A Quaestio de usuris Falsely Attributed to Bartolus of Sassoferrato

Abstract

Bartolus of Sassoferrato (1314-57) was the greatestjurist of the fourteenth century. The critical methods which he developed to analyze legal cases and to interpret legal texts became standard procedure among later jurists and was known asBartolismo.His commentaries range from glosses to theCorpus iuris civilisto minor works, which treated such diverse subjects as the legal foundations of falconry, the question of Franciscan poverty, and the political rule of cities. All these works carried his fame and influence beyond the borders of Italy into France, the Low Countries, Germany, and even Poland. In 1959 the University of Perugia, where Bartolus taught, celebrated the six-hundredth anniversary of his death with a series of lectures dedicated to his life, thought, and influence.