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BIOGRAPHYLittle is known of this jurist. He came from Lodi where his family was prominent. Based on the the dates that are known about his career, it seems likely that he was born between 1270 and 1280. Oldradus studied in Bologna with Jacobus de Arena and the civilian Dinus Mugellanus. Before 1307 Oldradus served as an assessor in Bologna and he may have taught Roman law there. In 1307, Oldradus moved to Padua where he taught Roman law until 1310/11. Johannes Andrea records having held public disputations with him in Padua.Among Oldradus's students were Albericus de Rosate and possibly Bartolus. Bartolus's identification of Oldradus as "my teacher" in his commentary on the Code of Justinian [Code 5.10.1] suggests that Oldradus also taught at Perugia, where Bartolus studied. This hypothesis is substantiated by a manuscript at Cornell University containing consilia from a number of jurists who taught at Perugia includes one by Oldradus [Cornell University, Olin Libr. MS K5++ Consilia legalia, pp. 101-103]. Based on an account in a "Tractatus de commemoratione" attributed to Baldus de Ubaldis, Diplovatatius claimed that Oldradus taught law at Siena and Montpellier. According to this account, Oldradus left Siena when he became the enemy of Jacobus de Belvisio. But this treatise of Baldus's remains a mystery and Diplovatatius's claim must therefore be treated with some caution. Evidence from a charter at Lérida suggests that Oldradus may have given lectures there. In 1311, Oldradus went to the papal court in Avignon as the protégé of Peter Cardinal Colonna, with whom the jurist had been associated since 1297. Oldradus served as an auditor and judge in the Rota at Avignon until at least 1337. It is likely that he also taught in the law school there. It is thought that Oldradus exercised a considerable influence over legal matters in the curia. Petrarch knew Oldradus in Avignon and considered him eminent among jurists. Oldradus was a lay jurist who married and had children. In the registers of Popes John XXII, Benedict XII, and Clement VI, have been found the names of four of Oldradus's sons, Peter, James, John, and Philip [Schmidt, p.55, n.10]. John was the only one of Oldradus's sons to known to have become a jurist like his father and may have worked together with him on a case treated in Consilium No.224. Chiara Valsecchi found the name of Oldradus's father, Giacomo, and of a brother, Bassano [p.27]. The date of Oldradus's death used to be identified as April 8, 1335, based on an inscription that is no longer considered reliable. Thomas Fastolf, an English jurist who worked in the Rota in the mid-fourteenth century and who wrote an account of various cases argued there (Decisiones novae, antiquae et antiquiores), reported that Oldradus was debating cases in the Rota as late as February of 1337. A very unusual consilium in printed editions of Oldradus's collection, No.333, describing a spectacular case in which a Jewish man, Pandonus, was sentenced by the Royal court in Avignon to emasculation for having had sexual relations with a Christian woman, has been the basis of arguments that Oldradus was alive at least as late as 1343. But the unique features of this consilium, the fact that it is among the twenty-one items in printed editions that have not been found in a manuscript, the fact that itis the only one of Oldradus's consilia that reports the result of the case and the names of the judges --and in a critical tone--, the fact that brutal punishment inflicted on Pandonus is unique in that century, and the fact that, considering its sensational details, the consilium itself was not cited by the jurists after Oldradus all make it a weak basis for any such conclusion. Oldradus is most famous for his writings, especially his consilia. In addition to some marginal additiones to parts of the Corpus iuris ciuilis and the Libri feudorum that have been identified in a dozen manuscripts, Oldradus wrote several hundred consilia. which display a facile and inventive legal mind. One of his consilia. No.43 seems to have been used as the basis for Clement V's decretal, Saepe contingit, in which the Pope rejected on procedural grounds the Emperor Henry VII's citation of King Robert of Naples to appear for judgment on a charge of rebellion. Oldradus was one of the first canonists not only to write a large number of consilia, many on actual legal cases, but also to organize them into a collection. Although the consilia collection that goes under his name may well have been subjected to further editing after Oldradus's death, he grouped a large number of the items together and through this collection helped to establish this genre as the principal form of legal wrting in the Later Middle Ages. TEXTS1. Consilia et QuaestionesMANUSCRIPTSBarcelona, Archivo general de la Corona de Aragon, Ripoll 16 (β-Series) Basel, öffentliche Bibliothek der Universität Basel, C.III.14 Beaune, Bibliotheque Municip. 40 Bologna, Bibl. Albornoziana del Collegio di Spagna, 27 (207), fol. 145-153 Bologna, Bibl. Albornoziana del Collegio di Spagna, 83 Bologna, Bibl. Albornoziana del Collegio di Spagna, 282 (called Distinctiones) Bordeaux, Bibl. de la Ville 404, fol. 4v-168v Cordoba, Catedral Bibl. 40, fol. 1-183vb (possibly a pre-V-Series MS ??) Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibl. B.87, fol. 209-235v (β-Series) Eichstätt, Universitätsbibl. 502 Florence, Bibl. Naz. Centrale Magliabecchi XXIX 174 Frankfurt am Main, Antiquariat Keip MS 1987 (264 consilia) Graz, 59, fol. 261-280v Hannover, SB Mag. 53 [1477] Ithaca, NY, Cornell University, Olin Libr. MS k5++ Consilia legalia pp. 101-103 Lawrence Kansas, Kenneth Spencer Research Libr. MS G18 Kues, St. Nikolaus-Hospital Cusanusstiftsbibl. 277 Lucca, Bibl. Capit. Felin. Curia Arcivescovile 301 Lucca, Bibl. Capit. Felin. Curia Arcivescovile 415, fol. 1-174 Mantua, Biblioteca Civica MS 653 Metz, Biblio. Municip. 75 [1469] Munich, Clm 3638 [1419] Munich, Clm 5463 (β-Series) Oxford, New College 217, fol. 171-351 [1425] Paris, B.N. lat. 4085 Paris, B.N. lat. 4276 A Paris, B.N. lat. 14335, fol. 7- (earliest V-Series MS ?) Pistoia, EF, A. 40, fol. 18v, 21 Ravenna, Bibl. Class. 275 Rome, Bibl. Angelica 275, fol. 167-70 Rovigo, Biblioteca Communale e Concordiana C.Silv. 485 Salamanca, Biblioteca de la Universidad 594 Salamanca, Biblioteca de la Universidad 2467 Stréngnäs, Kathedralbibl. F. mai. 2 Torino, BN H.I.9, fol. 1-178 Tübingen, Universitätsbibl. 17 Uppsala, C.537, fol. 225r-334v Uppsala, C.545, fol. 1r-198v Vatican City, Vat. lat 2642, fol. 133 Vat. lat. 2653 (1426) Vat. lat. 8068, fol. 107, 188v Vat. Chigi E.viii.345 Vat. Ross. lat. 584 (called Distinctiones) Vat. Ross. lat. 1096 Vat. Urb. lat. 1132, fol. 141 Venice, BNB Marc. lat. V 117, fol. 35-36 Zaragoza, Biblioteca Capitular 62-9 Zeitz, Stiftsbibl. (antea 27) (1409) fol. 2-157v INCUNABULAE Rome: Adam Rot Metensis 1472 (Hain 9932), 264 consilia Rome 1476 (Hain 9933), 274 consilia -- very rare edition Rome 1478 (Hain 9934) 333 consilia [Basel]: Eberhard Frommholt 1481 (Hain 9935) 264 consilia Venice: Bernardinus de Tridino 1490 (Hain 9936) 333 consilia Bologna: Ugo de Rugeriis 1495 (Hain 9937) 333 consilia Venice: Bernardinus de Tridino 1499 (Hain 9938) 333 consilia DISCUSSION The total number of Oldradus's consilia has not been determined. The manuscripts which contain large numbers of Oldradus's consilia, with two important exceptions, are drawn from a set of 264 items. Most manuscripts present the consilia in a partiular order from 1-264, sometimes with ten items added at the end (Munich, Clm 3638 and Vat. Ross. lat. 1096 for example). This particular sequencing of items I call the Vulgate Series. All the printed editions follow the Vulgate Series, but most of these have a further addition of fifty-nine consilia at the end, bringing the total to 333 items. The printer of the 1478 edition of Oldradus's consilia collection added these items and the set of 333 was used for all but one printed editions therafter. All but twenty-one of these additional items have been identified in manustcripts. Two of the added fifty-nine, No.276 and No.322, are duplicates of items in the VS of 264: No.276 is VS 239 and No.322 is VS No.119. The Cordoba 40 manuscript, possibly the closest witness to what Oldradus left behind, contains four of these items, No.275 and No.287-289. Mantua 653 contains thirty-three of the added items, VS No.300-332. That leaves twenty-one of the items in the printed editions of Oldradus's consilia collection, VS No.277-286, No.290-299, and No.333, without any known manuscript tradition. In the two articles I published on Oldradus's consilia, I have argued that the Cordoba 40 manuscript contains a collection of consilia that was preliminary to the creation of the Vulgate Series of 264. I speculated that it may be, in part, a witness to Oldradus's own collection of his consilia made while he was in Avignon, some having been organized into sequences that found their way into the Vulgate Series, some not. I have argued that the five other manuscripts known to contain collections with an order different from the Vulgate Series were all descended from that collection. This includes the collection in Barcelona, Ripoll 16, Clm 5643, and partially in Dresden B87 (the β-Series), and the two manuscripts containing radical rearrangements, Kues 277 and the Keip manuscript. Chiara Valsecchi's study of Oldradus's consilia was published in 2000 and he did not have the chance there to comment upon what I have proposed. 2. [Glossae] Additiones to various parts of the Corpus Iuris Civilis and the Libri Feudorum[Glossae] Additiones to the InstitutesBologna, Bibl. Albornoz. de Coll. di Spagna 282 Vatican City, Vat. Ross. lat. 584 [Glossae] Additiones to the Code Aosta, Bibl. del Seminario Maggiore Lucca, Bibl. Capit. Feliniana Curia Arcivescovile 322 Milan, Bibl. Ambrosiana A.252 inf. Munich, BS, Clm 3501 Siena, Bibl. Communale H.IV.16 [Glossae] Additiones to the Digestum Vetus Bologna, Bibl. Albornoz. de Coll. di Spagna 285 Frankfurt am Main, Stadt- und Universitätsbibliothek, Barth.9 Seo de Urgel, Archivo de la Catedral 2031 Siena, Bibl. Communale I.IV.4 Torino, Bibl. Naz. Universitaria E.I.15 Venice, Bib. Naz. Marciana Zan. lat. 200 [Glossae] Additiones to the Digestum Infortiatum Olomouc, Statni Archiv 591 Toledo, Biblioteca de la Cabildo 32-8 [Glossae] Additiones to the Digestum Nouum Bologna, Bibl. Albornoz. de Coll. di Spagna 283 Florence, Biblioteca Medicae Laurenziana, Gaddiano 43 Graz, Universitätsbibliothek 63 (40/6f.) Leipzig, Universitätsbibliothek 1100, fol.1-237v Pistoia, Archivo Capit. 158 Toledo, Biblioteca de la Cabildo 32-5 Torino, Bibl. Naz. Universitaria E.I.3 Vatican City, Vat. lat. 1422 Vatican City, Vat. Borgh. lat. 373 [Glossae] Additiones to the Libri Feudorum Milan, Bibl. Ambrosiana, D.534 inf. [Glossae] Additiones to the whole Corpus iuris ciuilis ?? Paris, B.N. lat. lat. 4569 3. (Possible) Other WorksRemissiones glossarum utiliumTours, Bibl. Municip. 599, fol.5-15 Lectura on the Code Beaune, Bibl. Municip. 40, fol.1-80 Modena, Archivo di Stato, 214 I 1-3 Tractatus de percussionibus Padua, Bibl. Universitaria, 275 [provisional number] (181r-182v) BIBLIOGRAPHYLuigi Anfosso, "Oldrado da Ponte e le sue opere," Archivio storico lodigiano 32 (1913), fasc.3 [This work is not regarded as reliable on many points]. Ingrid Baumgärtner, "Et faciendi plures libros nullus est finis. Der Sinn von Büchern oder der Bildungshorizont eines spätmittelalterlichen Juristen," Universität und Bildung. Festschrift für Laetitia Böhm zum 60. Geburtstag, ed. W. Müller, W. Smolka, H. Zedelmaier (Munich 1991) 55-70. Brendan McManus, "The Consilia and Questiones of Oldradus de Ponte," BMCL, N.S. 23 (1999) 85-113. Brendan McManus, "A Consilium of Fredericus and Oldradus on Super cathedram," Viator 33 (2002) 185-221. Francesco Migliorino, "Alchimia lecita e illecita nel trecento: Oldrado da Ponte," Quaderni Medievali 11 (1981) 6-41. Karl Mommsen, "Oldradus de Ponte als Gutachter für das Kloster Allerheiligen in Schaffenhausen," ZRG Kan. Abt. 62 (1976) 173-93. Gerald Montagu, "Roman Law and the Emperor - The Rationale of 'Written Reason' in some Consilia of Oldradus de Ponte," History of Political Thought, vol. XV no.1 (Spring 1994) 1-56. Kenneth Pennington, "Oldradus de Ponte's Attitudes Toward Jews and Muslims" (1991). William Stalls, "Jewish conversion to Islam; The perspective of a quaestio," Revista espanola de Teologia 43 (1983) 235-51. Tillmann Schmidt, "Die Konsilien des Oldrado da Ponte als Geschichtsquelle," in Consilia im späten Mittelalter, ed. Ingrid Baumgärtner (Sigmaringen 1995) 53-64. Chiara Valsecchi, Oldrado da Ponte e i suoi Consilia (Milan 2000) [a very substantial monograph dealing with Oldradus, his consilia and their textual tradition, and some of the ideas presented in the consilia]. Eduard Will, Die Gutachten des Oldradus de Ponte zum Prozeß Heinrichs VII. gegen Robert von Neapel (Abhandlungen zur mittleren und neueren Geschichte 65: Berlin/Leipzig 1917). Norman Zacour, Jews and Saracens in the Consilia of Oldradus de Ponte (Pontifical Institute Studies and Texts 100: Toronto 1990). |
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