BONFANTE, PIETRO. – Jurist, born 29 June 1864 at Poggio Mirteto, died 21 Nov. 1932 in Rome. Professor of Roman law at the universities of Camerino, Messina, Parma, Turin, Pavia, and Rome; he also taught history of commerce at the Luigi Bocconi Commercial University in Milan.
Roman law, both public and private, was his particular field; yet he was also a profound scholar of modern legal systems. To know a legal system, ancient or modern, meant for him knowing it in its being and becoming, that is, in its dogmatic and historical aspects; and to know the history of a law meant knowing the entire history of the people among whom the law arose and evolved.
To celebrate the fortieth year of his teaching, four 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 luminous synthetic work); *Corso di diritto romano* (Rome 1925–33, a monumental work, unfortunately incomplete); *Scritti giuridici vari* (4 vols., Turin 1916, 1918, 1921; vol. IV in Rome 1925); *Lezioni di storia del commercio* (2 vols., ibid. 1924).