JOANNES ANDREAE

The most distinguished and successful lay canonist of the Middle Ages; b. probably at Bologna, c. 1270; d. Bologna, July 7, 1348. There is no evidence that Joannes was illegitimate, as many biographers assert and there is no reason to doubt the validity of his parents marriage, even though his father did become a priest when Joannes was about eight years old. Having been taught the rudiments of grammar by his father and theology by the Dominican john of parma, Joannes entered the University of Bologna, where he studied Canon Law under Aegidius de Fuscariis, guido de baysio, and Marsilius de Mantighellis and civil law under Martinus Syllimanus. He received his doctorate in Canon Law between 1296 and 1300. Shortly thereafter he married Mylantia, the daughter of Bonincontro dall'Ospedale, the vicar of the bishop of Bologna. They had four sons and three daughters. Two of his sons chose ecclesiastical careers, while the other two, Bonincontro and Federico, became successful lay canonists. His daughters married jurists. Joannes also adopted the famous canonist Joannes Calderini. First and foremost a teacher, he spent almost his entire life as professor of Canon Law in Bologna, although he did teach for a short time in Padua from 1307 to 1309 and again in 1319. Highly esteemed by popes and civil leaders, he carried out several diplomatic missions on behalf of Bologna and of the papal legate. Joannes died of the plague and was buried in the church of St. Dominic in Bologna. With his death the classical period of Canon Law came to a close (see canon law, history of, 4).

Many of his works are to a large extent compilations, in which Joannes gathered together, from the works of preceding canonists, all that was important for the benefit and convenience of his students. He was not a mere compiler; he made judicious selections, not hesitating to criticize when necessary, and from them he developed his own doctrine. Furthermore, his concern for questions of authorship and chronology ranks him as the first historian of Canon Law, to whom succeeding generations owe a great debt.

Two of his commentaries, the Apparatus on the Liber Sextus of boniface viii (1301) and the Apparatus on the Clementines (1322), were accepted as the glossa ordinaria. Two minor treatises on marriage law Summa super quarto libro Decretalium and Lectura super arboribus consanguinitatis et affinitatis, enjoyed considerable popularity in the Middle Ages.

His greatest achievement was his Novella Commentaria series, comprising the Novella on the Decretals of gregory ix (c. 1338), the Quaestiones Mercuriales (1338–40), and the Novella on the Liber Sextus (1342–46). These works are similar in structure and method to Guido de Baysio's Rosarium. In them Joannes supplemented the text of the decretals with glosses indicating later canonical enactments found in the Liber Sextus, the Clementines, and the Extravagantes, and he enriched the Glossa ordinaria by gathering together all that he found useful in the various apparatuses of his predecessors and contemporaries. The Quaestiones Mercuriales

is a dual work, comprising a Novella commentaria on the title De regulis iuris of the Liber Sextus and a collection of more than 100 quaestiones disputatae composed by Joannes Andreae and many others. The Quaestiones are arranged according to the various rules of law, supplement the commentary, and serve as illustrations of the rules.

Joannes did not publish a Novella on the Clementines, although the beginnings of such a commentary may perhaps be seen in an apparatus of additions (Apostillae, 1324–30) recently discovered in a Vatican MS. His last work, and one of his best, was the Additiones to the Speculum of William duranti (the Elder, 1346–47). It is similar in style and structure to the Novella commentaria.

Bibliography: s. stelling–michaud, Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. r. naz, 7 v. (Paris 1935–) 6:89–92. f. k. v. savigny, Geschichte des römischen Rechts in Mittelalter, 7 v. (2d ed. Heidelberg 1934–51) 6:98–125. s. kuttner, "J. A. and His 'Novella' on the Decretals of Gregory IX," The Jurist, 24 (1964) 393–408; "The Apostillae of J. A. on the Clementines," in Études d'histoire du droit canonique dédiées à Gabriel Le Bras, 2 v. (Paris 1965) 1:195–201. g. rossi, "Contributi alla biografia del canonista Giovanni d'Andrea," Rivista trimestrale di diritto e procedura civile, 11 (1957), 1451–1502.

[c. m. rosen]