ACCORSO (in Latin Accursius), FRANCIS, the elder, an eminent lawyer, was born at Bagnolo, near Florence, in 1182. He began the study of law at a late period of life; but such were his assiduity and proficiency, that he soon distinguished himself. He was appointed professor at Bologna, and became a very eminent teacher. He undertook the great work of uniting and arranging into one body the almost endless comments and remarks upon the Code, the Institutes, and Digests, which, he observed, only tended to involve the subjects in obscurity and contradiction. When he was employed in this work, it is said, that hearing of a similar one proposed and begun by Odofred, another lawyer of Bologna, he feigned indisposition, interrupted his public lectures, and shut himself up, till he had, with the utmost expedition, accomplished his design. His work, entitled "A Perpetual Commentary," was much esteemed. It was printed with the "Body of Law," published at Lyons in 1627. He died in 1260, and left very great riches. His son, the younger Francis Accorso, succeeded him in his professorship, and accompanied Edward I. to England, on his return from the crusade in 1237. (Gen. Biog.).