Abstract

[Eliseo Danza. The creative imagination of a baroque jurist] Usually, Law and Literature studies focus on the presence of legal elements in literary invention. In this contribution, we intend to reverse this perspective by taking the literary datum present in the legal work as the object of observation. Before legal positivism technicalised the discipline, jurists did not disdain spicing up their writings with elements taken from theatre, poetry and stories. Eliseo Danza, a famous jurist of viceregal Naples, reflected in his writings the antiquarian and anecdotal taste typical of his era. In De pugna doctorum, before distinguishing the actio de pauperie from crimen homicidii, he dwells on certain legends featuring dragons and basilisks.