TAMASSIA, NINO. — Italian legal historian, b. at Revere (Mantua) on Dec. 1, 1860, d. at Padua on Dec. 11, 1931.
Having graduated at Pavia and completed his studies at Strasbourg, he taught at Parma from 1886, at Pisa from 1888, and at Padua from 1895 until his death. The history of Italian law, which with his predecessors (Sclopis, Pertile, Schupfer, Del Giudice) had not yet established its independence from foreign schools, found in T. a new direction that was unfortunately termed “nationalistic” and which reduced to more just limits the influence of Germanic law, exaggerated by German historians and by Schupfer (v.). With over two hundred specialized studies, T. brought to light the legacy of Rome and the continuous action of the Church “converging upon the natural qualities and historical conditions of the Italian people” (Calisse). He preferred scientific communications, rich in thought despite their brevity, to treatises and monographs: hence the criticism of the fragmentary nature of his work, refuted, however, by the volumes on Odofredus and on The Italian Family in the 14th and 15th Centuries. He traced the history of Italian law beyond classical Roman law to that of the Italic regions emerging in popular customs, and utilized sources from the 5th and 6th centuries, previously neglected, including patristic writings, dedicating particular studies to ecclesiastical writers (St. Gregory the Great, Zeno of Verona, St. Maximus, St. Peter Chrysologus, Lanfranc of Pavia, Paulinus of Aquileia).
Talmud — Page from the tractate Bērākhōth, ed. by D. Bomberg, Venice 1520. In the center, the text of the Mišnāh and Gemārā’, on the right, the commentary of Rashi, on the left glosses of the Tosafists.