CONTIUS (LE CONTE), ANTONIUS. - French jurist, born at Moyon around 1526, died at Bourges in 1577 (or 1586). Professor at Bourges and subsequently at Orléans. He was particularly renowned for his erudition. He devoted himself actively to the criticism of sources, textual editing, and the history of civil and canon law.
He assisted in correcting the Decree of Gratian, and the critical edition he prepared was published in 1570. Together with other scholars, he exposed the frauds of the centuritotore Magdèburgenses. In 1571 he arranged the Novellae placed before Collatio X. He was also the author of an edition of the Corpus iuris civilis, with important notes, published at Paris in 1562 in 7 volumes and at Lyons in 1571 in 15 volumes. In his views he opposed Duareno and Ottomano, who belonged to the more dogmatic tendency of the French school. His various writings were collected and republished under the care of another professor of Bourges, Mérille, with the title: Antonii Conti, Opera omnia, collecta studio Edmundi Merillii (Paris 1616; Naples 1725). Antonio Rota