Simon of Apulia.
Randbemerkungen zu der Edition der Dekretsumme des Simon von Bisignano
Zur Erinnerung an Josef Juncker (1889-1938)
Summary
The present paper is basically a review of the critical edition, published recently by Pier Silvio Aimone, of the Summa of Simon de Bisignano, an important commentary on the Decretum of Gratian, elaborated in the years 1177-1179. After discussing the manuscript tradition of the Summa (1), some technical aspects of the edition (2), structure, style and sources of the commentary (3), a few matters of content (4) and the actual state of research regarding the origin of the Summa (5), it will be argued that Simon, born in a small village of Southern Italy, should be identified with Simon of Apulia, a prelate well known in England, dean of York and later bishop of Exeter (died 1223) (6). The last section (7) outlines some perspectives for future research in the light of the surprising „second life“ of Simon: a new evaluation of his biography (a), a reassessment of his influence on anglonorman canon law (b), efforts to determine more precisely the origins of the manuscripts (c) and further investigation concerning Simon‘s scattered glosses and their relationship with the Summa (d). At the end one appendix (A) investigates Simons use of the term summa, another (B) offers a selection of literature dealing with various aspects of his teaching. Throughout, the author suggests to pay more attention to the codicological and paleographical aspects of canon law manucripts in order to establish their origin and use.
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