The Perpendiculum

Presumptions and Legal Arguments in the 12th Century
Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-90-04-71275-1
Verlag: World Bank Publications

Buch, Englisch, Band 43, 460 Seiten, Format (B × H): 159 mm x 238 mm, Gewicht: 822 g

Reihe: Medieval Law and Its Practice

The Perpendiculum (or Summula de presumptionibus), produced in Northern France c.1170, is one of the earliest collections of brocards: a literary genre intended to provide legal arguments for disputation in the medieval schools of law. Its innovative use of dialectical techniques and its theorization of canon law presumptions have attracted the attention of legal historians, raising questions on its origin and milieu.

This book offers the first comprehensive study of this work, with a Latin edition and an English translation of its text, shedding new light on the significance of this collection for twelfth-century legal teaching and learning.

Autoren/Hrsg.

de Concilio, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Vor- und Frühgeschichte, prähistorische Archäologie
• Rechtswissenschaften Recht, Rechtswissenschaft Allgemein Rechtsgeschichte, Recht der Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Preface

Abbreviations

Introduction

1 Eighty Years of Research: A Historiographical Account

2 The Perpendiculum as a Source for the History of Presumptions

3 The Reasons for a New Investigation

4 Sources

5 Map of the Book

Part1 The Analysis of the Work

1 The Work: The Perpendiculum and Its Text

1 A European Text: The Manuscript Tradition of the Perpendiculum

2 A Mosaic of Works: The Other Texts Inserted in the Perpendiculum

3 Texts Appended to the Third Part of the Perpendiculum

2 The Perpendiculum in Its Context

1 The Importance of the Summula for the Development of Brocards

2 The Importance of the Summula for the Glossators’ Theory on Presumptions

3 Contemporary Works with Textual Links to the Perpendiculum

4 Works Directly Influenced by the Perpendiculum

5 Later Fortunes of the Summula’s Distinction on the praesumptio legis

3 The Dating and the Author of the Perpendiculum

1 The Dating of the Work

2 The Problem of the Authorship

4 Conclusions: The Perpendiculum between France and Italy

1 Southern Ideas in Northern France

2 Paris and Bologna: So Far and Yet So Close

3 From Paris to Italy

4 Rethinking Historiographical Boundaries: The Perpendiculum as a Case Study

Part2 The Texts

1 Prolegomena to the Texts

1 List of the Manuscripts

2 Editorial Decisions

3 Presentation of Text

2 Manuscript Descriptions

3 The Text of the Perpendiculum

PartI (Summula de presumptionibus)

‹I.› Incipit de presumptionibus

‹II. Circa extrinseci facti essentiam›

‹III. Circa extrinseci facti qualitatem›

‹IV. Circa intrinseci facti substantiam›

‹V. Circa intrinseci facti qualitatem›

‹VI. Circa iuris vel scripture interpretationem›

‹VII. De fide autem instrumentorum et attestationum›

‹VIII. De re quam prelatus possedit›

‹IX.› Quando presumptio non admittit probationem in contrarium

‹X. Explicit›

PartII

PartIII

1 Critical Table of Contents

2 Synoptic Table of the Brocards in PartIII

3 List of Other Brocards that Occur Only in a Single Manuscript

4 Appendix: Other Texts Inserted into the Perpendiculum

1 Texts Inserted into Several Manuscripts

2 Texts inserted into G and P1

Bibliography

Index to Part1 (Chapters 1–4)

Index to the Perpendiculum (PartsI–III) and the Appendix

Index to Legal Sources

Index to Incipits of the Brocards (PartsII and III)

Index to Manuscripts

Über Autor(innen)

David De Concilio, Ph.D. (2022, University of St Andrews/Università degli Studi Roma Tre), is research fellow at the Università degli Studi di Padova. He has published articles on medieval Roman and canon law, with a specific interest in the interaction between law, theology, and liberal arts.