Franciscus Accursius (in Italian Francesco Accorso) (Florence, c. 1182–Bologna, c. 1260) was an Italian jurist. He is notable for his organization of the glosses, the medieval comments on Justinian's codification of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis. He was not proficient in the classics, but he was called "the Idol of the Jurisconsults". Florences skyline Florences skyline at night from Piazza Michaelangelo Florence (Italian: ) is the capital city of the region of Tuscany, Italy. ... Events Canute VI crowned king of Denmark. ... Bologna (IPA , from Latin Bononia, BulÃ¥ggna in the local dialect) is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Pianura Padana, between the Po River and the Apennines, exactly, between Reno River and Sàvena River. ... The magnificent Cathedral of Chartres was dedicated in 1260. ... A jurist is a professional who studies, develops, applies or otherwise deals with the law. ... A gloss is a note made in the margins or between the lines of a book, in which the meaning of the text in its original language is explained in another language. ... Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale. ... Roman law is the legal system of ancient Rome. ... Justinian I depicted on a mosaic in the church of San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy The Corpus Juris Civilis (Body of Civil Law) also known as Codex Justinianus is a fundamental work in jurisprudence, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor. ...

Accursius was born at Florence about 1182. A pupil of Azo, he first practised law in his native city, and was afterwards appointed professor at Bologna, where he had great success as a teacher. He undertook to arrange into one body the tens of thousands of comments and remarks upon the Code, the Institutes and Digests. Accursius assembled from the various earlier glosses for each of these texts a coherent and consistent body of glosses. This compilation, soon given the title Glossa ordinaria or magistralis, and usually known as the Great Gloss, has more method than that of any preceding writer on the subject. Modern research has shown that Accursius' work contains nearly 100,000 glosses. The best edition is that of Denis Godefroi (1540-1621), published at Lyon in 1589, in six folio volumes. Azo may refer to a number of topics: For the chemistry functional group and class of compounds, see Azo compound. ... Bologna (IPA , from Latin Bononia, BulÃ¥ggna in the local dialect) is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy, in the Pianura Padana, between the Po River and the Apennines, exactly, between Reno River and Sàvena River. ... Pandects (Lat. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: (Arpitan: Forward, forward, Lyon the best) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country France Region Rhône-Alpes Department Rhône (69) Subdivisions 9 arrondissements Intercommunality Urban Community of Lyon Mayor Gérard Collomb  (PS) (since 2001) City Statistics Land area...

While Accursius was employed in this work, legend has it that, hearing of a similar one proposed and begun by Odofred, another lawyer of Bologna, he feigned indisposition, interrupted his public lectures, and shut himself up, till with the utmost expedition he had accomplished his design. Accursius was extolled by the lawyers of his own and the immediately succeeding age as the greatest glossator, and he was even called the idol of jurisconsults, but those of later times formed a much lower estimate of his merits. There can be no doubt that he disentangled the sense of many laws with much skill, but it is equally undeniable that his ignorance of history and antiquities often led him into absurdities, and was the cause of many defects in his explanations and commentaries. He died at Bologna in about 1260. As glossators in a specific sense are identified the scholars of the 11th and 12th century legal schools in Italy, France and Germany. ...

See also

• Cuius est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos
• Franciscus Accursius (1225-1293), his son

Cuius est solum, eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos or for whomsoever owns the soil, it is theirs up to the sky and down to the depths is a Roman legal principle of property law no longer observed in many instances today. ...

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.