Reprint of the standard edition of the Corpus Juris Civilis. Originally published: Berlin: Apud Weidmannos, 1895. 3 vols. 8-1/2" x 11." xxxii, 882; xxx, 513; xvi, 810 pp. Originally published from 1872 to 1895 and sometimes called the "Berlin Edition," this is one of the finest examples of German philology and legal scholarship. It is the basis for all modern English translations. Commissioned by the Emperor Justinian in 528 CE, the body of writings known collectively as the Corpus Iuris Civilis reformed, restated and preserved early Roman law. Its subsequent influence on European jurisprudence is difficult to underestimate. Commissioned by the Emperor Justinian in 528 CE, the body of writings known collectively as the Corpus Iuris Civilis reformed, restated and preserved Roman law. It has four components: The Code, the reformed legal system, the Institutes, an elementary textbook about the Code, The Digest, an encyclopedia of legal doctrine by classical-era jurists, The Novels, a compilation of laws and amendments subsequent to the Code. "It has been said that the Corpus Iuris Civilis is the second most important book in the history of Western civilization after the Bible. While this statement perhaps suffers from slight hyperbole, the intellectual impact of the Justinianic compilation should not be underestimated. In its original guise, it was an attempt to consolidate an unwieldy legal system. It reduced a mass of materials to a single authoritative collection that could be consulted with ease. Whether it was fit for this purpose is unclear..., but in time it came to have a fundamental formative influence on the law of Western Europe (and by extension, elsewhere). When it was rediscovered in twelfth-century Italy, it provided the first coherent body of principles that could be taught in the emerging Italian (and later French) universities. The concepts, rules, and terminology of Roman law laid the foundation for the creation first of the Ius Commune in the period 1100-1400 and thereafter for the creation of the national legal families of Western Europe. Even today, the rules and terms of Justinian's compilation exert great influence on modern law." --Paul du Plesssis, The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Legal History 5:155