PERTILE, ANTONIO. - Historian of Italian law, b. at Agordo on 10 Sept. 1830, d. at Padova on 4 March 1895. He studied at the Universities of Graz, Vienna, and Padova, where he graduated in 1855 and, two years later, obtained the chair of legal history: from then on he devoted himself to the work Storia del diritto italiano dalla caduta dell'Impero romano alla codificazione (6 vols., Padova 1873-87; 2nd definitive ed., 1892-1903).
This extensive exposition, the first and fundamental stage of the new discipline, still appears to depend, in its method and division of the subject matter, on F. Walter’s history of German law. The object both of ample praise and of unjustified hostility, it constitutes neither a perfect model for the collection of documents nor a true synthesis of institutions, but traces their evolution on the basis of the sources and within limits of place and time not more clearly defined before then. Of the two aims which P. declared that he had achieved with the help of Providence—to provide the outline and to lay the foundation of the history of Italian law—the latter remains imperishable.