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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 January 2019
Hitherto, when one intended to evaluate humanistic jurisprudence and to assess its significance for the development of legal science, especially for the history of legal dogmatics, one merely indulged in general considerations. With respect to the attitude of its representatives towards the principal ideas of the mos italicus and the mos gallicus, reaction was merely intuitive. A central problem, such as that of the history of the ideas of aequitas and epieikeia from antiquity through the medieval and Renaissance periods and further, beyond the era of the reception of Roman law in Europe, to my knowledge was never posed.
1 This essay was presented as a lecture to the Columbia University Seminar on the Renaissance on 16 February 1960. The original German version appears as an epilogue to the author's book on the Ideengeschichte of ‘equity’, Erasmus und die Jurisprudenz seiner Zeit: Studien zum humanistischen Rechtsdenken (Basel: Helbing und Lichtenhahn, 1960, xx+560 pp. with 13 plates), hereafter referred to as Erasmus. The German version was also given as a lecture by the author on 12 May 1960,upon the invitation of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at the University of Vienna. A very abbreviated English version was submitted to the xith International Congress of Historical Sciences at Stockholm on 20 August. Of the footnotes which appeared in Erasmus, some are condensed, others are expanded as a result of the study of works that either have only recently been published or were previously not accessible to the author. He takes this opportunity also to add the following items to the ‘Bibliography of Aequitas and Epieikeia’ (Erasmus, pp. 529-538). Each item is to be inserted into its appropriate section, indicated by roman numerals, in chronological order according to date of publication. I: C. A. Albrecht, Die Stellung der römischen Aequitas in der Theorie des Civilrechts mit Rücksicht auf die zeitgemässe Frage der Codification (Dresden and Leipzig, 1834); Vittorio Scialoja, Del diritto positivo e dell'equità. Discorso inaugurate (Camerino, 1880); also in Scialoja, Studi giuridici, III, 1 (Milano, 1932), 1-23, especially 1-4; Sauer, Wilhelm, Die Gerechtigkeit. Wesen und Bedeutung im Leben der Menschen und Völker (Berlin, 1959), pp. 136–138 Google Scholar, 154-157. Il: Hasso Jaeger, ‘Justinien et Yepiscopalis audientia', Revue historique de droit francais et itranger, 4e série, XXXVIII (1960), 244-258. III: Michelakis, Emmanuel, Platons Lehre von der Anwendung des Gesetzes und der Begriffder Billigkeit bei Aristoteles (Munich, 1953)Google Scholar. XI: Maitland, Frederic William, English Law and the Renaissance (Cambridge, 1901)Google Scholar.
The preparation of this essay was assisted by a grant from the American Philosophical Society.
2 Historische Zeitschrift CXXVII (1923), 417. Ritter does not mention any authority for his assertion but continues as follows: ‘In Deutschland hat freilich Ulrich Zasius den sehr bemerkenswerten Versuch gemacht, auch den scholastischen Betrieb der Rechtswissenschaft durch den humanistischen Grundsatz originaler Textbetrachtung an Stelle des übermässig entwickelten Glossatorenwesens zu reformieren. Er ist aber isoliert und ebenso erfolglos geblieben wie die Angriffe Laurentius Vallas auf die italienische Jurisprudenz.’
3 Calasso, Francesco, Introduzione al diritto comune (Milano, 1951), pp. 181–205 Google Scholar, offers an excellent elucidation of humanistic jurisprudence, including its aims and tasks. A survey of more recent literature is found in Maffei, Domenico, Gli inizi dell’ umanesimo giuridico (Milano, 1956), pp. 11–14, cf. pp. 31-59Google Scholar; also Astuti, Guido, ‘L'Humanisme Chrétien dans la renaissance du droit’, in Pensée humaniste et tradition chrétienne aux XVe et XVIe siècles, ed. Bédarida, Henri (Paris, 1950), pp. 136 Google Scholar f.; Wolff, Hans Julius, Roman Law (Norman, Okla., 1951), pp. 209–213 Google Scholar. On the older, for the most part outdated, literature, see Chiappelli, Luigi, ‘La polemica contro i legisti dei secoli XIV, XV e XVI’, Archivio giuridico XXVI (1881), 295–322 Google Scholar.
4 Franz Wieacker, ‘Einflüsse des Humanismus auf die Rezeption, eine Studie zu Johannes Apels Dialogus’, Zeitschrift für die gesamte Staatswissenschaft c (1940), 424, 456; recently reprinted in Wieacker, , Gründer und Bewahrer: Rechtslehrer der neueren deulschen Privatrechtsgeschichte (Göttingen, 1959), pp. 46 Google Scholar f., 90; with reference to p. 424 (46 f.), cf. the identical postulate by Arnaldo Momigliano, Riuista Storica Italiana LXIX (1957), 291; with p. 456 (90), cf. Coing, Helmut, Die Rezeption des römischen Rechts in Frankfurt am Main (Frankfurt a. M., 1939), pp. 189 Google Scholar f, also Koschaker, Paul, Europa und das romische Recht (Munich, 1947), p. 225 Google Scholar, note 1. Wieacker (p. 426 [49]) dates the origin of Apel's Isagoge per dialogum in quatuor libros Institutionum D. Iustiniani Imperatoris, published posthumously in 1540 at Breslau, ‘after 1534’, although a draft of the work existed before 1530.
5 Koschaker, op. cit., p. 225, note 1.
6 Stintzing, Roderich, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtswissenschaft, I (Munich and Leipzig, 1880), p. 113 Google Scholar; Koschaker, op. cit., pp. 111, 113, 116 f. to which subsequent reference is made; following him, Astuti, op. cit., pp. 126 f.
7 Engelmann, Woldemar, Die Wiedergeburt der Rechtskultur in Italien durch die wissenschaftliche Lehre (Leipzig, 1938), pp. 241 Google Scholar f.; Erich Genzmer, ‘Kritische Studien zur Mediaevistik 1’, Zeitschrifi der Savigny-Stiftung fiir Rechtsgeschichte, Rom. Abt., LXI (1941), 328 f. Genzmer also refers to Wieacker's above-mentioned essay and also to Salvatore Riccobono's writings cited in his own note 25; cf. especially Riccobono, ‘Mos italicus e mos gallicus nella interpretazione del Corpus Iuris Civilis’, Acta Congressus Iuridici … Romae 1934, II (Rome, 1935), pp. 377-398
8 Wolf, Erik, Grosse Rechtsdenker der deutschen Geistesgeschichte (3d ed., Tübingen, 1951), pp. 71 Google Scholar f., and even more positively, p. 87.
9 Wieacker, Franz, Privatrechtsgeschichte der Neuzeit unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der deutschen Entwkklung (Göttingen, 1952), pp. 43 Google Scholar f.; also pp. 83 f., 135 f. Similarly, Astuti (supra, note 2), p. 126: ‘En effet, cette école … jetait les bases de l'historiographie juridique, mais ne sut pas exercer une influence considérable sur la jurisprudence contemporaine.’ In the essay cited in note 3, which was reprinted almost unchanged in 1959, Wieacker's assessment of humanistic jurisprudence is basically negative.
10 On Gentili, see van der Molen, Gezina Hermina Johanna, Alberico Gentili and the Development of International Law, His Life and Times (Amsterdam, 1937), pp. 206 Google Scholar ff.; on Vico, see Astuti, Guido, Mos italicus e mos gallicus nei dialoghi ‘De iuris interpretibus’ di Alberico Gentili (Bologna, 1937), p. 86 Google Scholar. Johann Gottlob Heineccius (1681-1741) opposed the attitude described above in the introduction to his new edition of Ezechiel Spanheim's work, Orbis Romanus (Halle, 1728), p. 3 : ‘ … id sane nobis praebuit excellentissimus Spanheimius simulque in ruborem dedit homines barbaros, qui istis litteris excultos ad jurisprudentiam et res gerendas parum aptos esse judicant'; cf. Kisch, G., Recht und Gerechtigkeit in der Medaillenkunst (Heidelberg, 1955), p. 19 Google Scholar, note 4. In contrast, no less a historian of law than Maitland expressed this opinion: ‘Some of these “elegant” French jurists were so much imbued with the historical spirit that in their hands the study of R o man law became the study of an ancient history’ (Frederic William Maitland, English Law and the Renaissance, Cambridge, 1901, p. 58, note 28). Stephan Kuttner's judgment appears by implication to be similar (‘Methodological Problems concerning the History of Canon Law’, Speculum xxx, 1955, pp. 540 f.): ‘And with all due respect for the age of Godefroy and Antoine Favre and Cujas, we have to go down to the nineteenth century and the German historical school before the horizon begins to widen and we encounter a new jurisprudence which would no longer identify the history of law with the history of legislation nor with delight in legal antiquities.’
11 Kunkel, Wolfgang, Quelkn zur neueren Privatrechtsgeschichte Deutschlands, I, 1 (Weimar, 1936), p. XXIII Google Scholar; cf. however, Kunkel, ibid., 1, 2 (1938), p. XLIV, and Zeitschrift der Sauigny-Stiftung fur Rechtsgeschichte, Rom. Abt., LXXI (1954), 518. Cf. also G. Kisch, ibid., Germ. Abt., LXXIV (1957), 374.
12 Mortari, Vincenzo Piano, ‘Considerazioni sugli scritti programmatici dei giuristi del secolo XVI’, Studia et Documenta Historiae et Iuris XXI (1955), 276–302 Google Scholar; Mortari, , Dialettica egiurisprudenza: Studio sui trattati di dialettica legale del sec. XVI (Milano, 1955)Google Scholar; Wieacker, ‘Ratschläge fur das Studium der Rechte aus dem Wittenberger Humanistenkreise', in his book, Gründer und Bewahrer, pp. 92-104; Friedrich Merzbacher, ‘ Johann Apels dialektische Methode der Rechtswissenschaft, eine Station in der Entwicklung des juristischen Unterrichts’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Rom. Abt., LXXV (1958), 364-374; Vogel, Werner, Franz Hotmann und die Privatrechtswissenschaft seiner Zeit, doctoral thesis, University of Freiburg i. Br. (Münster, 1960), pp. 28, 63, 102 f., 118Google Scholar.
13 A critical biography of Dumoulin (Carolus Molinaeus) is lacking; a short biographical sketch may be found in Gamillscheg, Franz, Der Einjluss Dumoulins auf die Entwicklung des Kollisionsrechts (Berlin-Tübingen, 1955, Beiträge zum ausländischen und internationalen Privatrecht XXV), pp. 1-16Google Scholar, including bibliography.
14 Cf. G. Kisch, Erasmus, pp. 368 ff.; G. Kisch, ‘Bonifacius Amerbach als Rechtsgutachter’, Festgabe für Max Gerwig (Basel, 1960, Basler Studien zur Rechtswissenschaft Lv), pp. 85-120.
15 Conring, Herman, De origine iuris Germanici liber unus (2d ed., Helmstedt, 1649), chap, xxxrv, pp. 213 Google Scholar f.; and chap, XXXV, added in the third edition (1665); cf. Erasmus, pp. 315, note 16, and 420. On Hotman, see J. van Kan, ‘Francois Hotman en de codifikatiepolitiek van zijn tijd’, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis III (1922), 1-11. On Conring's indebtedness to Hotman, see Julius Baron, ‘Franz Hotmanns Antitribonian, ein Beitrag zu den Kodifikationsbestrebungen vom XVI. bis zum XVIII. Jahrhundert', in Litterarum Universitati Bononiensi, saecularia octaua … celebranti, rite gratulatur litterarum Universitatis Bernensis rector ac senatus (Bern, 1888), pp. xxvi f.; Vogel, Franz Hotmann, pp. 115 f.
16 Erasmus, chap. 7, pp. 169 ff.; cf. also Kisch, G., Bartolus und Basel (Basel, 1960), Basler Studien zur Rechtswissenschaft LIV), pp. 48 Google Scholar ff.; Wieacker, Privatrechtsgeschichte, pp. 83 f.
17 Gilmore, Myron P., Argument from Roman Law in Political Thought 1200-1600 (Cambridge, Mass., 1941, Harvard Historical Monographs xv), pp. 45–92 Google Scholar; cf. Astuti (supra, note 3), p. 132; for the period of the glossators, see Calasso, Francesco, I glossators e la teoria della sovranità (3d ed., Milano, 1957)Google Scholar.
18 Cf. Stampe, Ernst, ‘War Carolus Molinaeus Nominalist? Eine Untersuchung über seinen Valor extrinsecus monetae’, Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Kl. 1926, Nr. IX (Berlin, 1926), pp. 37–66 Google Scholar; additional studies on the history of French monetary law by the same author in Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Jahrg. 1930, phil.-hist. Kl. Nr. 2 (Berlin, 1930), p. 92, and ibid., 1932, Nr. 3 (Berlin, 1932). Cf., moreover, Noonan, John T., Jr., The Scholastic Analysis of Usury (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), pp. 367–370 Google Scholar; also Nussbaum, Arthur, Money in the Law (Brooklyn, 1950), p. 217 Google Scholar, note 67; pp. 267 f.
19 See supra, note 13.
20 Friedrich, Carl J., Die Philosophic des Rechts in historischer Perspektive (Berlin, 1955, Enzyklopädie der Rechts- und Staatswissenschaft), p. 32 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
21 Friedrich, op. cit., p. 32. The comparison of the significance and effect of the humanistic slogan ad fontes for theology and jurisprudence is obvious and has frequently been made; cf., e.g., Wieacker, Privatrechtsgeschichte, p. 43: ‘Auch für die Jurisprudenz fordert der Humanismus die Rückkehr zu den reinen Quellen, so wie er durch die Rückkehr zum reinen Schriftwort (der hebraischen und griechischen Bibeltexte) die Reformation wissenschaftlich vorbereitet hat.’ Wieacker speaks of ‘reformbedürftigen Ordnungen der Kirche wie der Juristenkirche’; cf. Koschaker, Europa und das römische Recht, p. 106; Wieacker, ‘Einflüsse des Humanismus auf die Rezeption’ (supra, note 4), pp. 436, 439 (thus already Apel in his lsagoge c. 1534; supra, note 4), 442, 447.
22 For the following exposition reference is made generally to Friedrich's concise and basically pertinent analysis of humanistic jurisprudence (pp. 30-34).
23 Erasmus, chap. 5.
24 Erasmus, chap. 5; especially pp. 120 ff.
25 Erasmus, chap. 6. Erasmus’ Christian philosophy also influenced other jurists of renown, Zasius, for instance, who, in 1526, wrote to Bonifacius Amerbach: ‘… intellego magnum Erasmum nondum a me defecisse, cuius commodum et honorem, famam et prominentiam, si ullae michi vires essent, tueri et corpore cupio, quando ingenio destituor… . Chrystianismum Erasmi sequamur, acutas cavillationes sophistis relinquentes, cum nimia disceptatio (ut nos vulgo dicimus) et perdat veritatem et deum oflfendat’ (Alfred Hartmann, Die Amerbachkorrespondenz, III, Basel, 1947, no. 1113, p. 148). The fact that Erasmus’ influence on juridical thought has been established is evidence also for the realm of jurisprudence of what an eminent Erasmus scholar expressed in general as follows: ‘Avec Calvin, Budé, Rabelais ou Montaigne, il [Erasme] domine l'histoire intellectuelle de notre XVIème siècle’ (Augustin Renaudet, ‘La Critique érasmienne et l'humanisme français’, in the Dutch memorial volume for Erasmus in Bijdragen voor Vaderlandsche Geschiedenis en Oudheidkunde, Serie VII, Nr. 7, 1936, p. 226). Cf. also Erasmus’ influence on Hugo Grotius, which deserves a separate inquiry; for the time being, see Johannes Spörl, ‘Hugo Grotius und der Humanismus des 17. Jahrhunderts’, Historisches Jahrbuch LV (1935), 350-357.
26 Erasmus, chaps. 11 and 12, also Exkurs VI.
27 Erasmus, chap. 15. Cf. Alciatus, Andreas, ‘Oratio in laudem iuris civilis’, in his Lucubrationes in ius civile, II (Basel, 1546), p. 508 Google Scholar: ‘Ad Philosophiam venio, quae ita cum hac professione coniungitur, ut altera sine altera esse nullo modo possit. Nam ea demum vera Philosophia est, quae iustitiae inhaeret’; quoted (with an incorrect page reference) by Calasso, Introduzione al diritto comune, pp. 193 f., note 30.
28 Erasmus, chap. 9, pp. 224 ff.
29 Cf. Ritter, Historische Zeitschrift CXXVII (1923), 452 f.; Ritter, Erasmus und der deutsche Humanistenkreis am Oberrhein (Freiburg i. Br., 1937, Freiburger Universitätsreden XXIII), p. 14. In discussing the intellectual stature of the Spanish jurist Fernandus Vasquius (1512-1569), Ernst Reibstein correctly describes such a synthesis—‘a humanistic combination [Zusammenschau] of morality and law according to philosophical principles that did not contradict Christian tradition but were independent of theology, the old as well as the new one'—as a necessity (Zeitbedürfnis) of the sixteenth century; Reibstein, Johannes Althusius als Fortsetzer der Schule von Salamanca (Karlsruhe, 1955, Freiburger rechts- und staatswissenschaftliche Abhandlungen v), p. 144. On the historical development of the humanistic-juristic doctrine of natural law in Spain about the middle of the sixteenth century and its evaluation by Reibstein, see Erasmus, pp. 399 f., note 28.
30 Erasmus, chap. 4, pp. 94 ff.; Kisch, G., Humanismus und Jurisprudenz: Der Kampf zwischen mos italicus und mos gallicus an der Universität Basel (Basel, 1955, Basler Studien zur Rechtswissenschaft XLII), pp. 24 Google Scholar fF.
31 Cantiunculae, Claudii Oratio apologetica in patrocinium iuris civilis (Basel, 1522), p. 2 Google Scholar: ‘Desines vero mirari, si rescieris, me valde theologum esse factum, sic tamen, ut a hire civili non defecerim. Ostendo enim, illud Silenum quendam theologicum aluisse, qui Aegyptium templum antiquo proverbio celebratum multo magis vicissitudine quadam mereatur quam dii quidam ridiculosi, qui illud hactenus occuparunt, et quorum exquisito honori tantus impensus fuit labor.—Aenigmata loqui me putas? Te Oedipum esse volo. Tametsi quid opus Oedipo? Fato quodam nuper adactus sum, ut iustis et ordinariis legum civilium adsertoribus operam succisivam quasi succenturiaturus honeste detrectare non possem.’ Despite considerable research and effort expended on the problem of the ‘Egyptian temple’, the author did not succeed in solving this riddle.
32 Cf. Gilmore, Argument from Roman Law in Political Thought 1200-1600, pp. 47-57; Friedrich, Die Philosophie des Rechts in historischer Perspektive, pp. 32, 34; also Reibstein (supra, note 29), pp. 104 f., 129, 212 f. On the secularization of jurisprudence and the rôle played by Alberico Gentili, see van der Molen, Alberico Gentili and the Development of International Law, pp. 210 ff. There is no need to enter here into a discussion on the way in which the demarcation of legal doctrine from moral theology developed later.
33 Cantiuncula, Oratio apologetica, pp. 20 ff.; G. Kisch, Humanismus und Jurisprudenz, pp. 25 f., 126 ff., where excerpts from Cantiuncula's discourse are given. In his stimulating essay cited supra, note 3, Guido Astuti discusses the significance of Christianity for the renaissance movements in the realm of jurisprudence from the period of the glossators to that of the humanist-jurists without, however, giving attention to the point of view emphasized above in the present essay.
34 Vecchio, Giorgio del, Lehrbuch der Rechtsphilosophie (2d German ed., Basel, 1951), pp. 113 Google Scholar, 119 f. Cf. Slavomir Condanari, Humanismus und Rechtswissenschaft (Innsbruck, 1947, Ewiger Humanismus, Schriften der Oesterreichischen Humanistischen Gesellschaft in Innsbruck, VIII), pp. 13 f, on the logic of Grotius’ conclusions, which is reminiscent of Cantiuncula's method of offering proof in his Oratio apologetica.
35 Erasmus, chap. 10, pp. 232 ff., 242, note 25.
36 On Vives, see Erasmus, chap. 3.
37 Cf. Gilmore, Argument from Roman Law in Political Thought 1200-1600, pp. 70 f., 98 f., 113 fF., 93-126.
