Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Bisset, Peter
BISSET, BISSAT, or BISSART, PETER (d. 1568), professor of canon law in the university of Bologna, Italy, was a native of the county of Fife, and a descendant by a previous marriage of Sir Thomas Bisset, who after his marriage with the Countess Isabel, daughter and heiress of Duncan MacDuff, earl of Fife, received a charter from David II granting him the earldom, but left no issue by her. After completing his studies in grammar and philosophy at the university of St. Andrews, Bisset attended the classes of law at the university of Paris. Proceeding to Italy he received the degree of LL.D. from the university of Bologna, where he afterwards became professor of civil law. Tanner (Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, 102), on the authority of Dempster (Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Scotorum, ii. 95), states that he flourished in 1401, a palpable error. He assigns to him, also on the authority of Dempster, ‘De Irregularitate liber unus,’ and ‘Lectiones Seriales liber unus,’ and to a Petrus Bizarrus, who flourished in 1565, ‘Orationes aliquot et poemata.' This Petrus Bizarrus he conjectures to have been possibly identical with Pietro Bizari [q. v.], called also Petrus Perusinus, but in reality Bizarrus here is a misspelt form of Bissartus, and Peter Bisset, the author of ‘De Irregularitate,’ is identical with the author of ‘Orationes aliquot et Poemata.’ Both works were included in the volume entitled ‘Patricii Bissarti Opera omnia, viz. Poemata, Orationes, Lectiones Seriales, et Liber de Irregularitate,' published at Venice in 1565. Bisset died in the latter part of 1568.
[Dempster's Historia Ecclesiastia Gentis Scotorum, ii, 95; Tanner's Bibl. Brit. 102; Mackenzie's Lives of Scottish Writers, iii. 99, 101; Chambers's Biog. Dict. of Eminent Scotsman, i. 129; Notes and Queries, 5th series, vi. 389-90.]