Irnerius (ca. 1055 to ca. 1125)

The biography of Irnerius (ca. 1055–ca. 1125) and his scientific production remain—chiefly in recent years—one of the most debated and controversial issues among historians. In this chapter, I expound my personal views in the hope of shedding some light on the whole problem. The very first teacher of what, in the following decades, became the University of Bologna, Irnerius boosted the renewed study of the Roman-Justinian law (almost neglected for five centuries) that still today constitutes the basic foundation of the legal Western civilization. In his glosses to the Corpus Iuris Civilis (probably the sole reliable evidences of Irnerius’s activity in the legal field) he revealed himself not only as a refined technician, a subtle logician, and an acute lawyer, but also as a man endowed with a noteworthy religious and ethical sensitiveness leading, in time, to firm and permanent achievements (e.g., in terms of individual freedom, human dignity, and social equity) commonly shared by modern world.