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by Th.E. van Bochove / University of Groningen
Sections:
I. Preliminary works, story, and completion of the Groningen Basilica edition
II. Consulting, reading, and quoting the Basilica cum scholiis
III. Evaluation and significance of the Basilica cum scholiis
IV. Critical editions of texts relating to the Basilica and recently discovered Basilica testimonies
V. Manuscript tradition of the Basilica cum scholiis
VI. Studies pertaining to the the Basilica cum scholiis
VII. Legal education and antecessores
It goes without saying that the most important subsidia for consulting the Basilica cum scholiis are B.H. Stolte’s Online Praefatio and the respective front matter of each volume of both the Series A (Textus) and the Series B (Scholia) of the edition. It concerns:
Equally important are the indices and tables of contents at the end of every volume. All this material is now easily accessible via the Online edition of the Basilica cum scholiis. Further subsidia are:
The value of these works is limited, as they are entirely based on Heimbach’s nineteenth-century Basilica edition. Moreover, many of Heimbach’s views have been superseded by modern research. Therefore, the Prolegomena and the Manuale are to be consulted with due caution.
As this translation accompanies Heimbach’s own nineteenth-century Basilica edition, it must be used with due caution.
Very recently, the Department of Legal History of the Faculty of Law of Groningen University embarked upon a new research project ultimately aiming at legally disclosing the Basilica cum scholiis. The project will eventually also result in a translation of the Basilica cum scholiis into English, and in a lexicon containing legal technical terms occurring in both the Basilica text and the scholia.
It concerns translations of the sources underlying the Basilica text: the Code, the Digest, and the Novels. Only the most recent translations have been taken into account.
English translation:
Dutch translation:
German translation (work in progress):
There is as yet no special lexicon covering all legal termini technici occurring in the Basilica cum scholiis. However, the following lexica may offer assistance. See also the section Legal language and technical terms below.
An important subsidiary is provided by the Byzantinische Zeitschrift which appears every year in two issues. Every issue contains a bibliographical part styled III. Abteilung. Bibliographische Notizen und Mitteilungen, which also covers Byzantine law: 10. Byzantinisches Recht. Within this section, in particular under the heading B. Weltliches Recht, b. Texte und Literatur zu Quellen, literature can be found that has not been incorporated into the present Basilica Online Bibliography.
It should be observed that the present section lists two categories of Basilica testimonia. The first category consists of testimonia already used by the editors of the Groningen Basilica edition. The testimonies belonging to this category have only been mentioned in sofar a new critical edition saw the light of day: it concerns the Ecloga Basilicorum, the Rhopai, the Tractatus de actionibus and the Tractatus de peculiis. For an overview of all testimonies used by the editors of the Groningen edition, including e.g. the Tipucitus and the Synopsis Basilicorum Maior, see B.H. Stolte, Online Praefatio, passim; and the Conspectus operum ex quibus testimonia laudantur in the front matter of every volume of the Series A of the Groningen Basilica edition. The second category consists of testimonies either unknown to the editors, or not used by them. Some of the testimonies in this category were discovered only recently.
Lacking in the Groningen edition. See also Nos. [167] – [171] below.
In the Groningen edition, the first book of the Basilica is based on testimonies of the text. See also Nos. [184] – [187] below.
New critical edition of this Basilica book.
Lacking in the Groningen edition. See also Nos. [173] – [183] below.
New critical edition of this testimonium of the Basilica text.
New critical edition of this testimonium of the Basilica text.
New critical edition of this testimonium of the Basilica text.
New critical edition of this testimonium of the Basilica text.
The palimpsest manuscript cod. rescr. Berolinensis gr. Fol. 28 olim Constantinopolitanus – transmitting the Basilica books 15-18, accompanied by old scholia – was deemed lost after the second World War, but has resurfaced in Cracow; it is presently known as codex rescriptus Krakoviensis Jagiellońska 28/266 (Burgmann/Fögen/Schminck/Simon, RHBR I (No. [87] above), p. 117 No. 92; see also B.H. Stolte in the Online Praefatio, passim). Zachariä von Lingenthal based his 1846 edition of B. 15-18 on this manuscript; see the reference under No. [96] below.
See also Nos. [139] – [144] below.
Recent discovery of palimpsest manuscripts in the framework of the EU funded international project Rinascimento virtuale – Digitale Palimpsestforschung: codex rescriptus Vindobonensis Supplementum graecum 200, ff. 1-48, handing down parts from the books 21 – 26 and 28 – 29 of the Basilica, and the Florilegium Basilicorum Vindobonense, the scriptura inferior of codex Vindobonensis hist. gr. 10, containing parts of and extracts from the books 2, 3, 5 – 10, 16 and 19 of the Basilica.
A bifolium containing B. 3,1,8-9 with unknown scholia.
The books 19, 30 – 37, 43 – 44, and 53 – 57 of the Basilica lack direct manuscript transmission. In the Groningen edition, these books are restituted on the basis of testimonies of the Basilica text.
The name Basilica is derived from the Greek phrase τὰ βασιλικὰ νόμιμα ‘the imperial laws’. The phrase refers to a large compilation of laws which came into existence in the later ninth century, during the reign of emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-912). However, according to the German scholar A. Schminck, the Basilica did not originate during the reign of Leo the Wise. Schminck rather differentiated between a large compilation of laws issued in Leo’s day – work on this compilation would have been completed shortly before Christmas of the year 888 – and referred to as the Sixty Books, and the Basilica which came into being some 150 years later.[6] The Basilica would have been compiled at the faculty of law in Constantinople, which was initiated by emperor Constantine IX Monomachos in the middle of the eleventh century – probably in the year 1047 – and headed by the νομοφύλαξ John Xiphilinos. The phrase τὰ βασιλικά, used as a noun, would go back to a personal preference of John Xiphilinus.
In their resp. preface, these two law books contain information that is of vital importance regarding the genesis of the text of the Basilica in the later ninth century. However, the status, and in particular the date of the law books is heavily disputed. The Prochiron is traditionally dated to the first part of the reign of emperor Basil the Macedonian (867-886), in the years 870-879: it was possibly promulgated on 1 December 872. The Eisagoge is traditionally dated to the second part of Basil’s reign, in the years between 879 and 886, with a further specification in the period between 3 March 880 and the summer of 883 (Van Bochove). It was Schminck, however, who reversed the chronological order of the two law books, partly in order to solve a major problem concerning the genesis of the Basilica as referred to in the two prefaces. With regard to the Eisagoge, Schminck argued in favour of a date in 885, or rather in 886, before 29 August of that year. Most recently, he proposed 15 May 886 as the date of publication. With regard to the Prochiron, Schminck argued in favour of a date in the year 907, thus during the reign of Leo the Wise, the successor of Basil the Macedonian. In his turn, the Spanish scholar J. Signes Codoñer turned the hands of the clock back again, at least partly. For, regarding the Prochiron he opted again for a date in the period between 870-879, and possibly even 1 December 872. However, he also argued in favour of a revision of the Prochiron effectuated some time after the death of Leo the Wise in 912 (possibly during the reign of his brother Alexander), leading to a second edition of the law book. As regards the Eisagoge, Signes Codoñer opted for a date between 880 and 886. The status of the Eisagoge is uncertain: there are good arguments in favour of an official promulgation (Schminck, Van Bochove), but it is also possible that the law book remained draft law (Signes Codoñer).
The major problem mentioned in the previous section consists of the following. If the traditional chronology of the Prochiron and the Eisagoge is accepted, then there are reports concerning no less than three extensive compilations of laws. Two of these were compiled during the reign of Basil the Macedonian. The first of these two is a compilation in 60 books, referred to in the preface to the Prochiron, the second a compilation in 40 books, mentioned in the preface to the Eisagoge. The third and final compilation in again 60 books is attributed to Leo the Wise: the Basilica. By modern day standards, three extensive compilations of laws all dating from the later ninth century would seem to be too much of a good thing. Various attempts have been made to shed light on this matter. Schminck’s solution, for instance, consisted of the proposed new dating of the Prochiron to the year 907, thereby implying that the preface to this law book would refer to Leo’s Basilica / Sixty Books. The solution advocated by Signes Codoñer consisted of the assumption that the Prochiron was revised during Leo’s reign, and that in the second edition of the law book (the result of the revision) several additions were made to the Prochiron, including the final paragraph of its preface with its reference to a compilation of laws in 60 books. In this case, too, this compilation would have to be identified as Leo’s Basilica. Both the proposed dating of the Prochiron to 907 and the assumption of the addition of the final paragraph to the Prochiron preface have proven to be susceptible to criticism. Moreover, the most recent development in this whole issue is the discovery and identification of extensive remains of a compilation of laws in 60 books that must have preceded the Basilica of Leo the Wise. The compilation of laws in 40 books remains an enigma, as no trace of it has yet been found. See the study by Van Bochove under No. [135]. It should be added that the Groningen edition of the Basilica does not take into account consecutive versions, the existence of which can be glimpsed quite clearly. What has been edited by H.J. Scheltema, D. Holwerda and N. van der Wal is in their view the most recent version, viz. the text of Leo’s Basilica to which the scholia were added later.
Florilegium Ambrosianum and divisions of the Basilica into four and into six τεύχη
The Florilegium Ambrosianum is an extensive anthology of fragments originating from nearly all 60 books of what is now known as the text of the Basilica, preserved in the tenth-century scriptura inferior of cod. rescr. Ambros. F 106 sup. The Florilegium is one of the testimonies underlying the Groningen edition of the Basilica cum scholiis. See also Nos. [97] and [98] above.
There are reports concerning divisions of the text of the Basilica into four and into six τεύχη, a τεῦχος being a volume consisting of more than one book. Both divisions relate to compilations of laws comprising 60 books. The division into four τεύχη has left traces in cod. Paris. gr. 1357 and especially in notes attached to the tables of contents of the Florilegium Ambrosianum. The division into six τεύχη is referred to in the preface to the Basilica, lines 27-28 (ed. Schminck, Studien (No. [70] above), p. 22), and in the younger scholia to the Basilica. Recent research has established that the division into four τεύχη precedes the division of the Basilica into six volumes: the division into four τεύχη can only relate to the compilation of laws in sixty books mentioned in the final paragraph of the Prochiron preface.
The phrase τὸ πλάτος (τῶν νόμων) frequently occurs in Byzantine legal texts, the prefaces to the Prochiron and the Eisagoge included. Until now, a systematic and comprehensive study dealing with the expression is sadly still missing. The phrase τὸ πλάτος (τῶν νόμων) would sometimes seem to refer to the Basilica, but other, clearly different texts are indicated as well.
In the Groningen edition, the first book of the Basilica is based on testimonies of the text, despite the existence of two strongly divergent versions of this book in two manuscripts: the codd. Coisl. gr. 151 and Paris. gr. 1352. In editing the text of B. 1, H.J. Scheltema and N. van der Wal followed the considerations put forward by Zachariä von Lingenthal in the latter’s study cited below. See also Nos. [71] and [72] above.
Regarding the Basilica scholia, there are two separate groups to be distinguished. The first group consists of the so-called older scholia. These scholia are essentially nothing more than extracts and text fragments originating from legal works written by the antecessores and σχολαστικοί in the sixth- and early seventh centuries. It concerns text fragments not adopted into the Basilica text. The older scholia pertain to the same passages from the Digest, the Code, and the Novels as those underlying the Basilica text. Thus, the older scholia refer directly to the various parts of the sixth century legislation of Justinian. The second group consists of the younger scholia. These scholia are explanations and notes specifically written for the Basilica text. The younger scholia allude directly to the text of the Basilica which was compiled in the later ninth century. For the question how to distinguish between the older and the younger Basilica scholia, see Nos. [10] – [16] above.
There has been much debate regarding the questions when, and with what purpose both groups of scholia were added to the text of the Basilica. The answer to the question ‘when’ varied from the tenth – or even late ninth – to the eleventh and twelfth centuries: it tended to depend on the individual scholar’s point of view whether the older and younger scholia were added to the Basilica text in separate groups at different times, or together at the same time. It has been argued that in the latter case, the specific purpose of the addition of the scholia was to form a continuous commentary, sometimes referred to as a catena or glossa ordinaria, on the Basilica text. It was the German scholar Schminck who argued that the older and the younger scholia always occur together in all Basilica manuscripts – thus, that there would be no Basilica manuscript exclusively containing old scholia –, and that there are no traces to be found of a catena commentary on the Basilica text in the legal literature of the tenth- and the first decades of the eleventh centuries. Thus, the theory according to which the older and the younger scholia would have been added to the Basilica text separately at completely different times would not be very plausible. Rather, the older and numerous younger scholia would have been added together, at the same time, viz. towards to mid-eleventh century, in order to form a continuous commentary on the Basilica text. All this would have happened under the direction of the νομοφύλαξ John Xiphilinos at the school of law initiated by emperor Constantine IX Monomachos. However, recent research has shown that there is more than enough reason to hold on to the traditional point of view that the older and the younger scholia were indeed added to the Basilica text separately at completely different times, if only because there is at least one Basilica manuscript exclusively containing old scholia: cod. Paris. gr. 1349.
The studies listed below do not all directly relate to the Basilica cum scholiis, and the technical terms occurring in them. However, the studies in the present section are important in that they elucidate the way in which the Byzantines themselves dealt with legal termini technici. In this respect, special mention should be made of Volume VIII of the Fontes Minores in its entirety, a thematic issue provided with its own title Lexica Iuridica Byzantina, edited by L. Burgmann, M.Th. Fögen, R. Meijering, and B.H. Stolte, (Forschungen zur byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte, Band 17), Frankfurt/M. 1990. The volume is also important for its elaborate and extensive indices. The individual studies published in the volume are listed separately below. The studies appearing in the present section also illustrate the history of the technical terms in the lexicography up to the present day, and are indicative of the problems facing the compilers of a new Byzantine lexicon of purely legal terms. See also the section Subsidia. 5) Lexica above.
1) The κατὰ πόδας is not exactly a Greek translation of the Latin text of the Justinian Code, but rather some sort of glossary, a verbatim Greek rendering, in the manuscripts originally written between the lines of the Latin text of the Code, in this way that each Latin word corresponded with a Greek equivalent – or sometimes even two – written directly above it. The κατὰ πόδας was used by the antecessor Thalelaeus (see Nos. [] – [] below) as an auxiliary in his lectures on the Code. Extensive fragments of the κατὰ πόδας have been transmitted via the older Basilica scholia.
2) The Authenticum is the mirror image of the Greek κατὰ πόδας of the Justinian Code. In essence, it is a Latin κατὰ πόδας of the Greek Novels of Justinian. The origin of the Authenticum lies in a bilingual collection of Novels: the Latin κατὰ πόδας was written between the lines of the Greek original, in such a way that every Latin word corresponded exactly with the Greek word right below it. The antecessor Julianus (see Nos. [442] – [451] below) used the Authenticum as an auxiliary in his Latin course on the Justinian Novels. At a moment which can no longer be specified, the Authenticum was detached from its original: scribes started to copy only the Latin text, which was subsequently handed down independently.
1) Κατὰ πόδας
2) Authenticum
Justinian’s professors of law, and lawyers working directly after his reign, up to and including the early seventh century.
The antecessor Anatolius’ commentary on the Justinian Code – fragments of which survive in the Basilica scholia – has mainly been transmitted via the Excerpta Vaticana et Laurentiana.
Athanasius σχολαστικός, lawyer from Emesa (Homs) in Syria, is mainly known through his Syntagma of the Novels of Justinian, which has been transmitted independently from the Basilica scholia.
The antecessor Julianus is the author of a completely preserved Latin index of Justinian’s Greek Novels, known under the title Juliani Epitome Latina Novellarum Justiniani. Julianus also produced two sets of notes. The first of these is known under the name Scholia anonyma in constitutiones aliquot: it is incomplete. The second – complete – set consists of short comments which are known as Paratitla. The relation between the Scholia and the Paratitla is unclear. See also the section on the Authenticum (Nos. [375] – [380]).
Theodorus σχολαστικός, lawyer from Hermopolis in the Thebaid in Upper-Egypt, is the author of a commentary on the Justinian Code. However, he is chiefly known through his Breviarium of the Novels of Justinian, which has reached the present day in its entirety, independently from the Basilica scholia.
The antecessor Theophilus is the author of a commentary on the Digest, covering only a limited number of books, numerous fragments of which survive via the Basilica scholia. However, Theophilus is better known through his Paraphrasis Institutionum, the Greek Paraphrase of the Institutes of Justinian, which has survived completely, and independently from the Basilica scholia.[10]
Notes:
It is now almost thirty years since the last volume of the ‘Groningen edition’ of the Basilica was published. The edition has been out of print for at least ten years now. It is here published in digital form. The text and scholia have been available in digital form for some time now in the databank Thesaurus Linguae Graecae of Irvine. That format has three defects when compared to the printed edition: it has no critical apparatus, no prefaces, and the length of lines of fragments is not the same, which makes references to longer fragments differ from those that have been and are being made to the printed edition. All this is set to rights here, and those who prefer to consult a digital edition will no longer need to worry about differences.
What was and still is lacking in the printed edition is Prolegomena to the entire work. In 1981 the preparations of the last volume had been completed. Two weeks later Herman Jan Scheltema (1906-1981), the auctor intellectualis and guiding spirit of the enterprise, passed away. His younger colleagues Douwe Holwerda (1920-2011) and Nicolaas van der Wal (1925-2015), who had participated in the editorial work from its early stages, saw the last volume through the press, which then was presented in 1988.[1] With the death of the last surviving member of the editorial equipe, the task of providing them has definitively fallen to the next generation, and the present author cannot but feel humbled and honoured before the task that he faces.[2]
I have preferred to give it the title of Praefatio instead of Prolegomena, to avoid the impression that it pretends to offer the sort of Prolegomena Scheltema would have written himself. Perhaps it should be called an interim report, necessitated by the present occasion. The task of writing has been much lightened by the writings left by Scheltema,[3] Van der Wal[4] and Holwerda, who between them took half a century to finish a work deemed impossible when Scheltema first hinted at his proposed edition. His point of departure was the defects of the 19th-century edition by Heimbach,[5] defects that could only be remedied by doing the work all over again. His plan was received by the scholarly community in some amazement and disbelief, and one of its members correctly diagnosed that ‘[Scheltema] would probably be deaf to advice’. In short, he was going the long and arduous path alone, assisted by two young scholars who were to rise to become distinguished professors in their own right. Fortunately, Scheltema lived to see the last volume finished, though not yet printed.[6]
In one respect Heimbach’s edition still may be consulted with some profit. It contains a facing Latin translation and thus is the only help for those who read Greek with difficulty or not at all. Its user should of course be aware of the fact that the Greek text offered by Scheltema cum suis is not always the same as, and sometimes at considerable variance with, the text given by Heimbach. In the forty years between the first and last volume of the Scheltema edition the spread of knowledge of Greek and Latin has decreased considerably. It is now to be doubted whether a Latin translation in the humanist tradition would have sufficed. The fall in linguistic competence of the potential users of his edition had of course been noticed by Scheltema, who had no use for rear-guard fights; he was in fact one of the first Dutch professors of Roman law to abandon the requisite of Latin for his students. By then, however, it was too late to change the principles of the edition. An English translation of the work is under consideration and, if funding can be found, may yet be supplied in the future.
In 1865 C.G.E. Heimbach died, before his Prolegomena were published. They were found in his desk, written in Latin of course, and published posthumously five years later.[7] Their content covers much more than the usual preliminary material of a critical edition. Indeed, the larger part consists of a history of the sources of Byzantine law. Let it be clearly understood that the present Praefatio is not aiming to offer a similar introduction to the Groningen edition. That is not to say that the subject of Heimbach’s Prolegomena was unimportant or in any sense mistaken. On the contrary, it was much needed at the time and as such a piece of incredible scholarship. Their contents, however, have been largely superseded by the histories of the sources of Graeco-Roman or Byzantine law that have been written in various modern languages,[8] and several of Heimbach’s conclusions have been modified or even refuted by the evidence of the new edition anyway. The Bibliography by Thomas van Bochove accompanying this digital edition offers an update of literature on most of the subjects dealt with by Heimbach. Rather the present Praefatio sets out to introduce this edition in the strict sense, as much as possible avoiding repetition of what is available elsewhere. It will focus on the textual tradition, previous editions and the principles of this one. While the succession of volumes was being published, manuscripts were discovered relating to parts already covered, and a few more emerged or were made accessible after the completion of the edition. Obviously these had not been dealt with in the prefaces to the individual volumes. This additional material will be discussed at the end.
One of the items on that agenda would also be a revision of Heimbach’s Manuale Basilicorum, another admirable achievement of 19th-century scholarship. It continues the pagination of his Prolegomena, with which it is often found bound in the same volume. The Manuale gives for every chapter of the Justinianic Corpus iuris the corresponding fragments of Byzantine scholarship as preserved in the Basilica and other sources, with their alleged authors if transmitted. Here the same caveat applies as for Heimbach’s Latin translation, but at the moment the Manuale is still the best we have, much valued also by Scheltema.[9] Its usefulness deserves to be honoured by a revision.
Heimbach’s Prolegomena and Manuale both witness to the purpose of the edition. Not only was it meant to offer access to the most extensive source of Byzantine law, but it also, indeed above all, set out to make available a splendid tool for textual criticism of the Corpus iuris civilis and for its interpretation in the sixth and later centuries. The same idea had been the inspiration of scholarship since the Humanists. In the late 1930s, Scheltema was as persuaded of its potential as his predecessors had been. He thought their results could be improved upon, and set to work.
The present Praefatio sets out to give a user of the edition, legal historian or no, the usual preliminary material of a critical edition, plus some context. Where possible, I have tried to let Scheltema speak, in a language he would never have used himself. Translations are always between quotation-marks, also in footnotes; if they are lacking in a footnote referring to such a translation, it is not a footnote written by the author of the original text, but by the undersigned. If in references to the Quellengeschichte[10] preference seems to have been given to the Delineatio, this is (also) since, unsurprisingly, it best reflects the views of the editors.
Finally, to facilitate accessing the Basilica for those who are primarily interested in their relation with the Corpus iuris civilis, a concordance has been added. It is in fact a consolidated version of the eight Conspectus titulorum legum Iustinianarum qui in hoc volumine commentantur at the end of each volume of the Series A and incorporates the Conspectus titulorum legum Iustinianarum qui in voluminibus Series B commentantur, which is found at the end of volume B IX.
Byzantine law[11] is dominated by Justinianic law (the Corpus iuris civilis). Soon, the mainly Latin legislation was de facto replaced by Greek translations and summaries, most of them stemming from the class-rooms of the antecessores,[12] although de iure the original texts were binding. The Basilica, promulgated circa 900 by the emperor Leo VI the Wise, contain an official rendering in Greek, and reorganisation of, Justinianic law. The reorganisation of the material facilitates access to its content: under each subject (titulus, as indicated by its rubrica), the relevant titles of Digest and Code were represented by a Greek version, followed by, where apposite, the (pertinent passages from the) Novels. The Basilica were not a codification in the modern sense of the word. Not until 1175, when the emperor Manuel Comnenus in fact gave them that status, did they legally replace the Corpus iuris.[13] Their extremely close relation with the Justinianic texts became even closer when other Greek versions and commentaries originating in the sixth and early seventh centuries were written in the margins of Basilica manuscripts by way of elucidation of the summaries that had been selected for the Basilica text.
Scheltema has defended this opinion, which is also found in the Delineatio of his pupils Van der Wal and Lokin[14] and has been rendered in concise form in the preceding paragraph, in a series of papers which are easily found in his Opera minora. Their titles speak for themselves: ‘Probleme der Basiliken’ (1939), ‘Ueber die Natur der Basiliken’ (1955), ‘Ueber die angebliche Anonymuskatene’ (1957), ‘Über die Scholienapparate der Basiliken’ (1960), to name but four of the most illustrative ones, not to mention the eighteen Subseciva and the Antécesseurs (1970), also reprinted in the Opera minora. The extremely concise Subseciva and the Antécesseurs exploit the Basilica and their scholia to the full for information about Justinian’s legislation. For a full appreciation of a lifetime’s work resulting in the seventeen volumes of text and scholia one has to read the Opera minora. Form and content of the edition reflect Scheltema’s view of the genesis and purpose of the Basilica.
Of the sixty books, no less than sixteen[15] have not been preserved in direct transmission. Insofar as they have left traces, it is through testimonia in other texts. Generally speaking, previous editors have been more audacious in their reconstructions of these lost books than Scheltema cum suis. Only when the editors were convinced that a text was a genuine literal quotation of the Basilica did they admit it to their libri restituti. We will return to the problem below.
The transmission of the other 44 books is by no means rich. Most books have been preserved in one or two manuscripts only, and in some cases these manuscripts are palimpsests that in the past have been treated with chemicals, much to the detriment of their conservation. Scheltema, Holwerda and Van der Wal had to make do with the manuscripts known at the time. The following sections give an overview of the manuscripts and other sources they have used for the present edition.
Although the prefaces of individual volumes contain brief descriptions of the manuscripts, there is not even a full list. Moreover, sometimes these descriptions extend over more than one volume. It had been intended by Scheltema to give extensive descriptions in the Prolegomena.[16] In the individual prefaces the information has been restricted to what was considered necessary. In practice this meant brief notes on those that had been unknown to Heimbach and even briefer ones (res maxime necessarias) on those that had already been dealt with in Heimbach’s Prolegomena.[17] However, we now have not only Heimbach’s Prolegomena, but also the Frankfurt Repertorium of Byzantine legal manuscripts.[18] The latter, however, does not systematically include palimpsests, which play an important part in our knowledge of the transmission of the text. There is no way of knowing what Scheltema cum suis would have deemed useful for their Prolegomena. Against the background of information now available conveniently through the Repertorium, for the present purpose it seemed best to restrict the information to the barest minimum and extend it with references to Heimbach and RHBR, and highlight the findings of the Groningen editors where these diverge from those of Heimbach or concern manuscripts not known to Heimbach.
Ca |
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Coislinianus gr. 152, saec. XIII, contains Bas. XI-XIV. A II, Praef. p. v; Heimbach, Prol. 166; RHBR no. 203. |
Cb |
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Coislinianus gr. 151, saec. XIV, contains Bas. I-IX, without scholia. A I, Praef. p. v; Heimbach, Prol. 159-162; RHBR no. 202. Heimbach, following Montfaucon, had dated it to the 11th century, Scheltema attributed it to the 14th, in which he sided with Kroll, who ‘had discovered its real age in his preface to the edition of the Novels (cf. Corpus Iuris Civilis, edd. Mommsen-Krüger-Schoell-Kroll, vol. III, p. v)’ (A I, Praef., p. v, n. 2). |
F |
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Laurentianus LXXX,11, saec. XII, contains books XXVIII-XXIX with lacunae. A IV, Praef. p. v; Heimbach, Prol. 168-169; RHBR no. 71. |
H |
Escorial, Biblioteca, Scorialensis gr. R II 13, copied in 1574 by Andreas Darmarius from an older manuscript of the same library which contained books VII-VIII, now lost due to a fire in 1671. H contains book VIII. A I, Praef. p. v-vii; Heimbach, Prol. 164-166; RHBR no. 50. H (‘Haenelianus’) derives its siglum from the fact that it was in possession of Gustav Haenel for some time, until he, upon discovering that it had been stolen from the Escorial, returned it to that library. H is closely related to V (see below, on V). |
P |
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. gr. 1352, saec. XIII, contains Bas. I-XVIII,2,16. A I, II and III, Praef.; Heimbach, Prol. 162-164; RHBR no. 166. Various hands. At the beginning the text has been much shortened by the omission or severe summarising of many chapters. From book VII, however, it shows the complete text. At the end a few leaves are lacking. |
Pa |
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. gr. 1348, saec. XIII, contains Bas. XX-XXX,1,7,5 med. (τῶν μετὰ τοὺς καρποὺς περὶ). A III, Praef. p. v; Heimbach, Prol. 168; RHBR no. 161. Uneven distribution of scholia and insertion of some extraneous matter. |
Pb |
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. gr. 1345, saec. XII ex./XIII init., contains Bas. XXXVIII-XLII. A V, Praef., p. v; Heimbach, Prol. 169-170; RHBR no. 158. |
Pc |
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. gr. 1349, saec. XI, contains Bas. XLV-XLVIII and Index Reginae. A VI, Praef., p. v; Heimbach, Prol. 170-172; RHBR no. 162. |
Pd |
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. gr. 1357, saec. XV ex.,[18a] contains Index titulorum of Bas. XLVI-LX, and text of Bas. XLVI-LII. A VI, Praef., p. v-vi; Heimbach, Prol. 172-173; RHBR no. 166. |
Pe |
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. gr. 1350, saec. XII, contains Bas. LX. B VIII, Praef., p. vi-viii; A VIII, Praef., p. v-vi; Heimbach, Prol. 173-174; RHBR no. 163. |
V |
Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Vossianus gr. Fol. 19. A I, Praef. p. v-vii; Heimbach, Prol. 164-166; RHBR no. 96. Heimbach held the view that H and V both had been copied from the same lost original, whereas the Groningen editors established that V had been copied from H and therefore eliminated the Leiden manuscript as a codex descriptus: see A I, Praefatio, p. vi-vii. At that point they had already edited vol. B I from V; its scholia therefore were referred to from vol. A I. |
Va, Vb |
Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. gr. 903 rescr., the lower layer (saec. XI) containing remains of two different manuscripts, one (Va) with fragments of books II, III and IV, and the other (Vb) of books XI, XIII and XIV. A I, Praef. The palimpsest had been discovered by Van der Wal in 1953, and deciphered by the combined efforts of Van der Wal and Holwerda. The upper layer (saec. XIV) contains Homer’s Iliad, Α 62-Ω 587. Its leaves had been assembled from various older codices, two of which turned out to have been manuscripts of the Basilica. These had been palimpsested and folded into two, to the effect that the upper script runs transversely to the lower text. For details of Va, see A I, Praef. p. vii-ix; for Vb: see A I, Praef. p. vii-viii; A II, Praef. p. v. |
ΠΣ |
Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Vat. Pii Secundi gr. 15 rescr., has preserved palimpsested leaves from an older manuscript of the Basilica (saec. XI), containing books LVIII-LX. A VII, Praef., p. v-vii; B IX, Praef., p. v; in greatest detail A VIII, Praef. vi-xv, with references and a full reconstruction of the composition of the Basilica manuscript from which these leaves stem. |
Π |
Cracow, Biblioteka Jagiellonska, Krakoviensis 28/266 rescr., olim Berlin, Preußische Staatsbibliothek, Cod.gr. 28, antea Constantinople, S. Sepulchri. The lower layer (Π, saec. XII ex./XIII init.) contains books XV-XVIII with some lacunae. A II, Praef., p. v-xiii and B III, Praef., p. v-x; A III, Praef., p. vi; Zachariä, Reise in den Orient, p. 293; Idem, ANEKDOTON, p. iii-vii; Idem, Supplementum, p. iii-vii; Heimbach, Prol. 166-167; RHBR no. 92. |
Manuscript Π invites a longer explanation. In A II, which was published in 1956, Scheltema has the essential passages from Zachariä’s information in direct quotation. In the same year Pringsheim published his programmatic paper ‘Zum Plan einer neuen Ausgabe der Basiliken’, which was based on a report to the Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften in 1937, when the manuscript was still in Berlin and had been seen by the German scholar. Pringsheim — at the time obviously without knowledge of A II and its Praefatio — had confirmed the damage caused by chemical reagentia and the resulting illegibility of its pages, but stated in as many words that the quality of Zachariä’s efforts made up entirely for the loss. Scheltema had, of course, to answer Pringsheim’s remarks and did so in some detail in 1957 in the Praefatio of B III.
The fata of this manuscript are, in brief, as follows: Zachariä von Lingenthal had discovered this manuscript of the Monastery of the Holy Sepulchre in the Patriarchate in Constantinople in 1838, obtained permission to use it in Heidelberg and published the results in 1846.[19] In 1867 the manuscript was acquired by the Prussian State Library in Berlin, where it remained until it was either hidden by the Germans or perhaps taken as war booty by the Russians at the end of the Second World War. It seemed to have disappeared without trace until it resurfaced in the 1980s in Cracow,[20] where it has remained since then. As far as its use for editions of the Basilica is concerned, it had been unknown to Heimbach and unavailable to Scheltema cum suis. From this point we translate the words of the editors (p. xii-xiii):
‘Zachariä had made an apographum (Π) of the lower script, which became the basis for his edition (Z., Zach.)[21], in which he faithfully and carefully notes what was in Π and where. Thus it happens that we have an accurate knowledge of the apographum Π, although it has itself been lost.
At many places the text shown by Π has to be supplemented or corrected. Not only did the codex Sancti Sepulchri have defects, there were also some words that Zachariä read wrongly or could not read at all. To filling the lacunae and emending the corruptions he has already made a great contribution. Very frequently we have come to the conclusion that we had to incorporate his conjectures into our edition of the scholia.
As far as τὸ κείμενον [the text] is concerned, Z [the edition] does not faithfully render Π, which is most regrettable. Zachariä has in fact occasionally supplied the text of the Basilica, where Π left him, from the Heimbach edition, indeed also silently. This is apparent from the following examples:
The Praefatio of B III supplies a number of other passages, where in Scheltema’s opinion Zachariä had erred and again sets out how the user of the new edition could see the differences for himself.
Looking back on the edition, Scheltema claimed to have produced, without having been able to see the actual manuscript, a better edition of books XV-XVIII than Zachariä had given with the codex at hand, a feat for which he felt not to have been given the credit it deserved. In theory, we should now be able to check that claim, since we are able to study the manuscript in Cracow. Unfortunately, I have to confirm its extremely poor condition due to the chemicals which have been used by Zachariä and which he describes in the ΑΝΕΚΔΟΤΟΝ. We can only hope that the advances made by modern multispectral photography one day will enable us to read perhaps even more.[23]
In the case of the Basilica, testimonia are especially important as the only source from which to try and reconstruct the sixteen[24] lost books. The Roman lawyer is familiar with the example of the Twelve Tables, long lost but in part transmitted indirectly in the form of quotations and edited from testimonia. Testimonia of the Basilica are found in a wide variety of sources, from cross-references in the scholia of the Basilica to quotations in legal judgements, but also in other legal collections derived from the Basilica. Heimbach had divided the manuscripts of the Basilica into two classes: a prima classis of manuscripts which have preserved the text itself, in full or in summary or interpolated, the secunda classis containing just fragments of the text which had been connected with other summaries pertaining to the law.[25] This is in fact a blurred distinction between direct and indirect transmission.
When Scheltema started working, most texts had been edited, but by no means all to contemporary philological standards. In some cases the Groningen editors had to work directly from manuscripts: e.g., the Ecloga Basilicorum had not yet been edited[26] and of the Tipucitus only the first three volumes had appeared.[27] However, even when a text had been edited, they sometimes considered to have good reasons to go back to its manuscripts. In principle this was always done when they felt they could not rely on existing editions.[28]
For the various sources of testimonia the reader is referred to sections 5 and, insofar as discovered after the completion of the edition, 7. Generally speaking, the Groningen editors had more texts at their disposal than earlier editors, but apart from the accessibility of a testimonium, there is also the question of its representativeness for the original text. We shall see that they were more restrictive in that respect than their predecessors had been.
Previous editors have had to overcome the rather meagre supply of manuscripts signalled above. Although it seems that one or two manuscripts which scholars in the past had still seen are now no longer extant, they had altogether a vaguer grasp of the transmission of the text and fewer opportunities than is now the case. Fewer manuscripts were known and access to the ones they knew was hindered by the difficulties caused by laborious travelling and lack of photography. The succession of translations and editions — in that order !— up to his own efforts has been described by C.G.E. Heimbach,[29] and, from a different perspective by H.E. Troje.[30] The story begins in the sixteenth century with Viglius, Leunclavius and Cujacius, and this first phase is brought to a provisional conclusion in 1647, when C.A. Fabrot produced the first full Greek edition with Latin translation.[31] Full in the sense that he had aimed at providing the text of all sixty books, either from manuscripts insofar as known to him, or through reconstruction from other sources. The result was a splendid edition in seven volumes, even if Fabrot ‘dealt with the editorial details in a generous, sometimes reprehensibly rash manner’.[32] Prominent among those who followed are Reitz and Rühnken, whose contributions were collected in 1752 in Meerman’s Novus Thesaurus[33] and again in 1765 together as an Operis Basilici Fabrotiani supplementum.[34] This was the status editionis et quaestionis in 1825, when Heimbach, twenty-two years old, published his programme under the title De Basilicorum origine, fontibus, hodierna conditione atque nova editione adornanda. The first volume appeared in 1833, the fifth and final one in 1850. In the meantime another German had entered the stage, Carolus Eduardus Zachariae a Lingenthal (K.E. Zachariä von Lingenthal),[35] who was going to dominate scholarship in Byzantine law. In 1842 he wrote a review of Heimbach’s first two volumes[36] and in 1846 published a revised edition of books XV-XIX, which he gave the title of Supplementum editionis Heimbachianae.[37] It was based on a palimpsest manuscript, which he had discovered in Constantinople in the Patriarchate of Jerusalem, in the library of the monastery Τοῦ ἁγίου τάφου (S. Sepulchri), and for which he had obtained permission to use it in Heidelberg.[38] In 1842, the same year as the review, he had published a specimen of what would be in store, with an extensive description of the codex.[39] (On the fata of the manuscript, now in Cracow, see above.) If Heimbach resented what others might have considered an interference with his project, he did not show it. Rather he welcomed the improvement on his own edition, in which books XV-XVIII had not yet been able to benefit from this palimpsest.[40] Not only did Zachariä prove to have a better grasp of the nature and the transmission of the Basilica, he single-handedly transformed the entire field, as witnessed by the volumes of his Jus Graecoromanum, his Geschichte des griechisch-römischen Rechts, and the numerous papers and book reviews.
Scheltema greatly admired Zachariä. In the preparation of the edition of the Basilica he followed in his footsteps where he thought Zachariä had been right to deviate from Heimbach, but above all he went his own way, which bring us to the principles of the present edition.
As has been said before, the individual prefaces of the successive volumes give brief descriptions of manuscripts, here summed up above in section 3.1. As to the principles of the edition, to a certain extent the same may be said. In the preface to the first volume of text, Scheltema wasted only few words on the principles of his edition.[41] After a short description of the manuscripts used for books I-VIII, he sufficed with a mere two pages in A I (Praef. p. xi-xiii), which follow here in translation:
‘Finally, we wish to say a few words about our method of editing. We have numbered the chapters generally (and where scholia have been added, always) with the same numbers as Heimbach. These cannot be replaced by numbers found in the manuscripts, since they all differ. As to this first volume, this problem is compounded by the fact that in Cb chapter numbers hardly occur, and in P are placed so negligently, that they must be considered worthless. In fact, in this manuscript numbers are often placed before lines that contain no beginning of a sentence, and regularly two chapters in immediate succession have been given the same number. In that part of the Basilica which has been taken from the Digest and the Code, individual chapters of Heimbach’s and our editions correspond to individual fragments and constitutions respectively, but in those titles which have been compiled from the Novels they correspond to their chapters. [xii] To these titles, however, chapter numbers have only been added in order to facilitate referring to a particular passage, as the internal division of the Novels in our modern editions has nothing to do with the Basilica. For this division we are indebted to Contius, who in the sixteenth century first incorporated it into his edition of the Corpus Iuris from the Epitome Iuliani.
For the same purpose of more precise referring, at longer chapters numbers have been added corresponding to Digest and Code. Already in an early stage, fragments of the Basilica were usually divided into θέματα,[42] but in the codices Cb, Va and H no traces, and in P only very few, are found of such a division, which in our opinion may be neglected.
The Latin rubrics of titles taken from the Digest and Code are often translated into Greek in such a bad way that they make no sense. It would be wrong, however, to emend them; in fact, the faulty translation betrays the exhellenist.
We have observed the same rule in showing the Latin technical terms, which, though not as frequently as in the scholia, also occur in the text. We have changed the spelling [scribendi rationem] of the manuscript only in those places, where we thought the reader would be put on the wrong foot. What the form and way of writing of such words was in the reign of Leo the Wise we do not yet sufficiently know,[43] although some studies on this subject have already appeared.[44] Since this is the current state of things, it is better to give to those who wish to delve deeper into this problem new and untouched material, than to smooth anomalies according to a norm established by us in an immature and thoughtless way.
In the apparatus of scholia we have, following insofar as possible the indications of the manuscripts (i.e., the signs and numbers at the spot) indicated the place of the text to which each scholion belongs. Where indications are lacking, something that happens above all often in P, we have allocated them according to our own view; where they had been undoubtedly written at the wrong place, we have silently corrected. In our edition of the scholia [xiii] [i.e., in the two volumes B I and II published earlier, BS], we have occasionally attributed a scholion to a chapter different from the one to which it belongs. These mistakes have been corrected in this volume in the following way: at those places we refer the reader to the numbers of page and line, not to the siglum of the manuscript and the number of the scholion.
The apparatus of testimonia is from that what we have already said and from the table on p. xiv[-xv] sufficiently clear. We also wish to bring to the reader’s attention, that, in the reconstructed books [libri restituti], testimonia that have been placed between round brackets only mention the chapter that is being reconstructed, but do not quote its text literally. They only prove, that a chapter once existed and had taken such and such a place. Testimonia not placed between round brackets refer the text in as many words.
In the critical apparatus we have included all variants[45] from the manuscripts and the Florilegium Ambrosianum (insofar as possible, for in palimpsest manuscripts there is always room for doubt), except those which, according to philological convention, may be neglected, e.g., faults due to iotacism and Byzantine instead of Alexandrine accents. From the Ecloga [Basilicorum] we have not included those variants which must be attributed to the recent (fifteenth-century) source from which this work has reached us. In those testimonia for which we have drawn on edited works, and wherever the manuscripts do not agree, mention has been made of variant readings. At other places we have refrained from recording variants of minor importance, since these works are on everyone’s desk.’
Not a word about the most striking feature of the new edition: the separation of text and scholia and the edition of the latter not only in a separate series of volumes, but, if more than one manucript had transmitted scholia, the scholia of each manuscript separately within the same volume. Vol. A I was published in 1955, preceded by the first two volumes of Series B in 1953 and 1954 respectively. Vol. B I, the very first to appear, had a short Praefatio, in which Scheltema explained that:
‘Although later, in a separate volume, we will both describe the manuscripts in greater detail and set out the method of our edition of the text, we will here already very briefly touch upon a couple of things. From our edition of the scholia from various manuscripts separately it appears in which respects the scholia differ; to give just one example, it is now crystal clear that, if one wishes to become familiar with the jurisprudence of he sixth and seventh century, the scholia of codex Coisl. 152 (C) are greatly to be preferred to the scholia one reads in cod. Par. 1352.’
This was not the first or last time Scheltema spoke about the nature of the the scholia of the Basilica. Of the various papers touching upon that problem, the clearest statement probably is his ‘Ueber die Scholienapparate der Basiliken’ of 1960, when three volumes of text and four of scholia had already appeared.[46] The essence of the arguments may be summed up as 1) the absence of a Glossa ordinaria, and 2) the evidence of the manuscripts, which points to an individual choice of the commentator, who had compiled the scholia of (the exemplar of) a manuscript. In short, unless one manuscript is a codex descriptus of another that we have, its scholia have to be published separately.
Criticism has been levelled at the refusal of the editors to distinguish ‘old’ and ‘new’ scholia. Scheltema’s decision was based on the difficulty of making such a distinction in many cases; to do so would simply add one individual scholar’s opinion to the existing ones. On this problem, see below, section 5.3.
Another important aspect is the reconstruction of lost books, to which attention has already drawn above.[47] In the long passage from A I quoted above there are just a few lines on libri restituti. The method was set out only later, in volume A III, when it was required by the reconstruction of the lost book XIX, which has remained a point of reference for other cases.[48] The restrictive nature of the method has often been misunderstood, which prompted Van der Wal to set it out in some detail with examples at the occasion of the completion of the edition.[49]
No reconstruction without material to reconstruct with, and testimonia are therefore an essential part of the evidence for the text of the Basilica. It is only in the Praefatio vol. A I that we find a brief general treatment of testimonia of the Basilica (pp. ix-x). It simply lists the ‘Works from which we have adopted testimonia (...)’. That list is reproduced here with some annotations. For the nature of these works the reader is referred to the modern histories of the sources of Byzantine law; since the Historiae iuris graeco-romani delineatio best represents the opinion of the Groningen editors, references have been restricted to that work.[50]
The following testimonia have been considered the most important and therefore systematically taken into account:
Siglum |
Opus |
References |
A |
Florilegium Ambrosianum |
Del. 92; A I Praef. p. ix-x; A III Praef. p. vi; A VIII, Praef. p. xv-xvii |
Bals. |
Balsamonis commentarius in Nomocanonem XIV Titulorum |
Del. 109-111 |
BS |
Basilicorum scholia |
Del. 91-92 and passim |
Ecl. |
Ecloga Basilicorum |
Del. 107; A I Praef. p. xi |
Pira |
Pira |
Del. 101; A III Praef. p. vii |
Syn. |
Synopsis Maior Basilicorum |
Del. 92-93 |
Tip. |
Tipucitus |
Del. 102-103; A III Praef. p. vi-vii |
Texts which the editors considered to be less important for the constitution of the text:
Synopsis minor (Del. 114), Attaliotes, Ponema nomikon (Del. 102), Chomatianos (Del. 113-114), Harmenopoulos, Hexabiblos (Del. 118), Blastares, Syntagma alphabeticum (Del. 117). See also the full Conspectus operum ex quibus testimonia laudantur with abbreviations in A I p. xiv-xv.
There are scattered testimonia in manuscripts, of which the major ones are:
Siglum |
MS |
Praef. in edition |
RHBR |
Par. 1367 |
Par. gr. 1367 |
A V p. v-viii; A VI p. vi-vii; A VII p. xix; A VIII p. xvii-xviii |
182 nos. 2, 8, 11 and 17: ‘Basilikenexzerpte’ |
Vat. |
Vat. gr. 2075 |
A VI p. vi-vii; A VII p. xix |
249 no. 14: ‘Basiliken, Exzerpte aus den Büchern 50 und 51 (...)’ |
Par. 1383 |
Par. gr. 1383 |
A VI p. vii; VII p. xix |
187: Eisagoge aucta[51] |
Venturi |
Forence, Riccardianus 2118 |
A VII, p. xiv-xviii |
Translation of Bas. LIII |
Vind. |
Vind. iur. gr. 2 |
A VII p. xix-xx |
309 no. 11 ‘Serie von Exzerpten (...) Basiliken (...)’ |
Cuiacius |
— |
A VII Praef. p. xviii-xix |
— (lost books)[52] |
It cannot be emphasised enough that only when the editors were convinced that a text was a genuine literal quotation of the Basilica did they admit it to their libri restituti. This may seem obvious, but it should be kept in mind that in previous editions some texts are found that have not even reached our day through indirect transmission, but are the result of a ‘modern’ translation from Latin into Greek.[53] In practical terms this means that, when Heimbach considered a Byzantine source representative of a lost passage of the Basilica and that passage has not been adopted by Scheltema cum suis, from its absence it must be inferred that they did not accept it as a genuine Basilica text.
Series A gives the text of the Basilica, Series B contains the scholia. Both series have continuous pagination, referred to as BT and BS with page numbers. In the volumes of Series A, where scholia exist, the first apparatus (‘Scholia’) under the text refers to a manuscript with a siglum (e.g., Ca, P etc.) and a number (1, 2 etc.).[55] If more manuscripts contain scholia (e.g., ‘XI,1,1 5 σύμφωνόν: Ca 1, 2, 5, 6; P 1’), these have been edited in Series B manuscript by manuscript, title by title: scholion Ca 1 pertaining to the word σύμφωνόν in Bas. XI,1,1 (p. BT 625 line 5) is found in vol. B I, at BS p. 177 line 8; Ca 2 ibid. line 13; but P 1 only at BS 339 line 9. In the case of Bas. XI,1 the scholia in Ca (Coislinianus gr. 152) are much more numerous than those in P (Par. gr. 1352). The second apparatus contains ‘Testimonia’, which in the case of a liber restitutus is not just material for comparison, but the very source (or sources) for the reconstruction. Again at Bas. XI,1,1, two testimonia are listed: ‘A’ and ‘Syn. Σ, VIII, 1’, referring respectively to Florilegium Ambrosianum and Synopsis Basilicorum Maior Σ VIII 1. Finally there is a critical apparatus, which accounts for the choices made by the editors. The scholia in Series B, referred to from Series A as described above, are accompanied by a critical apparatus at the bottom of the page. Normally the scholia are written in the margins of a manuscript and are mostly contemporaneous with the text, unless stated otherwise. Two signs indicate a special situation: * means that the scholion has been written in the margin by a more recent hand; § indicates that the scholion has been written between the lines in smaller script.[56]Textus restitutus has been indicated by the symbol > in front of each line of reconstructed text. References to the Corpus iuris civilis and the Heimbach edition have been given throughout. The standard numbering of the Corpus iuris within leges of the Digest and constitutiones of the Codex and the Novels has been duplicated in the Basilica.[57]
In short, the edition aims to present for every fragment the text chosen, the variants of manuscripts and testimonia, the scholion or scholia accompanying the fragment in each manuscript, the variants of their text, and the connection with the Justinianic legislation.
In the decades that have passed since the completion of the edition not only has new material been found that the editors would have included — and some that they would not, but these decades have also given time for reflection and reactions. I should like to draw attention to three points.
As already said above, in early reviews the Groningen edition has been criticised for not distinguishing between ‘old’ and ‘new’ scholia, especially since, as some scholars held at the time,[61] the distinction was made in the manuscripts by the use of different signs for the two when referring from text to scholion. But the manuscripts did no such thing,[62] and the difficulty of making the distinction has already been mentioned.
This probably was Scheltema’s line of reasoning. The discovery of new scholia — new in the sense of scholia not to be found in the Groningen edition — often is the outcome of reasoning along a different line. If, e.g., a scholion in a manuscript of the Synopsis Basilicorum Maior is not to be found in one of the Basilica manuscripts, and if the wording of that scholion does not point to an origin other than the Basilica, one may of course say that it was originally written to the Basilica, in other words, claim that it is a testimonium of a Basilica scholion.[64] It would then be up to the editors to decide whether they agree, and if so, whether to include it in their edition, and how.[65]
Scheltema had to demonstrate the necessity of a new edition and did so by arguing on the basis of what he saw as defects of the existing edition. One only has to read the first sentence of his 1939 paper ‘Probleme der Basiliken’:
‘Eine Neuausgabe der Basiliken lässt noch auf sich warten, obwohl sie zu den dringendsten Aufgaben der heutigen Romanistik gehören dürfte’.[66]
In that paper and elsewhere the arguments are heaped in abundance. To what extent does the Groningen edition in fact differ from Heimbach’s? It may be useful at least to summarise the differences. Some of them are immediately obvious, others transpire only at a closer look.
Two points which strike the eye are the lack of a translation and the separation of the scholia from the texts to which they refer. The former is the result of a decision taken in a different cultural climate,[67] the latter rests on solid argument and has been discussed above.[68] Other differences may be less immediately visible, but have left numerous traces.
First, the edition is based on more manuscripts of the Basilica, especially palimpsests. Just as Heimbach was able to make a better edition than Fabrot by using the codices Coisliniani,[69] Scheltema cum suis could do so by drawing on the Vatican manuscripts, the codex S. Sepulchri (even though lost at the time) and the Florilegium Ambrosianum (which, strictly speaking, belongs to the testimonia; see the next paragraph). The first steps towards a better edition had already been taken by Zachariä (the Supplementum of 1846) and Mercati-Ferrini (the Supplementum alterum of 1897 with the Florilegium Ambrosianum). In addition to relying on more manuscripts, the Groningen edition is based on fresh and full collations, also of codices where Heimbach, Zachariä, and Mercati and Ferrini had preceded it. The new edition thus gives a fuller and more precise picture of the transmission of text and scholia.
Second, testimonia and the role they have played in the two editions. Heimbach had fewer testimonia at his disposal to draw on and, perhaps for that reason, tried to make more of them than Scheltema considered defensible. Heimbach can, of course, hardly be blamed for the former: some sources of testimonia had not yet been discovered. If, e.g., Heimbach refers to the Syn(opsis Basilicorum Maior), he does so by page-numbers. These refer to the edition by Leunclavius, of Basel 1575, which is in itself an interesting example of Humanist scholarship.[70] It has been superseded by the edition of Zachariä (1869), which Heimbach could not yet use, of course.[71] The Tipucitus was known, but had not yet been edited. Two other major sources used by Scheltema, the Florilegium Ambrosianum and the Peira, were not even known.[72] But not only was Scheltema able to use more testimonia than Heimbach, also the method of using them, especially where the libri deperditi are concerned, was different. Paradoxically, it sometimes led to fewer portions of reconstructed text than Heimbach had printed.
The best description of how Scheltema cum suis have proceeded stems from Van der Wal, who has given a number of examples of an altogether more restrictive method, especially in the use of the Tipucitus.[73] Heimbach had been less reserved in trusting the Tipucitus than Scheltema was. This is not immediately obvious from the Prolegomena, where he writes: ‘Of this repertory of the Basilica I have made much use for the restitution. For the restitution in the proper sense of the word it cannot be used, as it does not contain the words of the Basilica.’[74] Yet, in a note on Bas. XXX,1,7,5, we read: ‘...For the restitution of the remaining part of this book, I have used, in addition to Syn. and Harm., scholia of the Basilica and above all Tipuciti Paratitla [the Tipucitus, BS], from which almost everything that is lacking can be supplemented.’[75] This seems to suggest an almost unlimited trust in the possibilities of the Tipucitus. The continuation of this note, however, proves that Heimbach knew better: ‘The way of restitution has been this, that I placed an stellula (asterisk) before those fragments that can be proved to contain the genuine text of the Basilica, and the rest placed at the apposite numbers with the source from which they have been taken.’ In fact, the stellulae indicate that Heimbach considers only thirteen of the 57 fragments he includes in Basilica XXX,1 to be genuine! The other fragments also go back ultimately to the Corpus iuris, but did not form part of the Basilica. Heimbach full well saw that the Tipucitus was less useful to reconstruct the actual text than to give an impression of the substance of a fragment. It would perhaps be fair to say that he was more interested in providing Greek versions of as many fragments of the Corpus iuris as possible than in establishing the genuine text of the Basilica. The result is that the new edition is a more faithful presentation of the Basilica text than Heimbach’s. But what about the scholia?
Here, too, there are considerable differences, which go much deeper than the separate presentation of scholia of each manuscript in the Groningen edition. The established opinion of scholars working in the Humanist tradition has always been, and still is, that the value of the ‘old’ scholia is greater than of the text of the Basilica, as they contain various sixth-century versions of the Justinianic legislation and occasionally provide a direct insight into debates among the jurists of Justinian’s age, or document variant readings of the first generation of manuscripts of the Corpus iuris. For that very reason a faithful edition of as many scholia as possible and a correct separation between individual scholia in the margins and between the lines of a manuscript is of the highest value. There can be no doubt that this edition contains more scholia, edited to a higher philological standard.
Despite the efforts to take into account all available material during the preparation of the edition, it was inevitable that new evidence should be discovered after the completion of individual volumes and indeed of the entire edition. The recovery of the famous Berolinensis gr. Fol. 28 as the present Krakoviensis Jagiellonska 28/266 is perhaps the most spectacular example and has already been discussed above.[76] The discovery of two palimpsest manuscripts in Vienna is more promising. A number of leaves of the Vindobonensis hist. gr. 10 preserve, inter alia, fragments from the lost book XIX. The Vindobonensis Suppl. gr. 200 is a new witness of books already known, but its text appears to hand down a stage of the text in which Latin terminology has not yet been exhellenised, i.e., an older stage than the one that we know from the manuscripts used for the edition. Strictly speaking only the latter one is a Basilica manuscript. The former contains only titles B. II, 2 and 3 in full, but the rest is in fact an anthology[77] and should be considered for the greater part an indirect witness, whereas the latter no doubt originally had the complete version of at least books 21-29 and probably more.[78]
With a manuscript such as the lower layer of the Vindobonensis hist. gr. 10 we move to indirect evidence of the Basilica text, which is of course especially important when we are dealing with books that have been lost. Among the libri restituendi is book LIII dealing with maritime law. When the edition was being prepared, one of the most important sources for its reconstruction was the Florilegium Ambrosianum. In addition the editors used a Latin translation of another anthology from this book of which the Greek original was deemed lost, a translation made in 1604 by Francesco Venturi and preserved in the Florentine codex Riccardianus 2118.[79] In 1978, just four years after the pertinent volume A VII had appeared, Dieter Simon published the discovery of its Greek original, which is part of the canonist manuscript Vaticanus Barb. gr. 578.[80] As Simon writes, where the contents of the anthology coincide with the Florilegium Ambrosianum, the conjectures of the editors are almost always confirmed by the Barberinus, but the Vatican manuscript also contains some passages lacking in the palimpsest from Milan and therefore contributes to our knowledge of the transmission of the text. Since then, the Barberinus has been used for a separate edition of book LIII by Rhodolakis.[81]
An important witness of the Basilica, consistently used in the edition, is the commentary on the Nomocanon of the Fourteen Titles by the twelfth-century canonist Theodore Balsamon. Unknown to the editors was the fact that an anonymous canonist had used it for a revision in which a lot of new material was added. This augmented edition, which does not seem to have been noticed at the time and has hardly left any traces in Byzantine literature, has been preserved in the codex Sinaiticus 1117.[82] It has been found to contain 51 passages from the Basilica text which had not been transmitted otherwise, directly or indirectly, and in addition 44 unknown Basilica scholia.[83]
As stated earlier, one of the sources for testimonia was the Eisagoge cum Prochiro composita in manuscript Par. gr. 1367, which transmits a version extended with Basilica excerpts. Scheltema had used these for the edition resp. was to use them in future volumes.[84] In the early 1970s, Wolfgang Waldstein discovered in the Lavra Monastery on Mount Athos, that ten leaves of manuscript A 55 had been palimpsested and recognised a Byzantine legal text in their lower layer. Dieter Simon identified that text as (passages from) the same Eisagoge cum Prochiro composita.[85] In a painstaking analysis he established that the palimpsest (‘codex Waldstein’, W) contained the same version as the Par. 1367 and in part even supplemented it. Basilica fragments occur at four pages; among them are fragments from book XIX, which might contribute to its restitution.[86]
Other indirect witnesses have been found and drawn attention not only by reason of the texts they quote, but also, and especially, of the occurrence of scholia, which, with varying degrees of certainty, are or at least originate in, Basilica scholia.[87] It is a matter of editorial choice whether such scholia should be edited as part of the Basilica or rather as commentaries on the text with which they have been transmitted. The discovery of the odd membrum disiectum[88] and of quotations of fragments of the Basilica text and scholia in manuscripts of other texts will no doubt continue.
Scheltema had rejected the authenticity of the transmitted preface to the Basilica and therefore omitted it from its edition.[89] Andreas Schminck has argued strongly in favour of its genuineness and edited its text.[90] Or, more precisely and to be fair to both Scheltema and Schminck, to quote the latter’s last paragraph in translation,
‘The prooimion dealt with in this chapter does not belong to the Basilica, nor does it belong to the version of codex Coisl. 151, but to the original Sixty Books of Leo VI, to which the version of codex Par. gr. 1352 (which is the basis of Fabrot’s edition) — according to the indirect witnesses — is nearest in the first ἕξ βιβλία.’[91]
In other words, it is an authentic preface, but according to Schminck it belongs to an earlier version of the Basilica. Whether or not his argument stands, the preface should be included, if only as part of the Basilica tradition. Scheltema had reserved it for a volume with Appendices.[92]
Also closely related, and only in part to be found in the edition in the apparatus testimoniorum, are the so-called Indices titulorum, which have been the subject of studies and editions by Thomas van Bochove.[93]
What has been said so far, sufficiently demonstrates that scholarship pertinent to the Basilica has not stopped with the publication of the last volume of this edition in 1988.[94] In addition to Prolegomena, there is room for a supplementary volume, as had been envisaged by Scheltema from the beginning. In the Praefatio to vol. A I we read about future Appendices.[95] Scheltema wished to reserve for these appendices the ‘spurious text of book I offered by Cb and P’ — book I is one of the libri restituti —, as well as the ‘prefaces of the Basilica, none of which, not even the one that codex P, and relying on its authority Fabrot and Heimbach in their editions, put in front of the text, in its present form has been promulgated by Leo the Wise’. Scheltema was also planning to include the ‘Indices titulorum, which, as e.g. the well-known Index Coislinianus, present more (or other) things than a mere enumeration of those rubrics that occur in the text of that manuscript’; finally, the tituli spurii 1 and 3 of book VI ‘in the form in which they occur in P. For they differ from the form in which Cb offers them, a form which is demonstrated by the testimonia to be genuine, to such an extent that we cannot give its clear image in the critical apparatus.’[96] In 1957 he had also envisaged to revise Heimbach’s Manuale Basilicorum, about which he was more positive than about the edition.[97] In 1988, at the completion of the edition, the surviving editors Holwerda and Van der Wal concluded their Praefatio with the following words:
‘In the prefaces of the preceding volumes we used to announce the next volume. At this place, however, we gratefully inform the reader that the edition of text and scholia, the preparation of which Scheltema had begun about the year 1945, has been completed. We are even more grateful for the fact that he — as we have already told the readers in the preface of volume B VIII[98] — before his death in December 1981, knew that that he need no longer doubt — as at the time when he had made a beginning with this immense task — that the edition begun by him would be brought to an end.
Even after the completion of the edition some things remain for us to be done. That we would add a volume containing Prolegomena we have already announced more than once. Moreover, we intend to prepare a supplement, in which we publish those texts that pertain to the Basilica, but could not be included in the volumes of the edition. Among these are the unauthentic preface of the Basilica; the text of the first book which diverges from the customary form in cod. Par. Coisl. gr. 151 and is found in a summarised version in cod. Par. gr. 1352; and the indices of all the titles of the Basilica preserved in the same codex Coislinianus as well as in the codex Ath. Pantocr. 234. Perhaps in that supplement should also be inserted a more complete and improved reconstruction of book LIII, which we are now able to accomplish, after our Frankfurt colleagues[99] have found the manuscript given up for lost by the learned world, from which Francesco Venturi in 1604 has taken the texts of the Basilica that he translated into Latin. That codex is indeed most probably Vat. Barb. 578. The time, however, that these two volumes will appear we do not to dare to announce at the moment.’
The words of Van der Wal and Holwerda are in fact Scheltema’s programme as stated at the beginning, with the addition of book LIII, of which we now have the edition by Rhodolakis.[100] Unfortunately, they did not live to produce the two volumes as intended.
Heimbach had produced an edition and left Prolegomena and a Manuale. Zachariä and others pointed the way towards improvements and in part managed to put their ideas into effect. Scheltema, assisted by Van der Wal and Holwerda, have given us an edition corresponding to twentieth-century philological standards. It is this edition that is published here in digital form. Obviously, however, work has not ended here.
Groningen, August 28th, 2017 Bernard H. Stolte
[1] The proceedings of the 1988 conference celebrating the publication of the last volume (A VIII) were published in Subseciva Groningana III (1989).
[2] I am indebted to all members past and present of the Groningen Department of Legal History, especially those whom I have pestered with questions while writing. The responsibility for the result is the author’s alone.
[3] H.J. Scheltema, Opera minora ad iuris historiam pertinentia. Collegerunt N. van der Wal, J.H.A. Lokin, B.H. Stolte, Roos Meijering, Groningen 2004.
[4] His collected papers are being edited by Th.E. van Bochove.
[5] C.G.E. Heimbach (ed.), Basilicorum libri LX. Post Annibalis Fabroti curas ope codd. mss. edidit ..., 5 vols, Leipzig 1833-1850. Carolus Guilielmus Ernestus Heimbach (1803-1865) is ultimately responsible, but his younger brother Gustavus Ernestus (1810-1851) and others collated manuscripts for the edition.
[6] On the genesis and history of the the project, see J.H.A. Lokin, ‘Habent sua fata Basilica. On the Occasion of the Completion of the Groningen Basilica Edition’, Subseciva Groningana III (1989), 1-10.
[7]Basilicorum libri XL. ... Tom. VI Prolegomena et Manuale Basilicorum continens, Leipzig 1870, with a monitum bibliopolae, the last paragraph beginning with Ita nos hereditario officio satisfecimus ..., without identifying nos.
[8] P.E. Pieler, ‘Byzantinische Rechtsliteratur’, in H. Hunger (ed.), Die hochsprachliche profane Literatur der Byzantiner, II, München 1978, 341-480; N. van der Wal — J. H. A. Lokin, Delineatio iuris graeco-romani. Les sources du droit byzantin de 300 à 1453. Groningen 1985 [henceforth referred to as ‘Del.’]; Sp.N. Troianos, Oi peges tou buzantinou dikaiou, 3rd augmented ed. Athens-Komotini 2011. Translations into Italian (P. Buongiorno, 2015) and German (D. Simon, 2017), in both cases with additional bibliography.
[9] See H.J. Scheltema, ‘Ueber die angebliche Anonymuskatene’, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 25 (1957), 284-301, esp. 296-297 = Opera minora, 323-324.
[10] See the works listed in n. 8.
[11] The following information may be found in numerous text-books, especially the histories of the sources mentioned in n. 8.
[12] Fundamental for Scheltema’s views on the circulation of antecessorial writings is his L’enseignement de droit des antécesseurs, Leiden 1970 = Opera minora 58-109.
[13]Del. 84 cf. 110-11.
[14] Especially in chapters VII and VIII.
[15] Sixteen books (19, 30-37, 43-44, 53-57), plus the first book, which is a special case in that it has been preserved in two versions, none of which, however, Scheltema considered authentic.
[16] A I, Praefatio, p. v.
[17] Heimbach, Prolegomena, 156-176.
[18] L. Burgmann, M.Th. Fögen, A. Schminck, D. Simon, Repertorium der Handschriften des byzantinischen Rechts. I: Die Handschriften des weltlichen Rechts (Nr. 1-327), Frankfurt 1995, further referred to as RHBR with the number a manuscript has been given there.
[18a] Thus Scheltema c.s.; the scribe has in fact been identified as Joannes Mauromates (flor. 1540-1570).
[19] C.E. Zachariae von Lingenthal (ed.), Supplementum editionis Heimbachianae, lib. XV-XVIII Basilicorum cum scholiis antiquis integros nec non lib. XIX Basilicorum novis auxiliis restitutum continens, Leipzig 1846.
[20] To my knowledge first mentioned by M.Th. Fögen, ‘Humanistische Adnotationen zur editio princeps der Hexabiblos’, Ius Commune 13 (1985), 213-242, esp. 238 n. 47.
[21] i.e., the supplement to Heimbach of 1846: see above, n. 19.
[22] Ἀνέκδοτον. Lib. XVIII tit. 1 Basilicorum cum scholiis antiquis. Specimen codicis palimpsesti Constantinopolitani bibliothecae S. Sepulchri, qui solus libb. XV-XVIII Basilicorum cum scholiis continet, Heidelberg 1842. See also below, p. 13.
[23] I have not seen the manuscript itself, but have to judge from digital photographs. I would be delighted to eat my words if the contrary would appear to hold good.
[24] See also above, n. 15.
[25] ‘nonnisi fragmenta textus Basilicorum ... cum aliis epitomis ad ius pertinentibus coniuncta’ (Heimbach, Prolegomena, 159).
[26] Now available in the exemplary edition by L. Burgmann (ed.), Ecloga Basilicorum, Frankfurt 1988.
[27] C. Ferrini, G. Mercati, F. Dölger, S. Hörmann, E. Seidl, (eds), ΤΙΠΟΥΚΕΙΤΟΣ sive librorum LX Basilicorum summarium [Studi e testi 25, 51, 107, 179, 193], Rome 1914-1957.
[28] Annotations in the margins of many books in the Groningen University Library show evidence of their critical attitude.
[29] Heimbach, Prolegomena, 176-186.
[30] H.E. Troje, Graeca leguntur. Die Aneignung des byzantinischen rechts und die Entstehung eines humanistischen Corpus iuris civilis in der Jurisprudenz des 16. Jahrhunderts, Köln-Wien 1971. The title explains Troje’s approach.
[31] C.A. Fabrotus (ed.), Τῶν Βασιλικῶν Βιβλία Ξ´, 7 vols, Paris 1647.
[32] Troje, Graeca leguntur, 277.
[33] vols III and V (see R. Feenstra-D.J. Osler, Bibliography of Jurists of the Northern Netherlands Active Outside the Dutch Universities to the Year 1811, Amsterdam 2017 [further referred to as Feenstra-Osler, BGNR Jurists], nos. 651 and 673-674]).
[34]Operis Basilici Fabrotiani supplementum continens libros quatuor Basilicorum IL, L, LI, LII, nunc primum ex Codice manuscripto Regiae Bibliothecae Parisiensis integre editos: Latine vertit, variantes lectiones collegit, notasque criticas ac juridicas, tam aliorum quam suas, addidit Gul. Otto Reitz JCtus. Accedunt Thalelaei, Theodori, Stephans, Cyrilli. aliorumque JCtorum Graecorum commentarii in Tit. D. & Cod. de Postulando sive de Advocatis, nec non de Procuratoribus & Defensoribus, novissime ex Codice MS Bibliothecae Luduni-Batava edidit, Latine vertit & castigavit David Ruhnkenius, Lugduni Batavorum, Apud Wetstenium 1765 [Feenstra-Osler, BNGR Jurists, no. 653].
[35] W. Fischer, ‘Zachariä von Lingenthal (24. Dez.1812-3. Juni 1894). Lebensbeschreibung’, Bursians Jahrbücher über die Fortschritte der klassischen Alterthumswissenschaft 99 (1898), 14-48, also in K.E. Zachariae von Lingenthal, Kleine Schriften zur römischen und byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte I (Leipzig 1973), 3-37; bibliography by W. Fischer, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung. Rom. Abt. 16 (1895) 320-332 and supplement in ZSSRom 17 (1896) 332-334, both also in Zachariä, Kleine Schriften I, 38-53.
[36]Kritische Jahrbücher für deutsche Rechtswissenschaft 11 (1842), 481-509.
[37] See above, n. 19.
[38] Zachariä, Supplementum, Prolegomena; Heimbach, Prolegomena, 166-167. See also above, p. 8-10; Fischer, ‘Lebensbeschreibung’, 28.
[39] The Ἀνέκδοτον: see above, n. 22.
[40] Heimbach, Prolegomena, 167: ‘de cuius editione pretio et in quo reliquis [i.e., his own edition! BS] antecellat, infra dicetur’. See Zachariä’s Prolegomena to the Supplementum.
[41] In addition to the Praefatio of A I, see also those of A II (on the lost codex S. Sepulchri, already discussed above, section 3.1), p. vi sqq.; A VI (on book LIII, see also below, p. 27).
[42] ‘This transpires from more recent works, where the Basilica are referred to. However, none of the manuscripts of the Basilica, not even those about we will speak only later, shows this division without changes [integram].’
[43] ‘For that reason we have included in the critical apparatus among the variants of these words even those, which seem to have been the result of iotacism or of change between ο and ω.’
[44] ‘E.g., J. Psichari, ‘Les mots latins dans Théophile et les Novelles de Justinien’, Bibliothèque de l’École des Hautes Études 92 (1892), 159 ff.; P. Noailles, Les collections de Novelles de l’empereur Justinien. La collection grecque des 168 Novelles, Paris 1914, 67-73 and 137-140; A. Dain, ‘La transcription des mots latins en grec dans les gloses nomiques’, Revue des Études Latines (1930), 92-113; Ziliacus, Zum Kampf der Weltsprachen im oströmischen Reich, thesis Helsinki, 1935.’ [See now N. van der Wal, ‘Die Schreibweise der dem Lateinischen entlehnten Fachworten in der frühbyzantinischen Juristensprache’, Scriptorium 37 (1983) 29-53].
[45] ‘We have written the so-called iota mutum not only in the text, but also in the critical apparatus silently as a iota subscriptum.’
[46] in: Mnemosynon Bizoukides, Thessalonica 1960 = Opera minora 359-364.
[47] See above, section 3.
[48] A III, Praef. p. vi-vii (on the reconstruction of book XIX, and lost parts of books xvii and xviii); A IV, Praef. p. vi (reconstruction of books XXX-XXXIV according to the same method as for book XIX).
[49] N. van der Wal, ‘Probleme bei der Restitution verlorengegangener Basilikenbücher’, Subseciva Groningana III (1989) 143-154.
[50] For the others, see above, n. 8. References to the text of the Delineatio are given here by page numbers. The Delineatio has unnumbered end notes, which contain bibliographical references (up to 1985); these are easily found following the chapter numbers given in running headers. The most recent bibliography is found in the Italian and German translations of the Peges of Troianos, and in Van Bochove, Bibliography.
[51]Del. 95.
[52] Bas. LIV-LVII have not reached our day in manuscript, but in the sixteenth century they were still available to Cuiacius, on whose works has been drawn for the reconstruction of these lost books. Scheltema admitted the possibility that Cuiacius even possessed books XLVI-LX.
[53] Van der Wal, ‘Probleme bei der Restitution’, 143.
[54] H. de Jong, ‘Using the Basilica’, Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte. Rom. Abt. 133 (2016) 286-321 contains similar instructions at p. 314-317, but has been written from a somewhat different perspective and without knowing of the intention to publish a digital edition other than the one in the TLG.
[55] In order to explain the method of referring to scholia, vol. B I, with scholia, contains after the brief preface an exemplum editionis textus at p. vii, taken from Bas. XI,1.
[56] See, e.g., the table with uncini, signa in B II, p. xi.
[57] Above, p. 14-15.
[58] See also the discussion about the authenticity of the preface (see p. 29).
[59] Van der Wal-Lokin 1985, 82-86, esp. 82: ‘Tout ceci semble indiquer qu’il y a eu trois versions successives des Basiliques, dont seule la dernière nous est connue; toujours est-il que les commentaires du temps de Léon et de ses successeurs ne laissent supposer par aucune allusion que les contemporains aient connu une autre version des Basiliques que celle en soixante livres qui fut conservée en grande partie jusq’à nos jours.’
[60] This is an area of ongoing discussion. It now seems that two versions have been transmitted: in addition to the ‘Basilica’ of Leo VI, also extensive remains of a slightly older version in sixty books of Basil the Macedonian. See most recently, Th.E. van Bochove, ‘Preluding the Basilica, but how? The final paragraph of the preface to the Prochiron reconsidered’, Subseciva Groningana IX (2014), 267-318, with discussion of all the pertinent literature.
[61] E.g., F. Pringsheim, Zum Plan einer neuen Ausgabe der Basiliken. Begründung ihrer Notwendigkeit und Gesichtspunkte für ihre Herstellung (Bericht an die Preußische Akademie der Wissenschaften vom Jahre 1937), Berlin 1956, 14 ff., and again Idem, ‘Über die Basiliken-Scholien’, ZSSRom 80 (1963), 287-341, esp. 324 ff.
[62] See H.J. Scheltema, ‘Ueber die angebliche Anonymuskatene’, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 25 (1957), 284-301, esp. 295-298 = Opera minora, 323-324.
[63] H.J. Scheltema, ‘Über die Scholienapparate der Basiliken’, Mnemosynon Bizoukidès, Thessalonica 1960, 139-145 = Opera minora 359-364.
[64] See also the discussion in Dittrich 1993, 185-187, who seems to reverse the burden of proof: if a scholion is accompanying a Basilica text wherever it is found, it is a Basilica scholion unless the contrary can be demonstrated (185). That is a quite reasonable assumption insofar as its origin is concerned. What an editor of the Basilica should do is another matter.
[65] See below, section 7.
[66]Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 16 (1939) 320 = Opera minora 170.
[67] Above, p. 2.
[68] Above, p. 16-17.
[69] ‘Ante omnia subsidia critica novae editioni erant paranda. Inter ea primum obtinebant locum Codices Coisliniani 151 et 152’ (Heimbach, Prolegomena, 186). See also Van der Wal, ‘Probleme bei der Restitution’, 143 n. 4.
[70] The SBM is an anthology from the Basilica under key words that had themselves been arranged alphabetically. Leunclavius edited from a manuscript of the SBM, but rearranged the SBM into the order of the sixty books of the Basilica from which it had been compiled; this was not difficult to accomplish, since the Synopsis quotes book, title and chapter of the Basilica with the extracts. See Troje, Graeca leguntur, 264-268; B.H. Stolte, ‘Joannes Leunclavius (1541-1594), Civilian and Byzantinist?’, in: P.J. du Plessis-J.W. Cairns, Reassessing Legal Humanism and its Claims. Petere fontes?, Edinburgh 2016, 194-210, esp. 197-198.
[71] See Jus Graecoromanum, V (1931, repr. Aalen 1962). One example of the superior quality of Zachariä’s edition: Heimbach’s note c ad Bas. XI,1,1,3 says: ‘συναίνεσιν deest in Syn. quae cap. 1. totum habet’. It is true that in Leunclavius’ edition, at p. 138, after πᾶσαν, the word συναίνεσιν is lacking (Leunclavius conjectures in the margin ‘deest αἰτίαν aut simile’), but Zachariä’s edition, based on other manuscripts than Leunclavius’, has συναίνεσιν.
[72] See above, p. 16-18.
[73] Van der Wal, ‘Probleme bei der Restitution’.
[74] Heimbach, Prolegomena, 190.
[75] Heimbach, note p ad Bas. XXX,1,7,5 (III p. 503).
[76] See above, p. 8-10.
[77] B.H. Stolte, ‘Zwei neue Basiliken-Handschriften in der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek II: Rechtshistorische Analyse. Mit 30 Tafeln’, in: Chr. Gastgeber (ed.), Quellen zur byzantinischen Rechtspraxis. Aspekte der Textüberlieferung, Paläographie und Diplomatik. Akten des internationalen Symposiums Wien, 5.-7. 2007, Wien 2010, 139-182, esp.140. Part ‘I: Paläographisch-kodikologische Analyse’ is by Jana Grusková, ibidem, 107-138.
[78] Stolte, ‘Zwei neue Basiliken-Handschriften’, 146.
[79] AVII, Praef. xiv-xvi.
[80] D. Simon, ‘Handschriftenstudien zur byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 71 (1978), 332-348, esp. 340-343.
[81] G.E. Rhodolakis, Από το Νὀμο Ροδίων στο 53ο βιβλίο των Βσσιλικών. Συμβολή στη μελέτη του βυζαντινού δικαίου, Athens 2007.
[82] V. Tiftixoglu, ‘Zur Genese der Kommentare des Theodoros Balsamon. Mit einem Exkurs über die unbekannten Kommentare des Sinaiticus 1117’, in: N. Oikonomides (ed.), Byzantium in the 12th Century. Canon Law, State, Society, Athens 1991, 483-532, and especially V. Tiftixoglu-Sp. Troianos, ‘Unbekannte Kaiserurkunden und Basilikentestimonia aus dem Sinaiticus 1117’, Fontes Minores IX (1993), 137-179.
[83] Tiftixoglu-Troianos, ‘Unbekannte Kaiserurkunden’, 148. The index at the end contains a full list of circa 800 passages where the commentator has referred to the Basilica.
[84] See the detailed description in A V Praef. p. v-viii.
[85] W. Waldstein-D. Simon, ‘Neuentdeckte Bruchstücke der Epanagoge cum Prochiro composita. Eine Palimpsesthandschrift der Klosterbibliothek Lavra’, Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 28 (1974) 145-178.
[86] The Basilica fragments are the following: B. 19,1,84-86.88-90.95-96 (Simon p. 164-165); B. 58,9,4(§ 11).5 ? (Simon 175-176); B. 60,58,1,pr..1-1c.3 (Simon p. 177-178). Fragments B. 19,1,90.95-96 = C. 4,54,1.6-7 were ‘unediert’ in 1974; Simon’s decipherment at p. 164-165. It is worth noting that he identified another fragment as a commentary on C. 2,26,4, probably from the antecessor Theodorus (Simon p. 173).
[87] L. Burgmann-M.Th. Fögen, ‘Florilegium Lesbiacum’, Fontes Minores V (1982), 107- 178; J. Dittrich, ‘Die Scholien des Cod. Taur. B. I. 20 zum Erbrecht der Basiliken’, FM IX (1993), 181-298; D. Getov, ‘Eine Scholiensammlung zur Synopsis Basilicorum Maior’, FM XI (2005), 325-426.
[88] E.g., B.H. Stolte, ‘Of nomoi and kanones. Notes on Codex Vaticanus Graecus 2645’, Subseciva Groningana VI (1999), 121-126, esp. 122ff..
[89] A I, Praef. xi; H.J. Scheltema, ‘À propos de la prétendue préface des Basiliques’, Mélanges Lévy-Brühl, Paris 1959, 269-271 = Opera minora 356-358.
[90] A. Schminck, Studien zu mittelbyzantinischen Rechtsbüchern, Frankfurt am Main 1986, 17-54.
[91] Schminck, Studien 54.
[92] See A I Praef. p.xi,. See also above, p. 21 with n. 60, and below, p. 30-31.
[93] Th.E. van Bochove, ‘Index Titulorum. Merely a Table of Contents or Ἀρχὴ σὺν Θεῷ τῶν Βασιλικῶν?’, Subseciva Groningana VI (1999), 1-58; Idem, ‘Ἐπιγραφή. Zur Entstehung der Titelrubriken der Basiliken’, ibidem 59-77; Idem, ‘Index Titulorum, II. IPc, the partial index titulorum of the Basilica books 1-9 in cod. Paris. gr. 1349’, Subseciva Groningana VIII (2009), 35-104; Idem, ‘Scholia and Index Titulorum. On the relation between the apparatus of scholia in cod. Par. gr. 1349 and IPc’, ibidem 105-126.
[94] And see the Bibliography by Van Bochove.
[95] In 1955, ‘inter Appendices ... quas separatim edere in animo est’ (A I Praef. p. xi).
[96] ‘One gathers an understanding of the nature of codex P from the edition of Fabrot, who has drawn for his text on P alone.’ All passages quoted in A I Praef. p. xi.
[97] H.J. Scheltema, ‘Ueber die angebliche Anonymuskatene’, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschiedenis 25 (1957), 284-301, esp. 296-297 = Opera minora, 323-324.
[98] At the end of the Praefatio of B VIII, which had been signed by all three editors and dated on 2 December 1981, Holwerda and Van der Wal wrote the following praefationis additamentum: ‘On November 18th, 1981, we have formally offered to our illustrissimus and, to us carissimus, teacher Herman Jan Scheltema the last part of the copy, prepared for the press, of this edition. Two weeks later, on the very day on which this preface has been dated, after he had spent the entire day studying, he suddenly died in the evening. We are glad that he has seen the result of the immense work, but regret, that it has not fallen to him to write the prolegomena to edition. We hope, however, that the notebooks that he left will assist us in the completion of this part of the work.’
[99] ‘Cf. D. Simon, Handschriftenstudien zur byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte, Byz. Zeitschr. 71 (1978) pp. 332-348 (and especially pp. 340-343).’ See above, p. 27.
[100] Above, n. 81.
Indices
This index has been especially created for the Basilica Online. Based on the indices originally prepared by H. J. Scheltema, D. Holwerda, and N. van der Wal, this index collects the references previously spread across all 17 volumes of the Basilica into one consolidated index, with double entries removed and corrections made.
As with the original indices, this index takes the Corpus Iuris Civilis as its basis, and links the text and scholia of the Basilica to the Corpus, the ultimate source of the Basilica. The index has been divided into four parts, following the four parts of the Corpus Iuris Civilis: Institutiones, Digesta, Codex, and Novellae. The index showing the links between the Basilica and the four constituent parts of the Corpus can be browsed by clicking on the titles here displayed. From these pages, it is possible to browse the index as displayed on the webpage, and clicking on the links under the columns ‘Basilica’ and ‘Scholia’ take you to the referenced book and chapter.
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