Mens emblematica et humanisme juridique : Le cas du Pegma cum narrationibus philosophicis de Pierre Coustau (1555)

Abstract

André Alciat and Pierre Coustau’s book of emblems may be an otium litteratum written outside the time set aside for the practice and theory of jurisprudence, but this recreational space is itself penetrated by legalisms. The writing of emblems rests on an epistemic model borrowed from the praxis of Roman law then in the process of re-elaboration. Far from being fastidious evidence of fixist and solipsist thought, or of professional constraint, the commentaries on the Pandectes and other fragments of Roman law by most Humanist jurists demonstrate the permeability of this legal culture and the expanse of its applications. The intentionally polyphonic commentaries on Civil law thus served as a basis for the elevation of a new ideal of Justice, in search of images and symbols around which rallied a community of jurists as inventive as they were erudite.