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Jacques Cujas (or Cujacius) (
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
, 1522 –
Bourges
Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry.
History
The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...
, 4 October 1590) was a French legal expert. He was prominent among the
legal humanists
The legal humanists were a group of scholars of Roman law, which arose in Italy during the Renaissance with the works of Lorenzo Valla and Andrea Alciato as a reaction against the Commentators. In the 16th century, the movement reached France (B ...
or ''mos gallicus'' school, which sought to abandon the work of the medieval
Commentators
Commentator or commentators may refer to:
* Commentator (historical) or Postglossator, a member of a European legal school that arose in France in the fourteenth century
* Commentator (horse) (foaled 2001), American Thoroughbred racehorse
* The Co ...
and concentrate on ascertaining the correct text and social context of the original works 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 ...
.
Biography
He was born at
Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
, where his father, surnamed Cujaus, was a
fuller. Having taught himself
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 ...
and
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, he studied law under
Arnaud du Ferrièr, then professor at Toulouse, and rapidly gained a great reputation as a lecturer on
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 ...
. In 1554 he was appointed professor of law at
Cahors
Cahors (; oc, Caors ) is a commune in the western part of Southern France. It is the smallest prefecture among the 13 departments that constitute the Occitanie Region. The main city of the Lot department and the historical center of the Quer ...
, and about a year after
Michel de l'Hôpital
Michel de l'Hôpital (or l'Hospital) (1507 – 13 March 1573) was a French statesman.
Biography
De l'Hôpital was born near Aigueperse in Auvergne (now Puy-de-Dôme).
His father, who was physician to the Constable de Bourbon, sent him to stud ...
called him to
Bourges
Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry.
History
The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...
.
François Douaren
François Douaren (or le Douaren) (also sometimes spelled ''Duaren''; Latin: Franciscus Duarenus) (1509, near Saint-Brieuc – 1559, Bourges) was a French jurist and professor of law at the University of Bourges.
After studies in Paris under Bud ...
(Franciscus Duarenus), who also held a professorship at Bourges, stirred up the students against the new professor, and Cujas was glad to accept an invitation he had received to the
University of Valence
The University of Valence was founded 26 July 1452, by letters patent from the Dauphin Louis, afterwards Louis XI of France, in a move to develop the city of Valence, then part of his domain of Dauphiné. It existed until the French Revolution.
...
.
Recalled to Bourges at the death of Duaren in 1559, he remained there till 1567, when he returned to Valence. There he gained a European reputation, and collected students from all parts of the continent, among whom were
Joseph Scaliger
Joseph Justus Scaliger (; 5 August 1540 – 21 January 1609) was a French Calvinist religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewis ...
and
Jacques Auguste de Thou
Jacques Auguste de Thou (Thuanus) (8 October 1553, Paris – 7 May 1617, Paris) was a French historian, book collector and president of the Parliament of Paris.
Life
Jacques Auguste de Thou was the grandson of , president of the Parliament ...
. In 1573 King
Charles IX of France
Charles IX (Charles Maximilien; 27 June 1550 – 30 May 1574) was King of France from 1560 until his death in 1574. He ascended the French throne upon the death of his brother Francis II in 1560, and as such was the penultimate monarch of the ...
appointed Cujas counsellor to the
parlement
A ''parlement'' (), under the French Ancien Régime, was a provincial appellate court of the Kingdom of France. In 1789, France had 13 parlements, the oldest and most important of which was the Parlement of Paris. While both the modern Fre ...
of
Grenoble
lat, Gratianopolis
, commune status = Prefecture and commune
, image = Panorama grenoble.png
, image size =
, caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...
, and in the following year a pension was bestowed on him by
Henry III.
Margaret of Savoy persuaded him to move to
Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
; but after a few months (1575) he returned to his old place at Bourges. The religious wars drove him out. He was called by the king to
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, and permission was granted him by the parlement to lecture on civil law in the university there. A year later, he finally took up residence at Bourges, where he remained till his death in 1590, in spite of a handsome offer made him by
pope Gregory XIII
Pope Gregory XIII ( la, Gregorius XIII; it, Gregorio XIII; 7 January 1502 – 10 April 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 13 May 1572 to his death in April 1585. He is best known for ...
in 1584 to attract him to
Bologna
Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...
.
Works
The life of Cujas was altogether that of a scholar and teacher. In the religious wars which filled all the thoughts of his contemporaries he steadfastly refused to take any part. ''Nihil hoc ad edictum praetoris'', "this has nothing to do with the edict of the praetor," was his usual answer to those who spoke to him on the subject. His surpassing merit as a jurisconsult consisted in the fact that he turned from the ignorant commentators on
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 ...
to the Roman law itself. He consulted a very large number of manuscripts, of which he had collected more than 500 in his own library; but, unfortunately, he left orders in his will that his library should be divided among a number of purchasers, and his collection was thus scattered, and in great part lost.
His emendations, of which a large number were published under the title of ''Observationes et emendationes'', were not confined to lawbooks, but extended to many of the Latin and Greek classical authors. In jurisprudence his study was far from being devoted solely to Justinian; he recovered and gave to the world a part of the Theodosian Code, with explanations and he procured the manuscript of the ''
Basilika
The ''Basilika'' was a collection of laws completed c. 892 AD in Constantinople by order of the Eastern Roman emperor Leo VI the Wise during the Macedonian dynasty. This was a continuation of the efforts of his father, Basil I, to simplify and ...
''.
He also composed a commentary on the ''Consuetudines Feudorum'', and on some books of the ''Decretals''. In the ''Paratitla'', or summaries which he made of the ''Digest'', and particularly of the
Code of Justinian
The Code of Justinian ( la, Codex Justinianus, or ) is one part of the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'', the codification of Roman law ordered early in the 6th century AD by Justinian I, who was Eastern Roman emperor in Constantinople. Two other units, t ...
, he condensed into short axioms the elementary principles of law, and gave definitions remarkable for their admirable clarity and precision.
Charles Annibal Fabrot, however, collected the complete works of Cujas in the edition which he published at Paris (1658), Naples and Venice.
Personality
His lessons, which he never dictated, were continuous discourses, for which he made no other preparation than that of profound meditation on the subjects to be discussed. He was impatient of interruptions and upon the least noise he would instantly quit the chair and retire. He was strongly attached to his pupils, and
Joseph Justus Scaliger
Joseph Justus Scaliger (; 5 August 1540 – 21 January 1609) was a French Calvinist religious leader and scholar, known for expanding the notion of classical history from Greek and Ancient Roman history to include Persian, Babylonian, Jewish an ...
affirms that he lost more than 4000 livres by lending money to the more needy of them.
See also
*
Cujas Library
Cujas Library (french: Bibliothèque Cujas), named after the French jurist and scholar Jacques Cujas (1520–1590), is an academic research library, and the largest law library in Europe.Oswald, Godfrey (2008). '' Library world records'' (2nd ...
References
*
Papire-Masson, ''Vie de Cujas'' (Paris, 1590).
* Gabor Hamza, "Le développement du droit privé eurpéen" (Budapest, 2005).
* Gabor Hamza, "Entstehung und Entwicklung der modernen Privatrechtsordnungen und die römischrechtliche Tradition" (Budapest, 2009)
* Gabor Hamza, "Origine e sviluppo degli ordinamenti giusprivatistici moderni in base alla tradizione del diritto moderno" (Santiago de Compostela, 2013)
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cujas, Jacques
1520 births
1590 deaths
16th-century French lawyers
French Renaissance humanists
French male non-fiction writers