Ancharanus, Peter

, an eminent civilian of the fourteenth century, was born at Bologna in Italy, and descended from the illustrious family of the Farneses. Besides his uncommon knowledge in the civil law, he was a philosopher and politician and an eloquent speaker. These qualifications raised his reputation, and gave him a great authority among his countrymen. He was likewise in high esteem with the princes of Italy, and applied to by many cities and universities. He studied chiefly under Baldus, whose intimate friendship he gained, and who instructed him in the most abstruse parts of the civil law. He read public lectures upon the law at first in Padua, and afterwards at Bologna, in conjunction with Bartholomew Salicetus, with the greatest applause of his auditors. He flourished about 1380, and the following years; for in May, 1382, Salicetus, who was his contemporary, began his commentaries in IX Libros Codic. at Bologna. Our author died there about the year 1410, and was buried in the church of St. Benedict; though some | writers pretend, that he lived till 1497, which they infer from his epitaph, which was only repaired in that year. But the manuscript of his lecture upon the Clementines and Rescripts, which is preserved in the library at Augsburg, appears to have been written in 1397; and another manuscript of his lecture upon the second book of the Decretals, which is likewise in that library, shews that it was finished at Venice in 1392. He wrote, 1. “Commentaria in sex Libros Decretalium;” with the Scholia of Codecha and John de Monteferrato, at Bononia, 1581, fol. 2. “Lectura super Clementinas,” with the additions of Cathar. Panel and others, Lyons, 1549 and 1553, fol. 3. “Seleetae Quaestiones omnium praestantissimorum Jurisconsultorum in tres tomos digestae,” Francfort, 1581, fol. 4. “Consilia sive Responsa Juris,” with the additions of Jerom Z’anchius, Venice, 1568, 1585, 1589, 1599, folio. 5. “Repetitiones in C. Canonum Statuta, de Constit.” Venice, 1587. ¹