The University of Texas at Austin

Eden, Robert, fl. 1744.

Eden's Jurisprudencia Philologica : Roman/Canon Law

This work is more a collection of essays than a dictionary. Eden hoped, as he addressed his readers in the preface, to illuminate for his readers the prolix, complicated Institutes, relying on classical authors and poetic and historical sources.

The largest part of the work is his section dealing directly with Justinian's legacy, divided into four different chapters and further divided by subject. The work is highly annotated with references to Cicero, Plutarch, and Virgil. The work has a wonderfully helpful index indicating the pages numbers on which one can find reference to whatever subject holds one's interest, such as "About nuptials" and "About the obligations of a contract."

This volume appears to have had a more complicated binding history than most. In the first essay of the work, Eden discussed works of Roman civil law before Justinian and the history that led to their creation (this is the Prooemium de jure civili Romanorum ante Justinianum, et de libris juris civilis Romanorum per Justinianum compositis that you see in the entry below). Next, there are four pages discussing foreign legal systems (Gotthicus, Germanicus, Africanus, etc.) before the larger essay begins. Tarlton's copy appears to have been rebound at some point; it appears the essays were ordered differently at one point than they are now. The verso of the last page of the index (the last page of the book as it is currently bound) bears the shadowy imprint of the first essay's first page.


Bibliography

  1. JURISPRUDENTIA PHILOLOGICA : sive Elementa juris civilis, secundum methodum et seriem Institutionum Justiniani, in brevem & facilem ordinem redacta, notis classicis, & historicis, nec non parallelis juris anglicani locis, illustrata. Quibus accessit Prooemium de jure civili Romanorum ante Justinianum, et de libris juris civilis Romanorum per Justinianum compositis. In usum juventutis academicae. Oxonii : e theatro Sheldoniano, 1744. CALL # Roman Law 70 Ed28

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