A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

JUA-~S.NTMANU S. * ~J'U ST IN I'AN U~.. 6.7 1:berg: pfeor -of law at Helmstadt, De Multi- rence in 1411 (?), ever since which time it has
~tdine nimia C(ommentatorum in Institutiones Juris.:been kept there as a valuable treasure, and regarded
The Institutes of Justinian were edited, jointly with the utmost reverence.
~with those of Gaius, by Klenze and B1cking (4to. Where the Florentine manuscript may have been
Berol. 1829). The most valuable critical editions before the siege of Amalfi is of little consequence;
anterior to Schrader's are those of Haloander but it is of great consequence that we should be
(Nuremb. 1529), Contius (Paris, 1567), Cujas able to decide another much disputed question,
(Paris, 1585; re-edited by K5hler, G6ttingen, namely, whether the Florentine manuscript be- or
1773), Biener (Berlin, 1812), and Bucher (Er- be not the sole authentic source whence the text of'langen, 1826). A complete account of the literature all other existing manuscripts, and of all the printed
connected With the Institutes would fill a volume. editions, is derived. In favour of the affirmative
The reader is referred for full and authentic in- opinion there are several facts, which have not, we
formation on the subject to Spangenberg, Einleitung think, been satisfactorily accounted for. The leaves
in das Corpus Juris Civilis; BUcking, Institutionen, of the Florentine manuscript are written on both
pp. 145-158; Prodrowmus Corporis Juris Civilis sides, and the last leaf but one, in binding the:a Sclr7adero,' Clossio, Tafelio edendi, 8vo. Berol. volume, has'been so placed as to reverse the order:1823' Beck, Indicis Codicumz et Editionum Juris of the pages. The fault is copied in all the existJustiniani Prodromus, 8vo. Lips. 1823; and the ing manuscripts. The order of the 8th and 9th'editions of the Institutes by Biener and Schrader. titles in the 37th book of the Digest is reversed il
The literary history of the Digest has been a the Florentine manuscript, but the error is corrected'Subject of hot and still unextinguished controversy. by the scribe by a Greek note in the margin. There'The most celebrated existing manuscript of this are fragments similarly reversed in lib. 35, tit. 2,'work is that called the Florentine, consisting of and lib. 40, tit. 4, and similarly corrected. In the
two large quarto volumes, written by Greek scribes, other existing old manuscripts, written by men who
probably not later than the end of the sixth, or the did not understand Greek, the error is reproduced,
beginning of the seventh century. It was formerly but not the correction. On the other hand, an
supposed by some to be one of the authentic copies interpolation added in Latin in the margin of
transmitted to Italy in the lifetime of Justinian, the Florentine manuscript, is inserted in the text'but this opinion is now abandoned. It is, in ge- of the other manuscripts. For this reason, the last
neral, free from contractions and abbreviations, four fragments of lib. 41, tit. 3, are wrongly con-'which were strictly forbidden by the emperor, but verted into a separate title, with the rubric de Soletters and parts of letters are sometimes made to luto. In the 20th and 22nd titles of the 48th
do double duty, as necesset for necesse esset (gemi- book, there are blanks in the Florentine manuscript,
vationes), and A3 for A B (monogrammata). The indicating the omission of several fragments, which
Florentine manuscript was for a long time'at Pisa, were first restored by Cujas from the Basilica. The
and hence the glossators refer to its text as litera omissions exist in all the ancient manuscripts. In
Pisana (P. or Pi.), in contradistinction to the com- general, where the text of the Florentine manUmon text (litera vulgata). Its history before it script presents insuperable difficulties, no assistance
arrived at Pisa, is doubtful.: According to the tes- is to be derived from the other manuscriptt,
timony of Odofredus, who wrote in the 13thcentury, whereas they all, in many passages, retain the
it was brought to Pisa from Constantinople, and errors of the Florentine. Their variations are
Bartolus, in the 14th century, relates that it was nowhere so numerous and arbitrary as where the
always at Pisa. We are strongly inclined to put Florentine is defective or corrupt. Moreover, they'faith in the constant' tradition that it was given to appear to be all later than the beginning of the
the Pisans by Lothario the Second, after the cap- twelfth century; and, in general, the older they
ture of Amalfi, in A. D. 1135 (?), as a memorial of are, the less they depart from the Florentine.
his gratitude to them for their aid against Roger In opposition to these facts, the supporters of the
4tlie Norman. The truth or falsehood of this tra- conflicting theory adduce many passages of the
dition would be a matter of little importance, if it ordinary text in which the omissions and faults of'were not usually added, among other more apocry- the Florentine manuscript are corrected and sup-:phal embellishments, that Lothario directed the plied. Some of the variations are not improveDigest to be taught in the schools, and to be re- ments, some may be ascribed to critical sagacity
garded as: law in the courts, and that the Roman and happy conjecture, and some may have been
law had been completely forgotten, until the atten- drawn from the Basilica or-other Eastern sources:
tion of the school of Bologna was turned to it by yet, in the list which Savigny has given, a few,the ordinance of the emperor, consequent upon the variations remain, which can scarcely be accounted
finding of the manuscript. (Sigonius, de Regno for in any of these ways. Passages fromlthe Digest,
Ital. xi. in fine.) It is certain that soon after the containing readings different from those of the Flocapture of Amalfi, the Roman law, which had long rentine manuscript, occur in canonists and other'been comparatively neglected, was brought into authorsi anterior to the supposed discovery at
remarkable repute by the teaching of Irnerius, but Amalfi.' Four palimpsest leaves of a manuscript of
this resuscitation is attributed by Savigny to the the Digest, nearly as old as the Florentine, were
growing illumination of men's minds, and to that found at Naples by Gaupp, and an account of them'felt want of legal science which the progress of was published by him at Breslau, in 1823. They
commerce and civilisation naturally produces. He belong to the tenth book, but are nearly illegible.thinks that civilisation, excited by these causes, In most of the manuscripts and early editions,
not by any sudden discovery, had only to put forth the Digest consists' of three nearly equal volumes.
its arm and seize the sources of Roman law, which The first, comprehending lib. 1-24, tit. 2, is called
were previously, obvious and ready for its grasp. Digestum Vetus; the second, comprehending lib.
Pisa was conqueredhby the Florentine Caponius, 24, tit. 3-lib. 38, is called Infortiatum; the third,
in 1406,. and- the manuscript was brought to Flo- comprehending lib. 39-lib. 50, is called Digestumia