Balbi, Bernardo (Bernardus Papiensis) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. II, p. 432

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

BALBI, BERNARDO (Bernardus Papiensis). — Italian decretalist, died on 18 September 1216. He studied law at Bologna and during that period also resided in Rome; he then held the office of provost of the cathedral of Pavia and was professor of canon law at Bologna; subsequently he became bishop of Faenza (1191), and finally of Pavia (1198).

He first wrote glosses on Gratian’s Decretum, which he distinguished with his own sigla: B. Ber. e Ber. Pa.

He is also the author of the Breviarium extravagantium, which was called the Compilatio prima when the Breviarium became the first (private, but highly authoritative) of the Quinque compilationes antiquae. The expression Breviarium extravagantium was intended to indicate that the decretals collected therein lay outside (“extra vagantes”) Gratian’s Decretum. The Breviarium chiefly encompasses the decretals issued from 1187 to 1191, up to the pontificate of Pope Clement III, and was compiled by B. when he was provost of the cathedral of Pavia. In reality, however, B. also wished to include in his work the Capitoli that had been omitted by Gratian; of these, and of the decretals subsequent to the Decretum, B. intended

(Alinari photograph)
BALAUSTRA — B. by G. da Sangallo in Palazzo Gondi — Firenze.

to create a systematic collection by arranging the various Capitoli in the Breviarium under special titles and grouping these into five books according to the following distribution of subject matter, which subsequently became standard in the compilations of decretals: Index, iudicium, clerus, connubia (or sponsalia), crimen.

Before 1198, B. composed an apparatus of glosses to his Breviarium. This work arose in the school, since he delivered a lectura on his text and collected in the glosses of the apparatus the explanations he gave as a teacher. B. also compiled a Summa Decretalium and other specialized works of systematic exposition, such as the Summa de matrimonio and the Summa de electione, published by Laspeyres in an appendix to his edition of B.’s Summa Decretalium. In the Summa Decretalium, B. also made use of the Casus on the canonical texts written by Riccardo Anglico.

While he was bishop of Pavia, he wrote the life of his predecessor, St. Lanfranco (Acta SS. Iunii, IV, Parigi 1867, pp. 620–30), and a commentary on Eccli. and Cant.

BIBL.: E. A. T. Laspeyres, Bernardi Papiensis Summa Decretalium, Ratisbona 1806–61; J. F. Schulte, Die Geschichte der Quellen, I, Stoccarda 1875, pp. 78–82, 175–82; id., Literaturgeschichte der Compilationes Antiquae, in Sitzungsber. der K. Ab. der Wiss. Phil. hist. Kl., 66 (1871), pp. 78–79; S. Kuttner, Repertorium der Kanonistik, Città del Vaticano 1937, p. 322 and following; D. Beltrami, Un decretalista vescovo di Faenza: B. da Pavia, Faenza 1939. Antonio Rota