Huguccio of Pisa: Canonist, Bishop, and Grammarian?

"Huguccio of Pisa: Canonist, Bishop, and Grammarian?" The article reexamines the biographical data available for the twelfth-century canonist Huguccio. It focuses in particular on his commonly accepted identification with Bishop Huguccio of Ferrara (1190-1210), and with the grammarian Huguccio of Pisa who wrote the famous etymological dictionary, Derivationes. As a matter of fact, no one prior to Mauro Sarti (1769) had suggested this triple identity, which he tried to prove on the basis of narrative and relatively late sources only. The present study offers conclusions that derive from all of Huguccio's own writings and a dossier of papal letters related to the bishop of Ferrara. The evaluation of this material reconfirms the identification of the bishop and the canonist, but renders questionable the link between him and the grammarian. Among other things, the argument includes new biographical evidence drawn from the Derivationes, an extensive critique of Guiseppe Cremascoli's edition of the Agiographia (1978), and some remarks on the use of etymologies in the canonistic Summa.