The construction of auctoritas in Gratian's Decretum: the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal text

This paper discusses the construction of authority in the 12th century using a specific case, that of Gratian’s Decretum, a legal manual compiled around 1140 in Western Europe. Through a methodology of intertextual analysis, this article combines theoretical work from major authors and primary sourc...

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Main Author: Carolina Gual Silva
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade de São Paulo 2022-01-01
Series:Revista de História
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.revistas.usp.br/revhistoria/article/view/181491
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author Carolina Gual Silva
author_facet Carolina Gual Silva
author_sort Carolina Gual Silva
collection DOAJ
description This paper discusses the construction of authority in the 12th century using a specific case, that of Gratian’s Decretum, a legal manual compiled around 1140 in Western Europe. Through a methodology of intertextual analysis, this article combines theoretical work from major authors and primary sources to advance an explanation on how authority can be understood during the central Middle Ages in legal texts and how it comes from an articulation between tradition and originality. Furthermore, we highlight how the intersections between innovation and tradition in the Decretum make it possible for us to consider Gratian as an auctor. From this analysis, we extrapolate a broader conclusion about how legal texts in the 12th and 13th centuries used and then recreated a notion of authority that came to include the idea of the author who, in his turn, became an authority himself.
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spelling doaj.art-9d571e1124464a6fbb13895dd74ba3ac2023-01-02T02:34:06ZengUniversidade de São PauloRevista de História0034-83092316-91412022-01-01181The construction of auctoritas in Gratian's Decretum: the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal textCarolina Gual Silva0Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de JaneiroThis paper discusses the construction of authority in the 12th century using a specific case, that of Gratian’s Decretum, a legal manual compiled around 1140 in Western Europe. Through a methodology of intertextual analysis, this article combines theoretical work from major authors and primary sources to advance an explanation on how authority can be understood during the central Middle Ages in legal texts and how it comes from an articulation between tradition and originality. Furthermore, we highlight how the intersections between innovation and tradition in the Decretum make it possible for us to consider Gratian as an auctor. From this analysis, we extrapolate a broader conclusion about how legal texts in the 12th and 13th centuries used and then recreated a notion of authority that came to include the idea of the author who, in his turn, became an authority himself.https://www.revistas.usp.br/revhistoria/article/view/181491authoritymedieval canon lawGratianauthorshiplegal texts
spellingShingle Carolina Gual Silva
The construction of auctoritas in Gratian's Decretum: the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal text
Revista de História
authority
medieval canon law
Gratian
authorship
legal texts
title The construction of auctoritas in Gratian's Decretum: the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal text
title_full The construction of auctoritas in Gratian's Decretum: the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal text
title_fullStr The construction of auctoritas in Gratian's Decretum: the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal text
title_full_unstemmed The construction of auctoritas in Gratian's Decretum: the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal text
title_short The construction of auctoritas in Gratian's Decretum: the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal text
title_sort construction of auctoritas in gratian s decretum the role of tradition and the auctor in a 12th century legal text
topic authority
medieval canon law
Gratian
authorship
legal texts
url https://www.revistas.usp.br/revhistoria/article/view/181491
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