Bonfante, Pietro

BONFANTE, PIETRO. - Jurist, b. 29 June 1864 at Poggio Mirteto, d. at Rome on 21 Nov. 1932. Professor of Roman law at the Universities of Camerino, Messina, Parma, Turin, Pavia, Rome; he also taught the history of commerce at the "Luigi Bocconi" Commercial University of Milan.

Roman law, public and private, was his particular field; but he was also a profound connoisseur of modern legal systems. To know a legal system, ancient or modern, meant for him to know it in its being and in its becoming, that is, in its dogmatic and historical aspects; and to know the history of a law meant to know the whole history of the people among whom that law is born and evolves.

To celebrate the 40th year of his teaching, 4 volumes of Studi in onore di P. B. were published (Milan 1930).

Works: Istituzioni di diritto romano (10th ed., Rome 1934); Storia del diritto romano (4th ed., ibid. 1934); Diritto romano (Florence 1900, a work of luminous synthesis); Corso di diritto romano (Rome 1925-33, a work of monumental outlines, unfortunately incomplete); Scritti giuridici vari (4 vols., Turin 1916, 1918, 1921; the IV at Rome 1925); Lezioni di storia del commercio (2 vols., ibid. 1924).

Emilio Albertario