the owners of them were ignorant of their value. Soon after the study of the civil law had, however, been resumed in Italy, several ancient treatises connected with it were brought to light, not always as newly discov ered treasures, but as treasures of which the real worth had been then, for the first time, ascertained. When it is considered that the original works from which the materials of this com pilation are for the most part lost, and that such as have been in some degree preserved, consist only of imperfect and disjointed frag ments, the digest cannot fail to be viewed as a truly invaluable treasure, and the discovery of it as the most memorable event in the his tory of modern jurisprudence. This accounts for the almost superstitious veneration in which the original copy, supposed to have been found at Amalfi, was invariably held. After the siege and capture of Pisa in 1406, it was transmitted to Florence, where it has ever since been preserved. It was formerly kept, not in the usual depository for works of literature, but amongst the most choice jewels and treasures of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany; and never submitted to the inspec tion of the curious, but in the presence of the chief magistrate of the city, accompanied by a procession of monks bearing torches, who all stood uncovered before it with the same reverence as if it had been an object of reli gious worship. A special permission from the Grand Duke was long necessary in order to obtain a sight of it; and even now that it has been removed to the Lorenzo-Meclicean library, it can only be beheld by casual visit ors through the glass case in which it is care fully treasured. Independently of the peculiar circum stances which originally gave to this particu
lar copy of the Pandects an importance greater than it possessed, it unquestionably remains to this day the most valuable existing docu ment connected with the civil law. Numer ous faults, occasioned by the ignorance or negligence of the copyist, have been detected in it; but its antiquity and its general correct ness must, nevertheless, always entitle it to claim a greater degree of authority than any other of the editions of the same work, which, indeed, have probably all been directly or in directly transcribed from it. In all cases of disputed text, the Florentine manuscript has been invariably appealed to for decision; and some of the learned have not hesitated to account it one of the most memorable and fortunate events of their life that it has been their lot to catch even a hasty glimpse of it. The most illustrious civilian of the sixteenth century, Cujacius, offered to furnish a de posit of 2,000 crowns of gold (a sum equiva lent to £1,200 of our money), together with the security of the Duke of Savoy, in order to obtain the loan of it during a few months; and, it is said, that to the end of his. life he constantly regretted the failure of this appli cation, which Cosmo the First is supposed to have refused, partly in the hope that so celebrated a lawyer might thereby be induced to fix his residence at Florence. Although the discovery of the Pandects has incorrectly been represented as the orig inal cause which first occasioned the revival of the study of Roman law, yet there can be little doubt that it lent a new and powerful impulse to the ardor of such as had already begun to cultivate an acquaintance with it; and even induced many to embark in the same pursuit, who, without this stimulus, might never have devoted themselves to it.
— The Law Times.
