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The terminology collection Lawpedia® with emphasis on business law (esp. financial market law) offers you over 1000 terms and definitions. The contents of this terminology collection with an emphasis on business law (in particular financial market law) were researched by Dr. Dr. Marcel Lötscher with the greatest care and compiled on the basis of an extensive flashcard, training materials and literature. The various sources (as far as they could be found) are listed under the respective abbreviations and references. We would be pleased to receive your suggestions for further sources. However, despite the care taken, the provider cannot accept any liability for the accuracy, completeness and up-to-dateness of the information provided. In particular, the information is of a general nature and does not constitute legal advice in individual cases.
The term Glossary
A glossary (Latin glossarium) is a list of words with attached explanations of meaning or translations. As an appendix to a work, a glossary is also called a dictionary, and a stand-alone glossary is called a dictionary. The Latin glossarium refers as an object to a book that explains old, obsolete or foreign words.
Glossaries were already created in antiquity and the Middle Ages by so-called glossographers as collections of words in need of explanation for study. In modern times, a glossary is usually a list of words with linguistic explanations that open up a specific vocabulary. A technical glossary thus lists the terminology of a subject area with conceptual and factual definitions that are intended to ensure the correct use of these technical terms and their unambiguous understanding.
Glossators in secular and ecclesiastical law
In a narrower sense, glossators are the teachers of secular law. These interpreted the texts of the Corpus iuris (a collection of sources of ancient Roman law) in Italy in the 12th and 13th centuries. At the center of their work were the Digestes. They provided these texts with glosses (glossae), which were usually written in the margin or between the lines of the legal text. From this activity derives their designation as glossators. In addition, they described individual legal problems (summae) and resolved contradictions between different passages of the text (distinctiones). The founder of the Historical School of Law, Friedrich Carl von Savigny, was later to refer to the glossators as the book-learned reformers (of legal life). The Glossators thus provided indispensable groundwork for the reception of Roman law. Following the Glossators, the commentators attempted to close the increasingly obvious gap between pure legal doctrine and practically lived law. The canonists (canon law) also had glossators. However, they were called either decretists (commenting on the Decretum Gratiani) or decretalists (commenting on the papal decretal).