Filippo Decio

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Filippo Decio or Decius (1454–1535) was an eminent Italian jurist whose services were courted by European universities and rulers. He was one of the most influential representatives of the pre-Humanist scholastic ius commune tradition.

Born into a Milanese noble family, Decio studied the humaniora and then law in Pavia under his brother Lancelotti and Jason de Mayno. In 1475, he attained a doctorate at Pisa, where he taught civil and canon law until 1502, except for a 1484–87 stint in Siena. After squabbles within the Pisan faculty, he taught canon law in Padua from 1502 on and in Pavia from 1505 on. Following the destruction of his home by Swiss mercenaries, he followed Louis XII's call to Valence and became a member of the Grenoble parlement. In 1516, the Duke of Tuscany succeded in convincing Decio to return to Pisa, and in 1528 he moved to Siena. He is buried in Pisa's Campo Santo, beneath a monument he himself commissioned before his death.

Celebrated in his time as a teacher and jurisconsult, Decio was the most prominent and among the most prolific of the last generation of commentators following in the tradition of Cinus, Bartolus and Baldus. His last and best-known work is a 1521 commentary on the De regulis iuris title from the Digests. The work's systematic approach is already indicative of humanist ideas.

[edit] References

• Holthöfer, Ernst (2001). "Decio, Filippo", in Michael Stolleis (ed.): Juristen: ein biographisches Lexikon; von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, 2nd edition (in German), München: Beck, 171–173. ISBN 3406 45957 9.