PANDECTS
440-
PANDECTS
only to the Roman jurists, 'llicv are the safest inter-
preters of ovir own laws: they lend their si)iril to our
usages, their reason to our customs; and, by the prin-
ciples they give us, serve as our guides even when wc
walk in paths that were unknown to them." Of the
Pandects, Prost de Royer says: "It is an innnense edi-
fice, without distribution, without proportion, with-
out ensemble. The pediments have disappeared, the
columns are broken, the statues arc nnitilated: it is
no longer imposing by its grandeur, by the beauty of
its parts, by the richness of its details. After so many
centuries, the digging goes on, as our artists still go
to seek rules and models among the ruins of Palmyra,
of .Vthens and of Rome."
Hastily compiled by Tribonian and his associates (in a scant three years) from the writings of thirty- nine eminent jurisconsults, the Pandects leave much to be desired in arrangement and abound in repeti- tions and antinomies. The arrangement, which fol- lows that of the Perpetual Edict, is historical or tra- ditional, rather than scientific. The adjective, or remedial, element dominates the classification. Al- though more rights were actually defined or capable
res vel ad actiones" (Every right which we enjoy con-
cerns either persons, or tilings or actions) is not an
Aristotelean division of law, was not so regarded by
Gaius himself, and was given no importance as a canoii
of classification by the compilers of the Digest.
The Florentine MS. — The rediscovery of the Pisan, or Florentine, MS. of the Pandects has been regarded as the critical secular event for modern civilization by those who associate the revival of Roman law with the legend of Amalfi. Charlemagne, who destroyed the Lombard monarchy (c. 800), was unable to find a copy of the works of Justinian. Yves de Chart res, three centuries later, mentions fragments, and shortly after his death the legendary narrative begins. Pothier accepts it and relates the circumstances in which the "complete copy of the Pandects emerged from the shadows of the tomb as by a miracle of Divine Providence". During the siege of Amalfi (about 1136 or 1137), the Emperor Lothair II, sustaining the cause of Innocent II against Roger, Count of Sicily, cham- pion of the anti-pope Pietro Pierleone (see Anacletus II), recovered the priceless MS. and gave it to the Pisans as a reward for their great service in furnishing
c
- ^lu59uouiinpap.LieUc>peps'ONxsf epL
ri NeTU^Uc>pcSueixc)xctiOMe5
n^ THE Florentine MS. of the Pandects
of definition in the Roman legal system than is even
now possible in the Common Law System, no classi-
fication based upon rights was evolved. The thing
classified was an actual system of law, and the only
principles of arrangement were those of tradition and
convenience. Neither the jurists nor the compilers
were concerned with theoretical jurisprudence. The
materials of the Digest were not written into a contin-
uous text. The fragments give the name of the jurist
and the book from which they are taken. This method
was designed to perpetuate the fame of the jurists and
we thus enjoy a certain familiarity with them, al-
though their writings for the greater part have
perished. There are four hundred and thirty-two
"titles" contained in the fifty books of the Digest.
The whole is divided into seven parts: the first, called
TpuTo, has four books (I-IV); the second, "De judi-
ciis", seven books (V-XI); the third, "De rebus",
eight books (XII-XIX); the fourth, "L^mbihcus",
eight books (XX-XXVII); the fifth, "De testa-
mentis", nine books (XXVIII-XXXVI); the sixth,
with a great variety of matters, eight liooks (XXXVII-
XLIV); the seventh part, six books (XLV-L). The
sixth and seventh parts seem to have had no special
designation. This division into seven parts was never
of practical importance.
The later, or occidental, arbitrary division adopted by the glossators during the Mi<ldle Ages was probably due to the order of time in which the materials be- came available for the production of a complete vul- gate text. The division was as follows: "Digestum vetus" (bk. I-XXIV, tit. 2); the "Infortiatum" (bk. XXIV, tit. 3,— XXXV, tit. 2, 582); the "Tres partes" (bk. XXXV, tit. 2. 583— XXXVIII); the "Digestum novum" (bk. XXXIX-L). The vulgate MSS. are in three volumina (the "Infortiatum" with the "Tres
f)artes"). The first printed editions follow this value- es-o division, and it was abandoned only in the seven- teenth century. The celebrated fragment from Gaius (a facsimile of which, as it appears in the Florentine MS., is shown in the accompanying illustration): "Omne jus quo utimur pertinet vel ad personas vel ad
him a fleet. A Pisan historian claims to have seen the
original deed of gift. The MS. was long treasured at
Pisa, but at last fell into the hands of the victorious
Florentines, who carried it away in triumph in the
early fifteenth century. It was preserved with great
veneration in the ducal palace at Florence, as an ori-
ginal written in the time of Justinian and by him sent
to Amalfi. About the time of the fabled finding at
Amalfi, a copy of the Code and a second copy of the
Pandects were unearthed at Ravenna.
The sacking of Amalfi (according to the tradition) led to the founding, by Irnerius of the first and most famous school, that of Bologna, and was the beginning of the revival. Sigonius gave his authority to the story, and it was generally credited until 1726, when Grandi, a Pisan professor, seriously questioned it. The revival of the study of Roman law was well under way at Ravenna and at Bologna long before the alleged sacking of Amalfi and the immediate school of Irne- rius had reached its zenith before the year 1118. It is an established fact that there was a very ancient MS. at Pisa, that this MS. was brought to Florence in 1406 or 1411, and that it is still in existence. It is however a copy, not an original, and probably dates from about one hundred years after Justinian. Odo- fredus (d. 1265) says it was brought to Pi.sa from Con- stantinople; according to Barlolus (d. 13.57), it had always been at Pisa. That it ever was at Amalfi is improbable, and the legend is supported only by Pisan chronicles. Laferriere maintains that the story is true. Savigny and Ortolan reject it. Ortolan argues that if Irnerius and the early glossators be- came acquainted with it only as the result of the sack- ing of Amalfi, they would not have passed over so momentous an event in silence.
The Vulr/olc. — By comijarison of earlier MSS. then extant with each other ami with the MS. at Pisa, the glossators reconstructed the generally received text of Bologna, known as the Vulgate.
Pnndeklen. — In the sixteenth century the Roman law was received in Germany and became the positive common law. The law of the Pandekten in the special
