DAMASUS MAGISTER. - A celebrated Italian canonist who taught at the Studium in Bologna in the early years of the 13th century. Some authors have erroneously claimed that he was Bohemian by birth.
In addition to a Summa Decretalium, composed between 1210 and 1215, he wrote 278 Quaestiones, which are very interesting and practical and were often consulted, as well as Brocarda, or a collection of canonical conclusions drawn from the sources and writers of canon law. Some scholars have denied that D. was the author of one or another of these works, but the unity of thought and known external evidence have vindicated these writings for this author.
BIBL.: I. F. Schulte, Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des can. Rechts, I, Stuttgart 1875, pp. 194 ff.; H. Kantorowicz, D., in Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte, Kan. Abt., 47 (1927), pp. 332-40; S. Kuttner, Repertorium, I, Vatican City 1937, p. 394; A. van Hove, Prolegomena, 2nd ed., Malines-Rome 1945, pp. 429, 441, 444-45, 447, 450.