BERNARD OF COMPOSTELLA, THE ELDER

Spanish canonist at Bologna in the early 13th century, dates and places of birth and death unknown. He held the dignity of archdeacon of Compostella, and some time before 1210 he was perhaps employed in a judicial or consulting capacity by the papal Curia. He may at some time have been also a member of the short-lived (1204–09) law school of Vicenza. At Bologna, where many Spaniards were active in the schools at that period, he apparently associated in particular with his fellow countrymen Melendus (later bishop of Osma, d. 1225), Pelagius (later cardinal-bishop of Albano, d. 1232), and Petrus Hispanus. After c. 1217, no further traces of his academic activities have been found. Bernard (Bernardus Compostellanus Antiquus) was particularly remembered at Bologna as the decretalist who put together the socalled Compilatio Romana (1208), a compilation of decretals from the first ten years of Innocent III; but the work was criticized by the Curia because it included papal letters not meant to be used as binding precedents. It was soon replaced by an official collection (known as Compilatio III antiqua ), which the pope sent to the schools. The failure of Bernard's Compilatio Romana probably explains why his achievements as a glossator received little recognition by the leading masters of his time in both the decretist and decretalist fields at Bologna.

Modern manuscript research has established that, apart from the decretal compilation, he wrote (1) an apparatus of glosses on the Decretum of gratian (c. 1206), until recently known only from citations in other commentaries; (2) additions to and annotations on the glossa ordinaria of Joannes Teutonicus (c. 1217); (3) glosses on the Compilatio I of decretals (c. 1205–06; but no evidence has been found for his glosses on the Compilatio II, which were still known in the 14th century); and (4) Quaestiones disputatae (c. 1204–09, at Vicenza?).

Bibliography: s. kuttner, "Bernardus Compostellanus Antiquus," Traditio 1 (1943) 277–340, with full bibliog. Edition of the Compilatio Romana (in the form of a calendar, except for the texts not elsewhere transmitted), ed. h. singer in Sitzungsberichte der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien, Philos-hist. Klasse 171.2 (1914). r. weigand, in "Bulletin of the Institute of Research and Study in Medieval Canon Law" in Traditio 21 (1965) 482–485, on a MS of the apparatus decretorum.

[s. kuttner]