DE' TUDESCHI (DE TUDISCO), NICCOLÒ (Panormitanus, Abbas Siculus, Abbas Modernus). - Canon lawyer, born in Catania in 1386, died in July 1445.
He was a monk of the Order of S. Benedict and professor of canon law, first at Bologna in 1411, then at Parma in the years 1412–18, and subsequently at Siena during the years 1418–30; then again at Bologna in 1431 and 1432. In 1425 he had become abbot of the monastery of S. Miniato; in 1433 he was appointed auditor of the Apostolic Camera and papal referendary, and finally he was elected archbishop of Palermo (1435) and created cardinal by the antipope Felice V on 12 Nov. 1440.
He is credited with an extensive commentary on the Decretals of Gregory IX, which enjoyed great authority in its time and is still regarded as one of the finest works of the age of the decretalists. He was also the author of a commentary on the Liber sextus of Boniface VIII and another on the Clementines. A Florilegium of the two laws is likewise attributed to him. N. de' T. remained famous for having very often departed from the opinion of the gloss and for maintaining, on fundamental points of canon law, an independent and at times even daring position.