THE CONSTRUCTION OF AUCTORITAS IN GRATIAN’S DECRETUM: THE ROLE OF TRADITION AND THE AUCTOR IN A 12^TH CENTURY LEGAL TEXT

A CONSTRUÇÃO DA AUCTORITAS NO DECRETUM DE GRACIANO: O PAPEL DA TRADIÇÃO E DO AUCTOR EM UM TEXTO JURÍDICO DO SÉCULO XII

Abstract

This paper discusses the construction of authority in the 12^th 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 12^th and 13^th 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.

Keywords
authority; medieval canon law; Gratian; authorship; legal texts