Antonio Agustín y Albanell

Most Reverend Antonio Agustín y Albanell
Archbishop of Tarragona
Antonio Agustín y Albanell.
Church	Catholic Church
In office	1576–1586
Predecessor	Gaspar Cervantes de Gaete
Successor	Joan Terès i Borrull
Orders
Ordination	18 Dec 1557
Consecration	21 Dec 1557 by Giovanni Giacomo Barba
Personal details
Born	17 Feb 1517 Zaragoza, Spain
Died	31 May 1586 (age 69) Rome, Italy

Antonio Agustín y Albanell (1517–1586), also referred to as Augustinus, was a Spanish humanist historian, jurist, theologian, scholar, bibliophile, and Roman Catholic prelate who led three dioceses in his lifetime and also pioneered the historical research of the sources of canon law.

Life

Born in Zaragoza, Agustín was six when his father, the Vice-Chancellor of Council of Aragon that served during the reign of Ferdinand II of Aragon, passed away in 1523. In 1529, his mother, Doña Aldonza, also died.

Agustín studied law and classical literature in Alcalá, Salamanca, Padua and Bologna, notably as a pupil of Andrea Alciati. He received the Doctor of both laws from Real Colegio Mayor de San Clemente de los Españoles in 1541 and remained there until 1544.

With his nomination as an auditor of the Sacra Rota Romana in 1544, Agustín started his ecclesiastical career, which saw him become a papal nuncio in 1554/55.

In 1557, he was named Bishop of Alife, and ordained as a priest on 18 December. On 21 Dec 1557, he was consecrated bishop by Giovanni Giacomo Barba – Bishop of Terni, with the Archbishop of Turin and Bishop of Troia serving as co-consecrators (Cesare Cibo and Ferdinando Pandolfini, respectively). He was then named Bishop of Lleida in 1561. After participating in the Council of Trent in 1561–63, he was elected Archbishop of Tarragona and confirmed by Gregory XIII on 30 October 1576. He took possession of this metropolitan see on 10 March 1577.

He died on 31 May 1586 and was buried in a chapel that he himself had commissioned in Tarragona Cathedral.

Work

Agustín is now primarily remembered as the first canon law historian; Peter Landau counts him among the other authors that enabled us to consider the 16th century the founding age of the science of history.

His first main work, Emendationum et opinionum libri IV, proposed the now widely accepted thesis that the Littera Florentina manuscript was the source for all other copies of the Pandects. This undermined the authority, fundamental to medieval Roman law, of the Latin Vulgate text of the Pandects.

Agustín's other main historical works are:

• Antiquae Collectionis Decretalium (1576)
• De Emendatione Gratiani dialogorum libri duo (1587), a textual criticism of the Decretum Gratiani
• Epitome iuris pontificii veteris (1587/1611), a compendium of canon law prior to Innocent III
• De quibusdam veteris canonum ecclesiasticorum collectoribus iudicium ac censura (1611, posthumously published), a history of the pre-Gratian sources of ecclesiastical law

Collection

Agustín assembled an extensive library of 1,808 volumes, including 272 Greek manuscripts, 561 Latin manuscripts, and 975 printed works. He also founded printing presses in both Lérida and Tarragona, bringing the printer Felipe Mey from Valencia to operate the latter. After his death, portions of his library were distributed to the Vatican and the El Escorial monastery.

References

• Landau, Peter (2001). "Antonio Agustín". In Michael Stolleis (ed.). Juristen: ein biographisches Lexikon; von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (in German) (2nd ed.). München: Beck. p. 21. ISBN 3-406-45957-9.
• «Agustí i Albanell, Antoni, 1517-1586» Antics Posseïdors (Universitat de Barcelona. CRAI Biblioteca de Reserva)
• Falkowski, Mateuz, "The Limits of Philology: Antonio Agustín and Textual Criticism of Canon Law in Tridentine Europe," Renaissance Quarterly 76 (2023): 1340-1388.
• Sommar, Mary, The '"Correctores Romani": Gratian's "Decretum" and the Counter-Reformation Humanists (Berlin: Lit Verlag, 209).
• "Antonio Agustín y Albanell". Real Academia de la Historia: Historia Hispánica. https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/1552-antonio-agustin-y-albanell. Retrieved 21 October 2025.