The commentators

European jurists (predominantly Italians) from the fourteenth century until the new school of humanism appeared in the sixteenth century are usually called commentators. Their teaching methods were substantially similar to those of the glossators, but the commentators went beyond the glossators.

The commentators made important contributions to both legal science and legal practice, writing sophisticated lectures and commentaries on the texts of the Digest and giving legal opinions based on the social realities of the time. They felt free to disregard the original context as they applied the Roman texts, and they paid special attention to current law beyond Justinian’s codification. The commentators approached Roman law as a universal law, timelessly valid and able to resolve all kinds of legal controversies. This universalization of Roman law opened the doors to its application to new situations and circum­stances that were unknown to the Romans. The commentators were also able to harmonize Roman law and local law. For these reasons, commentators had enormous impact on political, social, and legal affairs. They developed new doctrines on criminal responsibility, conflict of laws, the legal personhood of institutions, ownership, and commercial law, among other things.

The most celebrated commentators were Bartolus of Sassoferrato, followed by his pupil Baldus de Ubaldis. Bartolus (1314-57) was born to a humble family in Venatura, Italy, near Sassoferrato, in the province of Ancona. A student of the famous commentator Cino da Pistoia (Cinus de Sighibuldis) in Perugia and of Jacobus Buttrigarius and Ranierus de Forlivio in Bologna, Bartolus became a doctor of civil law at the age of twenty.

The revival of Roman law 93 and civil law; between civil law and local law; or between local laws. Along with the Great Gloss of Accursius, Bartolus’s writings became the standard works of jurisprudence until the arrival of humanism in the sixteenth century.

Baldus de Ubaldis (1327-1400), doctor of both civil law and canon law (doctor utriusque iuris), led legal theory during the second half of the four­teenth century. Son of Franciscus de Ubaldis, a professor of medicine, Baldus was born in Perugia, where he studied civil law under Bartolus. He taught civil law in Perugia with Bartolus and then in Pisa, Florence, Padua, Perugia again, and Pavia. Among his students were Petrus Ancharanus, Franciscus Zabarella, Paulus de Castro, Petrus Belfortte (later Pope Gregory XI), and Johannes de Imola. Baldus also worked as a lawyer. His more than twenty- five hundred legal opinions (consilia) made him wealthy. A cultivated and imaginative jurist, Baldus wrote extensive commentaries on civil law, canon law, and feudal law, as well as many monographs. Baldus died on April 28, 1400 in Pavia, while writing a legal opinion.