Teaching Canon Law with Verses. Poetic Quotes in Hostiensis's Summa Aurea (c.1253)

In the works of the Glossators and the Commentators, it can be noticed a strong presence of poetic citations embedded in the legal reasoning. This paper addresses this practice by using the Summa super decretalibus of Hostiensis (c.1253) as a case study. After a brief overview of the relationship between law, history, and poetry, the present essay will sketch the common habit of thirteenth-century jurists to resort to poetic verses in their writings. Subsequently, the poetic citations in Hostiensis’s Summa that can be attributed to a specific author will be analysed. Finally, I will try to suggest some possible explanations for the choice of certain authors by Hostiensis and more generally for the use of poetry in the legal discourse of the time.