2 ill.),’ Accademie e biblioteche d'Italia 20 (1952) 132–4.Google Scholar

55 Schork, R. J. (University of Minnesota) and I are preparing this text for publication.Google Scholar