Wissensordnungen des Rechts im Wandel

At just over five hundred pages of text, the book may appear daunting at first. However, frequent recapitulation and a methodical structure help the reader stay focused on the big picture and make for an easy read. Specialists in canon law, and legal and intellectual historians in general, will find much to praise in Dusil’s wide-ranging study.John Burden, Speculum 95/1 (January 2020), doi:10.1086/706554

The merit of Dusil’s work is to be found in the fact that he is the first to explore knowledge related to canon law. By doing so, the author has broken new ground in the research on the science of canon law in the High Middle Ages. Even though scholars have shown interest in questions and approaches of the history of methods for some time, the notion of knowledge has not been included systematically in these considerations. In this respect, Dusil’s work offers an innovative approach to the sources of canon law, especially those of the High Middle Ages.Philipp N. Spahn, Rechtsgeschichte - Legal History, Rg 27 (2019), http://dx.doi.org/10.12946/rg27/315-316

Stephan Dusil shows throughout his ‘magnum opus’ that he has mastered very well the large research tradition his study is related to. He not only discusses with the long and large tradition of study of different canonical collections, but he also knows the discussions regarding various manuscripts and manuscript traditions regarding each of the used collections. Additionally, he is well read in history of law, history of the Catholic Church, as well as medieval society. In addition to the long list of literature, the list of used sources—both in edited and manuscript form—shows that author knows well the medieval source tradition he is trying to explain.Kirsi Salonen, Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, Volume 36, 2019

Les spécialistes d’histoire intellectuelle et les historiens des mentalités autant que les historiens du droit liront avec plaisir et profit le savant livre de Stephan Dusil, dont le style élégant met à la portée de chacun la subtilité du raisonnement et l’érudition déployées.Franck Roumy, Francia recensio, 2019 | 2, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11588/frrec.2019.2.62795

Historians of medieval schools and the disciplines of theology, philosophy, the liberal arts, and Roman law should all give attention to D.’s research; it helps us understand not just how canon law could start to develop as its own discipline but how intellectual culture as a whole could so fundamentally change between 1000 and 1200.
Atria A. Larson, Mittellateinisches Jahrbuch, Band 55 (2020), Heft 1

The history of canon law can no longer be told as a succession from one figure or collection to the next; Dusil has given an excellent example of the type of scholarship that acknowledges and explains a much more complicated, intertwined reality.Atria A. Larson, Law and History Review May 2020, Vol. 38, No. 2, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0738248020000139

Vorgeführt worden sind wenige Beispiele von den Erkenntnissen, die der Autor aufgrund seiner gründlichen, minutiösen Detailarbeiten gewonnen hat. Die Ergebnisse sind solide und, selbst wenn sie nicht durchweg spektakulär sein könnten, überzeugend. Schließlich ist darauf hinzuweisen, dass die Begriffe ‚Wissen‘ und ‚Ordnung‘ wohl nicht nur für die künftige Forschung der Geschichte des kanonischen Rechts aufschlussreich sein, sondern auch die Teilnahme der historischen Kanonistik an der interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit fruchtbar machen werden. Als Beispiel sei hier auf die interdisziplinäre Glossenforschung abgehoben, welche die Glossierung als ein verschiedenen Kulturen gemeinsames Phänomen betrachtet.
Tatsushi Genka, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Kanonistische Abteilung | Volume 106, Issue 1, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1515/zrgk-2020-0019