The Four Doctors of Bologna (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

: ''Quatuor Doctores'') were

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

jurists A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

glossator The scholars of the 11th- and 12th-century legal schools in Italy, France and Germany are identified as glossators in a specific sense. They studied Roman law based on the '' Digesta'', the ''Codex'' of Justinian, the ''Authenticum'' (an abridged ...

s of the 12th century, based in the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in continuo ...

Bulgarus Bulgarus was a twelfth-century Italian jurist, born in Bologna. He has been confused with Bulgarinus, a 15th-century jurist. He was the most celebrated of the famous Four Doctors of the law school of the University of Bologna and was regarded as ...

Martinus Gosia Martinus Gosia was one of the glossators and a 12th-century Italian jurist, counted among the Four Doctors of Bologna, the others being Bulgarus, Hugo de Porta Ravennate and Jacobus de Boragine. Martinus Gosia and Bulgarus were the chiefs of two ...

Jacobus de Boragine Jacobus de Boragine was one of the Glossators, and Four Doctors of Bologna. Also known as Jacobus, he was born in the early 12th century and was an Italian lawyer, one of four students of Irnerius called the ''Quattuor Doctores'', although Savig ...

and

Hugo de Porta Ravennate Hugo de Porta Ravennate was an Italian jurist, and member of the Glossators of Bologna. He came from a noble family who had residence in the city of Bologna, but whose family name meant "the gate of Ravenna". Study and teaching at the Universit ...

. Their teachings in the law school of Bologna were based on glosses and commentaries on the rediscovered ''

Corpus juris civilis The ''Corpus Juris'' (or ''Iuris'') ''Civilis'' ("Body of Civil Law") is the modern name for a collection of fundamental works in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor. It is also sometimes referred ...

'' of

Justinian Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565. His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...

. Martinus may have studied with the founder of legal scholarship in Bologna,

Irnerius Irnerius (– after 1125), sometimes referred to as ''lucerna juris'' ("lantern of the law"), was an Italian jurist, and founder of the School of Glossators and thus of the tradition of Medieval Roman Law. He taught the newly recovered Roman la ...

.Peter Landau, "The development of law" in ''The New Cambridge Medieval History'' :124f. The revived importance of

Roman law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

, in the form of

medieval Roman law Medieval Roman law is the continuation and development of ancient Roman law that developed in the European Late Middle Ages. Based on the ancient text of Roman law, ''Corpus iuris civilis'', it added many new concepts, and formed the basis of the la ...

, embodied by the ''Quattuor Doctores'' made its first impact in the political arena in 1158, when they gave their support to

Frederick Barbarossa Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt on ...

Diet of Roncaglia The Diet of Roncaglia, held near Piacenza, was an Imperial Diet, a general assembly of the nobles and ecclesiasts of the Holy Roman Empire and representatives of Northern Italian cities held in 1154 and in 1158 by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to ...

in his conflict with the

Italian commune The (; plural: ) is a local administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ('' regioni'') and provinces (''province''). The can also ...

s over imperial rights in

Lombardy Lombardy ( it, Lombardia, Lombard language, Lombard: ''Lombardia'' or ''Lumbardia' '') is an administrative regions of Italy, region of Italy that covers ; it is located in the northern-central part of the country and has a population of about 10 ...

. Of the four the strongest contrast in interpretations of the revived Roman law were Bulgarus and Martinus. Bulgarus took the law at face value and applied the narrowest interpretation, the ''ius strictum''; Martinus, on the other hand, applied the legal principle of ''aequitas'', "

equity Equity may refer to: Finance, accounting and ownership * Equity (finance), ownership of assets that have liabilities attached to them ** Stock, equity based on original contributions of cash or other value to a business ** Home equity, the dif ...

" or "equivalence", which permitted broad latitude in extending Roman principles to modern situations. The followers of Bulgarus, the ''Bulgari'', held sway in Bologna in the following generation, as ''nostri doctores'' ("our doctors"), while the followers of Martinus, the ''Gosiani'', taught particularly in southern France. The form of ''Questiones'', questions and answers on the principles of law, rather than glosses on specific texts, was the particular contribution of Hugo.''Porta Ravennata'', the "Ravenna gate" of Bologna, was the location of Hugo's classrooms. In the 13th century the combined tradition of the ''doctores bononienses'' were summarized in the form of a ''

glossa ordinaria The ''Glossa Ordinaria'', which is Latin for "Ordinary .e. in a standard formGloss", is a collection of biblical commentaries in the form of glosses. The glosses are drawn mostly from the Church Fathers, but the text was arranged by scholars du ...

'' of Roman law, compiled by

Accursius __NOTOC__ Accursius (in Italian ''Accursio'' or ''Accorso di Bagnolo''; c. 11821263) was a Roman jurist. He is notable for his organization of the glosses, the medieval comments on Justinian's codification of Roman law, the ''Corpus Juris Civili ...

References

Italian legal scholars 12th-century Italian jurists Medieval law {{Italy-law-bio-stub