[JUSTINIAN]. THEOPHILUS, professor of law (6th century).
[Greek title.] Institutiones iuris civilis in Graecam linguam per Theophilum Antecessorum olim traductae.
Paris, Christian Wechel, 1534. The Institutes of Justinian, in a Greek version intended for use in the East. This is the second edition, a Paris reprint of the Basel edition of earlier the same year.The author of this Greek translation or paraphrase, is almost certainly the same Theophilus who was one of the lawyers of Constantinople employed by Justinian on the composition of the Institutes. The paraphrase was evidently made shortly after the promulgation of the Institutes in AD 533 and became the standard text for the Institutes in the East, where the Latin language was little known, and entirely displaced the Latin original. It maintained itself as a manual of law until the 10th century, though others were subsequently published by the Greek emperors. It is important for the study of the texts of the Institutes, many passages of which would be unintelligible without it.
[Bookseller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd.]
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