Annotated Justinian Code in PDF
The Annotated Justinian Code website, put together at the end of 2007 by Tim Kearley, Director of the George W. Hopper Law library at the University of Wyoming, contains PDFs of Justice Fred Blume’s copiously annotated (4,500+ pages) English translation of Justinian’s Code-the only English translation made from the Latin version regarded as most authoritative. (Scott’s heavily criticized translation was made from another Latin version.)
The site also contains: Blume’s scanned translation of the Novels; his 100+ page “The Code of Justinian, and it’s Value” -an address he delivered part of to the Riccobono Society in 1938 but which has never been published; and a few other Blume-related items.
In january 2009, he posted a second edition of their Annotated Justinian Code website. The website looks the same as before, but the contents of nearly every element have been revised.
The introduction to the second edition explains the changes. Suffice it here to say that the most important changes are additions and corrections to the transcription of the Code translation itself. In particular, Tim has added the rest of the marginal notes Justice Blume had made in his manuscript but that were omitted from the first edition due to time pressures. Many of these were question marks or brief comments indicating an uncertainty about his translation. Whenever these occurred, S. P. Scott’s translation of the passage have been added for purposes of comparison.
There is also a link to the first edition of the Annotated Justinian Code in order that it not go “out of print,”as it were; thus, it remains available for reference and comparison.
In january 2010, the University of Wyoming Law library posted re-scanned versions of Justice Blume’s English translation of Justinian’s Novels in their Annotated Justinian Code web site.
This new edition is much more legible than the first, which was scanned at very low resolution. The new edition has been edited so that all the chapters in each novel are now in their proper order.
In addition, the following material has been added to the website: 1) one table showing Code provisions affected by the novels; 2) another table, by novel, showing the Code provision it affects; 3) a Novel’s timeline; and 4) an article (which is to be published in this summer’s Law Library Journal) entitled “The Creation and Transmission of Justinian’s Novels.”
This is a great effort making the Novels and Justice Blume’s materials available online.
For more information abaut the Code, see Justinian Code and Roman law in Lawi Encyclopedia.
Conclusion
Notes
See Also
References and Further Reading
About the Author/s and Reviewer/s
Author: international
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