Tradition and Innovation in Knowledge Production: Gregorio López’ Commentary on the Siete Partidas (1555)

Abstract

Gregorio López’ name is inextricably linked to his edition and commentary on the Siete Partidas, and both his contemporaries and later jurists praised him for having added »the eternal explanation« to this centrepiece of medieval Castilian legislation. The technique of commenting on authoritative texts was the basis of the scholastic method as practiced at the Spanish and Portuguese universities in the 16th century. Writing glosses or commenting was a method of making authoritative texts applicable to contemporary problems, circumstances and questions. In the Spanish context, this can be observed particularly whenever problems posed by the developments in the Americas needed to be resolved. Although the medieval tradition obviously had not discussed these issues, commenting on and interpreting authoritative texts by medieval thinkers was used as an intellectual tool to develop answers to contemporary problems. A closer reading of López’ commentary on the Siete Partidas confirms the use of this technique, especially with regard to the presence of the Americas as a topic in the glosses. The following analysis traces López’ work both as an editor and as a commentator of the Partidas to examine several examples of how he incorporated new questions into the framework of a medieval authoritative text.