Pontanus Romanus, Ludovicus
PONTANUS ROMANUS, LUDOVICUS
Canonist; b. Spoleto, 1409; d. Basel, 1439. He was a student at Rome, assuming for this reason the surname Romanus. After pursuing his studies at Perugia and Bologna, he became a doctor in 1429. In 1431 he was nominated as an auditor of the Apostolic Camera. As a professor at Siena he compiled his famous Singularia, a series of legal questions, which he recorded daily in a notebook for future publication. By 1444, only five years after his death, they were widely known and circulated. He became a member of the Papal Curia in 1435 and was sent as an envoy to the Council of Basel to safeguard the interests of Alfonso V of Aragon. He was associated with panormitanus at Basel. His premature death of plague brought to a close a decade of exceptional canonical studies. Besides the classic Singularia, he wrote commentaries on the Corpus Iuris Civilis, Digestum vetus, Digestum novum, and the Codex.
Bibliography: pius ii, De viris illustribus (Bibliothek des Literarischen vereins in Stuttgart 1.3; Stuttgart 1842). c. lefebvre, Dictionnaire de droit canonique 7:22–23. j. f. von schulte, Die Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des kanonischen Rechts 2:395.
[b. r. piskula]