GOFFREDO da TRANI. – Canonist, born in Trani, probably died in April 1245. He taught civil law at Naples and canon law at Bologna. He subsequently became auditor litterarum contradictarum and was made a cardinal deacon in 1244.
He is the author of Glossae in Decretales Gregorii IX and Quaestiones; but his major work is the Summa super rubricis Decretalium (composed in 1241–43), which acquired the greatest authority and circulated widely through numerous editions (the first was Basel 1487, the last Padua 1667).
BIBL.: J. Schulte, Die Geschichte der Quellen und Literatur des han. Rechts, II, Stuttgart 1877, p. 88 ff.; S. Kuttner, Der Kardinalat der G. von T., in Studia et documenta historiae et iuris, 6 (1940), p. 124 ff.; A. van Hove, Prolegomena, 2nd ed., Mechelen–Rome 1945, pp. 473, 476, 489. Rodolfo Danieli