Interpretation and Meaning in the Renaissance: The Case of Law

by Ian Maclean

• ISBN13: 9780521020275
• ISBN10: 0521020271
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-09-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This book investigates theories of interpretation and meaning in Renaissance jurisprudence. How do they relate to the institutions of the law, especially pedagogical institutions? What characterizes the most commonly adopted theories of the legal profession? In what form were they published? How do they relate to modern canons of interpretation found in the trivium of grammar, dilaectics and rhetoric? In what ways, if any, do they mark a departure from medieval approaches? How do they relate to modern canons of interpretation? And how do they relate to similar issues in modern semantics and the philosophy of language, such as speech act theory or the 'logic of the supplement'? An answer to these questions is sought through an investigation of Renaissance problems concerning the authority of interpreters, the questions of signification, definition, verbal propriety and verbal extension, the problem of cavillation, the alternative interpretative strategies of ratio legis and mens legislatoris, the performative functions of language, and custom and equity as means of interpretation.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

Acknowledgements

Notes on the presentation of the text

Introduction

1. Contexts

2. Interpretation and the arts course

3. Theories of interpretation and meaning

4. Parallels and examples

Conclusion

Bibliography of primary sources

Index of citations from the Corpus Juris Civilis

Index of names

Index of terms.