ABSTRACT
This article by Kuttner, published first 1953 in ‘Seminar’, was his most important contribution to the problems of Roman Law in Gratian’s Decretum. He started with a commentary to Adam Vetulani’s essay ‘Gratien et le droit romain’, RHD4 24/25 (1946/47), 11–48, which he called ‘to have opened up entirely new roads to an understanding of the composition of the Decreta.’ (p. 49) Vetulani’s thesis, that an extensive use of the sources of Roman Law was not part of Gratian’s original plan, and that numerous texts were inserted only at a late stage of redaction, found Kuttner’s general approval. Since 1953 the discovery of two recensions of Gratian’s Decretum by Anders Winroth confirmed Vetulani’s thesis again. According to Winroth’s results the following texts of Roman Law are already included in the first recension: 1.) Dict. p. D. 25, c. 3 (Kuttner p. 47); 2.) Dict. p. D. 34, c. 17 (Kuttner p. 48); 3.) C. 2, q. 6, c. 28 (Kuttner, p. 50) — unique text from the Authenticum in Gratian; 4.) C. 15, q. 3, c. 1–3 (Kuttner p. 50); 5.) C. 15, q. 3, c. 4 (Kuttner p. 60: late insertion), 6.) C. 1, q. 4, Dict. p. c. 12 (Kuttner p. 67), Item ignorantia iuris alia naturalis, alia civilis (§ 2, first sentence), probably influenced by Bulgarus, Summula de iuris et facti ignorantia; 7.) C. 15, q. 3 pr. (Kuttner p. 67s: probably from Codex Theodosianus 9.1.3); 8.) C. 16, q. 1, c. 40 (Kuttner p. 70s: from the Polycarpus), but actually from 3 L 2. 27. 12 (ed. Motta, Collectio trium librorum, MIC, Ser. B, vol. 8, p. 367)—3 L 2. 27. 13 = C. 16, q. 1, Dict. p. c. 40, sentence 1. Most of the texts from Roman Law in Gratian’s Decretum are only in the second recension ; the first recension has Roman Law in some Dicta. (P.L.)
