JOHN of GRADIBUS (DA GRADI). - Italian jurist, d. at Lyons c. 1525.
He was a renowned professor of canon and civil law, though it is uncertain whether in Pavia or in Lyons, where he certainly dwelt for a long time, or in both cities. He was also counsellor to Louis XII, King of France and Duke of Milan. He is well known and highly meritorious in the legal and editorial field for the editions, mostly first editions, which he prepared and annotated with critical notes and additions, of the canonists and jurists of the preceding era, such as Guido da Baisio, John of Imola, Peter of Ravenna, Giles of Bellemère, Francis Zabarella, Dominic of St. Gemignano, Felinus Sandeus, Philip Decius, Cino da Pistoia and others. He also prepared an edition of the Bible (Lyons 1522), enriched with his own apparatus of concordances and explanatory notes drawn from the Jewish Antiquities of Flavius Josephus.