Bartolus (or Bartolo in the vernacular) was born in either 1313 or 1314, in a village near the small town of Sassoferrato, in the March of Ancona – a territory forming part of the Papal States. He first studied law at the University of Perugia, where his most notable teacher was Cinus da Pistoia, a founding figure of the so-called School of Commentators.1 He then obtained his doctorate from Bologna in 1334, where his teachers included Oldradus da Ponte, Jacobus Buttrigarius, and Ranierus de Forlivio. After a brief judicial career in Todi and possibly Pisa, Bartolus begun teaching at Pisa in 1339 and finally joined the law faculty of Perugia in either 1342 or 1343 until his death in 1357.2 His students there included the other great Commentator Baldus de Ubaldis (1327–1400).