Petrification of ius commune through printed paratexts

ongoing

Between the 1460s and 1620s, printed editions of canon and civil law texts witnessed a constant development of marginal paratexts, such as glosses, summaries, cases or commentaries. They were added to authoritative legal sources because the printers were interested in improving the quality and attractiveness of new source editions. They often hired legal experts who offered them new tools, resources, and ideas. These were incorporated into printed books using new printing techniques. In consequence, the dynamic between improved new editions and advances in printing enterprise fueled the ongoing development of printed legal books. Various questions concerning the origin, transmission, and influence of paratexts are embedded in the interplay between sources and marginalia, manuscripts and printing, editors and printers, and books and their readers. PetrIUS has an innovative approach for shifting the focus from source (text) to marginalia (paratexts). PetrIUS aims to examine how print and its evolution helped to petrify – that is, consolidate – landmark achievements of late medieval ius commune. This is done by enabling some doctrinal accounts to be transferred into marginalia of source editions. The novelty brought about by print affected legal science and communication. PetrIUS will acknowledge how legal experts employed novel technical tools to transfer the heritage of medieval law into early modern source editions and how these processes affected patterns of scientific work and the transfer of knowledge in academia. To do so, PetrIUS will implement typical legal and book history tools as well as natural language processing techniques. The latter enables detailed comparisons between paratexts’ printed editions and their reception in the scholarly literature. The research will conclude with a legal theoretical study that assesses the early modern significance of paratexts by treating them as the media of law, that is, the means of legal communication.