Theodosian Code, Volume 2

CHAPTER TWO.

THE CODICES OF THE MAJORIAN CORPUS (FIRST COLLECTION).

There exist two copies of the primary collection that are clearly different in substance and form: namely, the almost complete Vatican Lat. 7277 ($Γ$) and the Pithou transcripts referring to Pierre Pithou, a 16th-century jurist of two leaves discovered and published by Cujas, which contained smaller fragments.

Vatican Lat. 7277 (= Haenel, nov. const. 1: Vaticano-Ottobonianus, formerly of Joseph Garampi) was written in the 9th century in minuscule letters, as the specimen of the script on fol. 1v by Amaduzzi (Leges Novellae V anecdotae, Rome 1767, p. XIX) shows. Although we have no witness to its origin, one can deduce that both the archetype and the codex itself were written in Gaul from the fact that, besides the Novellae, it contains nothing but the law of the Burgundian Romans under the title 'Roman Law' and the Gaius Alaricianus The Epitome of Gaius. Furthermore, it was among the books of Queen Christina of Sweden, most of the most important of which we know were acquired in Gaul by Isaac Vossius starting in the year 1650 (cf. Blume, Rer Italicum III [1830] p. 55 sqq.). But more certain facts remain unknown. However, the following library letters are found on the recto of the first torn leaf: Ag. VI (with the comma struck through the number VI) — 25 (likewise struck through) — 327 — S. X. 20 (struck through) — E. 6.3 — 7277. Since the last of these signs needs no interpretation, Henry Brenkman (in the Epistola ad Hadrianum Relandum de consulibus... [Utrecht 1715]) testifies that the letters S. X. 20 pertain to the Ottobonian library, and he writes the following about our codex after other things: 'It is recorded in the index of that most splendid library' (i.e., the Ottobonian) 'under the letter S. X. 20.' Furthermore, Haenel (nov. const. p. III) notes that the sign E. 6.3 (this is how it should be read) pertains to the library of Joseph Garampi. I cannot explain the force of the preceding letters for certain, but from the table of contents in annotation 1 below, in which I have proposed the examined numbers of some books of the Vatican library, it is possible to conjecture that our codex had the number 327 in the library of Queen Christina. We are taught by the sign Ag. VI that our codex was previously in the same library in which the Vatican Reg. 1023 (signed Ag. VII 1) was kept. — After the death of Christina.

1) [Table detailing the Vatican Library numbering systems, including columns for: "Vatican Library numbers", "Numbers or inscriptions of books acquired by Queen Christina", "Queen's library numbers", "Numbers of the library transferred to the Vatican during Montfaucon's time", and "Ottobonian library numbers." Example entries show various codices like Vat. Reg. 158 and 520, noting previous owners like Petavius and Daniel.]