DIGESTA IUSTINIANI – editio maior: MOMMSEN, Theodor (1817-1903) DIGESTA IUSTINIANI AUGUSTI recognovit adsumpto in operis societatem Paulo Kriegero TH. MOMMSEN. Mit den Übersetzungen der großen praefatio (von 1870) und den beiden praefationes von 1866 und 1868 sowie das Additamentum zu den Modestiniana von Gisela Hillner. Vol. I. (…II) Berlin, Apud Weidmannos, 1868-1870. Great-8vo. (wie das Original) (Reprint Vico Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2014) (I) XIV, 22, LXXXXVI, 105, LVI, 906, 54 S. 2 Tafeln; (II) 969, 75 S. mit 12 farbigen Tafeln. 2 half-linen volumes. Order-no.: IC-63 ISBN 978-3-940176-33-2 available

Theodor MOMMSEN (1817-1903) wrote a large number of key works, and was even awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (for his unfinished work Römische Geschichte [Roman History]). His outstanding achievement remains the critical edition of the Digesta Iustiniani, his editio maior. Ever since the School of Bologna, which established itself in the late 11th century as the first European law school and acted as a stimulus for the whole of Europe, generations of legal scholars have striven for centuries to achieve a great desiratum: restoring the original text of the Digest as Emperor Justinian had had it written in the early 6th century, and in the process remove all later additions and changes. The Codex Florentinus, Vulgata and lastly Mommsen’s ingenious reconstruction Codex Secundus are milestones in this struggle, which was brought to fruition only with Mommsen’s critical edition. The manner, in particular via the idea of the Codex secundus, and with which tools Mommsen achieved this, need not be presented here: reference is instead made to Mommsen’s exhaustive praefationes, Gisela Hillner’s translations of which have been included in this reprint. Now one can hear Mommsen himself explaining how this masterpiece came about and made Mommsen immortal.

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