GUIDO DA BAISIO. - Canonist, born of a Bolognese family at Baisio (Reggio Emilia) ca. 1246-56, died at Avignon on 10 August (5 June?) 1313. He studied law at the school of Guido da Suzaria and Giovanni d'Anguissola. He was chaplain of Gerardo, bishop of Parma, who later became cardinal and bishop of Sabina; later he is found in Bologna, where in 1296 he was appointed by Boniface VIII archdeacon of the cathedral Chapter.

GUIDO di COMO (Guido Bigarelli) - Pulpit with stories of Christ - Pistoia, church of S. Bartolomeo in Pantano.(phot. Alinari)

In Bologna, and earlier perhaps also in Reggio, he taught canon law with great renown, first as a free lecturer (until 1301) and then with an official appointment (1301-1304), having as his disciple Giovanni d'Andrea. The period of his Bolognese teaching coincides with the exercise of his archidiaconal office, for which reason he was and still is known and cited as the "archdeacon" par excellence. In 1304 he was called to Avignon, where Benedict XII wished him as chaplain of the pontifical court and writer of the so-called contradictory letters.

Among his principal works a voluminous apparatus to the Decretum stands out, entitled Rosarium Decreti (Strasbourg 1472 and numerous subsequent editions), composed between 1296 and 1302 with the aim of updating and completing, with his own and others' contributions, especially with extracts from Uguccione, the ordinary gloss to the Decretum itself: which indeed is found enriched, in the following editions, with many additiones drawn from the Rosarium. G. da B. ranked among the principal commentators of the Liber sextus with his Apparatus seu Glossa seu Commentarius ad Sextum (Milan 1480), which he completed between 1306 and 1311: a much more extensive work, but less precise, than that of Giovanni d'Andrea, which later became the ordinary gloss. There is also by him a Tractatus de haeresibus et aliis criminibus ad Clementem V, composed on the occasion of the well-known case of the Templars accused of heresy, a work still in manuscript, of which Mansi reports the two principal sections (Mansi, XXVI, 415-26; ibid., Supplemento, 357-86).

Bibliography5 works

BIBL.: J. F. von Schulte, Die Geschichte der Quellen und Litteratur des canonischen Rechts, II, Stuttgart 1877, p. 186 ff.; G. Fantuzzi, Notizie degli scrittori bolognesi, I, Bologna 1781-94, pp. 316-32; Hurter, II, col. 511 ff.; F. Gillmann, G. de Baysio und Johannes de Anguissola, in Archiv für katholisches Kirchenrecht, 104 (1924), p. 55 ff.; A. van Hove, Prolegomena, 2nd ed., Malines-Rome 1945, pp. 475, 483, 489.

Zaccaria da San Mauro

@incollection{ec6_guido_da_baisio, author = {Zaccaria da S. Mauro}, title = {Guido da Baisio}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {1289--1290}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/guido-da-baisio} }

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