IRNERIUS, a distinguished jurist, sometimes referred to as “lucerna juris,” who taught the “free arts” at Bologna, his native city, during the earlier decades of the 12th century. Other forms of the name are Yrnerius, Hirnerius, Hyrnerius, Warnerius, Wernerius, Guarnerius, Gernerius, some of which have been held to be suggestive of a German origin. Of his personal history nothing is known, except that it was at the instance of the Countess Matilda, Hildebrand’s friend, who diedin 1115, that he directed his attention and that of his students to the Institutes and Code of Justinian; that after 1116 he appears to have held some office under the emperor Henry V.; and that he died, perhaps during the reign of the emperor Lothair II., but certainly before 1140. He was the first of the Glossators (see Gloss), and according to ancient opinion (which, however, has been much controverted in later times) was the author of the epitome of the Novells of Justinian, called the Authenticae arranged according to the titles of the Code. His Formularium Tabellionum (a directory for notaries) and Quaestiones (a book of decisions) are no longer extant. His position as the founder of all learned investigation into the laws of Justinian is an important one; and he and his school are generally held to present an almost brilliant contrast, not only with the law writers of the preceding, but also with the jurists of the latter part of the following century.

SeeSavigny, Gcsch. d. Röm. Rechts im Mittelalter, iii. 83; Vecchio, Notizie di Irncrio e della sua scuola, Pisa, 1869; and Ficker, Forsch, z. Reichs-u. Rechtegcsch. Italiens, vol. iii., Innsbruck, 1870.