‛Ad instar quatuor elementorum’: Medical and Literary Knowledge in Salatiele’s Ars notarie (1242-1243)

  • Sarina Kuersteiner Columbia University in the City of New York
Keywords: Ars notaria, Medieval Notary, Salatiele, Contracts, Contratti, Notai medievali

Abstract

This article examines the implications of medical and literary knowledge for the meaning of the Ars notarie (1242-1243) written by the Bolognese notary Salatiele. Previous scholars described the Ars notarie as shortening the gap between notarial practice and Roman legal theory in thirteenth-century Bologna. My analysis of medical and literary knowledge suggests that the Galenic body and Ovidian verses may have provided Salatiele with models conceptualizing the intellectual underpinnings of commercialization and monetization - such as proportional balances, shifting prices, and multiplying relationships - into ordering principles of the common good.

Questo articolo esamina le implicazioni della consocenza medica e letteraria per il significato dell' Ars notarie (1242-1243) scritta dal notaio Bolognese, Salatiele. Studiosi precedenti descrivevano l'Ars notarie come un accorciamento del divario tra la pratica notarile e la teoria giuridica romana a Bologna nel Duecento. L'analisi della conoscenza medica e letteraria nell'Ars notarie suggerisce che il corpo galenico ed i versi ovidiani potrebbero aver fornito a Salatiele modelli con cui poetva teorizzare le basi intellettuali della commercializzazione e monetizzazione - come equilibri proporzionali, prezzi mutevoli e rapporti moltiplicandi - in principi ordinatori del bene comune.

Author Biography

Sarina Kuersteiner, Columbia University in the City of New York

Dr Sarina Kuersteiner (PhD, Columbia, 2021) is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Haifa Center for Mediterranean History (University of Haifa, Israel) where she is working on her first book project about notarial culture in Bologna and developing her second book project on notions of risk among Jewish, Muslim, and Christian merchant communities.

Published
2021-12-31
Section
RiMe 9/I n.s. (December 2021). Special Issue