ABBAS ANTIQUUS. — This name is commonly used to designate, in order to distinguish him from Niccolò de' Tudeschis, known as the Abbas siculus or panormitanus or modernus, a Provençal canonist of the second half of the 13th century, of whom until a few years ago it was known with certainty only that he was a disciple of Pietro di Sampson, and the author of a Lectura on the Decretals of Gregory IX, another on those of Innocent IV, and several Distinctiones. The first of these three works was written no earlier than the end of 1259 and no later than the beginning of 1266, and two editions of it are known (Strasbourg 1510 and Venice 1588); the other two, on the contrary, still unpublished, seem to have been written in 1260 or 1261.
Recently A. A. has been identified with Bernardo di Montmirat (near St-Mamert, northwest of Nîmes). He (not to be confused with Bernardo Compostellano junior, who was likewise erroneously given the name Bernardus de Monte Mirato) studied at Bologna no later than about 1240; he then taught at the university of that same city, at least from 1260 to 1266. He entered the Benedictine order, perhaps before becoming a professor at Bologna (it is not known whether this was also before he was a student there).
In Sept. 1266 we find mention of him as chamberlain of the abbey of Ariane (near Montpellier) and as inquisitor in the trial against Raimondo, bishop of Toulouse. On 15 Oct. 1266 he was appointed by the Pope abbot of the abbey of Montmajour; then, on a date not precisely determined between 17 June 1277 and 31 Oct. 1278, he was appointed by Niccolò III rector of the March of Ancona (an office which he relinquished between 4 March and 12 June 1281), while remaining, at least until July 1286, abbot of Montmajour. On 20 June 1286 Pope Onorius IV appointed him bishop of Tripoli in Syria, but he remained in Italy, where he received various other assignments from Niccolò IV, who in 1291 or 1292 also sent him to England and Sweden to organize a crusade; on 14 Dec. 1295 Bonifacio VIII appointed him administrator of the abbey
(photo Enc. Catt.)