The Making of Gratian's Decretum

by Anders Winroth

Overview

This book offers new perspectives on the legal and intellectual developments of the twelfth century. Gratian's collection of church law, the Decretum, was a key text in these developments and remained a fundamental work throughout and beyond the Middle Ages. Until now, the many mysteries surrounding the creation of the Decretum have remained unsolved. Professor Winroth has now discovered the original version of the Decretum in a version about half as long as the final text, and that invites a reconsideration of the resurgence of law in the twelfth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521044653
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2007
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought: Fourth Series , #49
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	268
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.67(d)
Lexile:	1310L (what's this?)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; List of tables; Preface; List of abbreviations and Conspectus siglorum; 1. Gratian and the Decretum; 2. Heresy and excommunication: Causa 24; 3. Obedience or contempt: Causa 11, Questio 3; 4. The two recensions of the Decretum; 5. Gratian and Roman law; 6. The men behind the Decretum; Conclusion: medieval law and the Decretum; Appendix: the contents of the first recension of Gratian's Decretum; Bibliography; Index of cited passages in Gratian's Decretum; Index of papal letters; General index.

Editorial Reviews

"Winroth has brought excitement and vigor to the study of Gratian. This book will be read and studied by every legal historian for years to come." Historian

"Winroth's contribution...will endure permanently as a work of great significance and importance...This book is a triumph..." Speculum

"The style is clear and the argumentation gripping." Augustine Thompson, Theological Studies

"Mr. Winroth's finding is a breakthrough...because it 'pinpoints the reception of Roman law, and in so doing tells you a lot about universities, the rise of reason, the rise of scholasticism.'" The Chronicle of Higher Education

"An important contribution to medieval studies." Catholic Library World

"Anders Winroth's hypothesis, presented here in full for the first time, is elegant and attractive... Winroth's discovery...may well liberate canon law scholarship from the slavery of awaiting the critical edition. It will give us the means to speak with some assurance (that is, with evidence, rather than hypothesis) about the shape of the Decretum, its sources, and its earliest development in the schools." Canadian Journal of History

From the Publisher