SAVIGNY, FRIEDRICH KARL von. – Jurist, born in Frankfurt am Main on 21 February 1779, died in Berlin on 25 October 1861. He studied at the University of Marburg and, the year after receiving his degree, at the same University,
1551. It was indeed Paul III who made hereditary in the S. the office of marshal and custodian of the conclave.
GIACOMO, son of the preceding, protonotary, was created cardinal deacon by Paul III on 19 December 1539, renowned as a virtuous young man devoted to letters (Pastor, V, p. 804). He was soon given the administration of the bishoprics of Nicastro (5 November 1540–19 November 1554, and again 6 February 1556–26 January 1560), of Teramo (15 April 1545–26 May 1546), and later of those of Gubbio (29 May 1555–6 February 1556) and Benevento (26 January 1560–27 May
obtained the venia docendi. From 1808 he taught at the University of Berlin, then being founded, where he held the chair of Roman Law until 1842. After devoting several years to the legislative reform entrusted to him by the Prussian government, he dedicated the remainder of his life to scholarly activity.
S. was the principal exponent of the “historical school,” which arose in opposition to the natural-law approach and method of interpreting law. S. vigorously opposed the drafting of a civil code analogous to that which Napoleon had given France (v. his work Vom Beruf unserer Zeit für Gesetzgebung und Rechtswissenschaft [Heidelberg 1814]), in controversy with Thibaut, who had argued for the necessity of a general civil code for Germany. According to his thought, law cannot be the product of legislative arbitrariness, nor can it be dogmatized in a codification, since it arises from the people, bearing their moral and intellectual characteristics and continually evolving and perfecting itself; customary institutions therefore acquire great importance, as being more responsive to the regulation of relations in continual evolution. The analysis of ancient and medieval sources, of which S. was a passionate student, reflects his scarcely critical method, deriving from a constant and reverential devotion to the Justinian texts. Modern scholarship considers S.’s conception obsolete, but regards him as the founder of legal history.
Principal works: Das Recht des Besitzes, Marburg 1803 (7th ed., Vienna 1865); Gesch. des röm. Rechts im Mittelalter, 6 vols., Heidelberg 1815–31 (2nd ed., 1834–51; Italian trans. by E. Bollati, Turin 1854–57); System des heutigen röm. Rechts, Berlin 1840–49 (Italian trans. by V. Scialoja: Sistema del dir. romano attuale, Turin 1886–88); Vermischte Schriften, Leipzig 1850; Das Obligationenrecht als Theil des heutigen römischen Rechts, 2 vols., Berlin 1851–53 (Italian trans. by G. Pacchioni, Le obbligazioni, Turin 1912–15); Juristische Methodenlehre (posthumous, Stuttgart 1951).
M. Teresa de Simone-Niquesa