Corpus Juris Civilis

(Corpus of Civil Law). The collective legislative work of Justinian I (q.v.). It consists of the Codex (Codex Justinianus), the Digest (Digestum, or Pandectae), the Institutes (Institutiones), and the Novels (qq.v.) (Novellae Consitutiones, meaning New Laws). The work was begun by a commission of 10 legal experts assembled in 528 and headed by the greatest legal mind of the day, Tribonian (q.v.). They worked with astonishing speed. In 529 they issued the Codex Justinianus, the collection of 4,562 imperial edicts from Hadrian to Justinian I that replaced the older Codex Gregorianus, Codex Hermogenianus, and Codex Theodosianus (qq.v.). It was subsequently revised, in the light of further work by Tribonian, and reissued in 534. The Digest, a compendium of legal opinions by famous Roman jurists, was issued in 533, as was the Institutes, a handbook to help guide law students through the Codex and Digest. The Novels, the final part of Justinian I's work, consist of those imperial edicts issued after 534, down to the end of Justinian's reign in 565. Unlike previous legal works that were written in Latin, the Novels were issued in Greek, the language of the East. The Corpus Juris Civilis not only preserved Roman law but provided the basis of law for emerging European nations. Its influence on western civilization is probably greater than any other book, except, of course, the Bible.