Corpus Juris Civilis - Recovery in The West

Recovery in The West

Justinian's Corpus Juris Civilis was distributed in the West but was lost sight of; it was scarcely needed in the comparatively primitive conditions that followed the loss of the Exarchate of Ravenna by the Byzantine empire in the 8th century. A two volume edition of the Digest was published in Paris in 1549 & 1550, translated by Antoio Augustini, Bishop of Taragona; who was well known for other legal works. The full title being Digestorum Seu Pandectarum tomus alter. Published by "Apud Carolam Guillards, uiduan Claudii Cheuallonii, sub sole dureo & Gulielmum, sub cruce albs, in uia diui Jaobi" - . Vol 1 has 2934 pages, Vol 2 has 2754 pages. The only western province where the Justinianic code was effectively introduced was Italy, following its recovery by Byzantine armies (Pragmatic Sanction of 554), but a continuous tradition of Roman law in medieval Italy has not been proven. Historians disagree on the precise way it was recovered in Northern Italy about 1070: perhaps it was waiting unneeded and unnoticed in a library until the legal studies that were undertaken on behalf of papal authority that was central to the Gregorian Reform of Pope Gregory VII led to its accidental rediscovery. Aside from the Littera Florentina, a 6th-century codex of the Pandects that was preserved at Pisa, apparently without ever being publicly consulted, (and removed to Florence after Florence conquered Pisa in 1406), there may have been other manuscript sources for the text that began to be taught at Bologna, by Pepo and then by Irnerius. The latter's technique was to read a passage aloud, which permitted his students to copy it, then to deliver an excursus explaining and illuminating Justinian's text, in the form of glosses. Irnerius's pupils, the so-called Four Doctors of Bologna, were among the first of the "glossators" who established the curriculum of medieval Roman law. The tradition was carried on by French lawyers, known as the Ultramontani, in the 13th century.

The merchant classes of Italian communes required law with a concept of equity and which covered situations inherent in urban life better than the primitive Germanic oral traditions. The provenance of the Code appealed to scholars who saw in the Holy Roman Empire a revival of venerable precedents from the classical heritage. The new class of lawyers staffed the bureaucracies that were beginning to be required by the princes of Europe. The University of Bologna, where Justinian's Code was first taught, remained the dominant centre for the study of law through the High Middle Ages.

The present name of Justinian's codification was only adopted in the 16th century, when it was printed in 1583 by Dionysius Gothofredus under the title "Corpus Juris Civilis". The legal thinking behind the Corpus Juris Civilis served as the backbone of the single largest law reform of the modern age, the Napoleonic Code, which marked the abolition of feudalism.

The Corpus Juris Civilis was translated into French, German, and Spanish in the 19th century. However, no English translation of the entire CJC existed until 1932 when S.P. Scott's version was published. Unfortunately, Scott did not base his translation on the best available Latin versions, and his work was severely criticized. Fortunately, Fred. H. Blume did use the best-regarded Latin editions for his translation of the Code and the Novels (Novellae Constitutiones).