Pignoris Loco

Overview & Synopsis

In this paper I focus my interest on metaphor and simile as tropes used by Roman jurists both to create the technical terms of their science and to argue the answers in the particular dialogue they engaged in whenever another jurist, a judge, a magistrate or a private individual asked them for advice. This is the continuation of a previous study on the use, in a metaphorical sense, of the legal term pignus in the sources of classical literature of invention from the 3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD, such as poetry and comedy. In it, based on the comparison of literary and legal sources, I have shown how this word (pignus, pledge, in Spanish), originating in Roman Law - where it gives its name to a real right of guarantee born through the work of jurisprudence and the praetors ̶ became established in literary and common language, acquiring the character of a topos generating many metaphorical derivations and becoming, since then, part of our current epistemological and linguistic heritage. I now propose to analyse some texts from legal literature (Justinian's Digest) in which the same term appears, used in a technical sense, but forming part of a metaphorical prepositional locution: pignoris loco. This analysis will provide us with a new example of how the language of law, that of creative literature and the common language feed back into each other.