F-1kdv: Justinian, Codex 7.62.31-32, with marginal gloss
The first of the two strips is identified with high confidence as part of the Codex of Justinian, book 7, title 62 (De appellationibus et consultationibus, on appeals). One face has the opening of constitution 31 and the other the end of constitution 32 § 1 with § 1a, each surviving as short pieces of five or six consecutive lines. The second strip probably carries C. 7.65.8, three titles further on, on one face; its other face is not placed. Beside the text on both strips is a gloss in smaller script, too rubbed to identify.
The Fragmentarium record describes two parchment strips, 28 x 112 mm, at Gent, Universiteitsbibliotheek, HS.2583/243, dated 1301-1350, in Southern and Northern Textualis, titled "Unidentified legal text, with gloss" and tagged as a text enclosed by glosses. That description fits. The record names no work. The catalogue date has not been reassessed.
- Identification: identified, high, for strip [1]. On the recto five consecutive line ends fall in C. 7.62.31 pr. at intervals of one line; on the verso four of five line beginnings fall in C. 7.62.32.1-1a in the same way, and the verso passage starts about one column of text after the recto passage, as the same position on the two faces of a leaf requires. The matched words are in the large script of the column, so the containing work is the Codex itself and not a commentary quoting it. Strip [2] recto has two pieces that agree with C. 7.65.8 in order, but a blank of about two line heights separates them where the text is continuous, so that placement is probable only. The Digest, Institutes, Novels and the canon-law collections were searched for the same word sequences without result. The gloss is not identified: the Accursian ordinary gloss (the standard medieval commentary printed around the text) uses "spectabilis" twice at this point, which is compatible with the one clear gloss word on the strip, and no more.
- Transcription: image-only first reading by an isolated reader, which gave letter groups from the four legible end panels, and a source-assisted reading in which a research reader reread every line of those panels on the images, before and after the passage was found. The rubbed centre panels (the gloss) and four faint cursive lines on strip [2] verso are unread. Several two- and three-letter word beginnings after the secure words were read with the edition's help. Accuracy has not been measured.
- Verification: a research reader found the passage by searching a transcription of the Codex, then compared the strip images with page images of Krueger's edition (7.62.31 and 7.65.8), of the Leipzig 1831 edition (7.62.32) and of a Paris 1559 edition with the Accursian gloss (7.62.31-32, text and gloss). The coordinator read "fecture / tulatur / suscepta / piam de-" on strip [1] recto and "cesso ut sacr- / preses sit / iure ordi- / -rio iudicabi-" on strip [1] verso on the manuscript images, and the sentence of C. 7.62.31 containing the recto words on the page image of Krueger p. 700. Line 3 of the verso could not be confirmed, strip [2] verso is unplaced, and the gloss was not collated. No human review.
Textual evidence
Manuscript images: [fol. [1]r](https://eu-img02.ext.exlibrisgroup.com/iiif/2/eyJyZWdpb24iOiJldS1jZW50cmFsLTEiLCJidWNrZXQiOiJldS1zdDAxLmV4dC5leGxpYnJpc2dyb3VwLmNvbSIsImtleSI6IjMyUlVHX0lOU1Qvc3RvcmFnZS9hbG1hLzc3L0I5LzhFLzc3LzBFLzI2L0Q0L0MzLzI4L0M5L0M0L0Y2LzRCLzQ5L0ZBLzhDLzkxMDAwMTExMzI1Nl8yMDIzXzAwMDFfTUEuanBnIiwicmVwX2lkIjoiMTIyNzYzNDc0NzAwMDkxNjEiLCJpbnN0YW5jZSI6ImV1MDYiLCJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbiI6IjMyUlVHX0lOU1QiLCJ3aWR0aCI6bnVsbCwiaGVpZ2h0IjpudWxsLCJ3bUtleSI6bnVsbCwid21XaWR0aCI6bnVsbCwid21IZWlnaHQiOm51bGwsIndtUG9zaXRpb24iOm51bGwsIndtUmVwZWF0IjpmYWxzZX0%3D/full/3417,/0/default.jpg), [fol. [1]v](https://eu-img02.ext.exlibrisgroup.com/iiif/2/eyJyZWdpb24iOiJldS1jZW50cmFsLTEiLCJidWNrZXQiOiJldS1zdDAxLmV4dC5leGxpYnJpc2dyb3VwLmNvbSIsImtleSI6IjMyUlVHX0lOU1Qvc3RvcmFnZS9hbG1hLzc3L0I5LzhFLzc3LzBFLzI2L0Q0L0MzLzI4L0M5L0M0L0Y2LzRCLzQ5L0ZBLzhDLzkxMDAwMTExMzI1Nl8yMDIzXzAwMDJfTUEuanBnIiwicmVwX2lkIjoiMTIyNzYzNDc0NzAwMDkxNjEiLCJpbnN0YW5jZSI6ImV1MDYiLCJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbiI6IjMyUlVHX0lOU1QiLCJ3aWR0aCI6bnVsbCwiaGVpZ2h0IjpudWxsLCJ3bUtleSI6bnVsbCwid21XaWR0aCI6bnVsbCwid21IZWlnaHQiOm51bGwsIndtUG9zaXRpb24iOm51bGwsIndtUmVwZWF0IjpmYWxzZX0%3D/full/3439,/0/default.jpg), [fol. [2]r](https://eu-img02.ext.exlibrisgroup.com/iiif/2/eyJyZWdpb24iOiJldS1jZW50cmFsLTEiLCJidWNrZXQiOiJldS1zdDAxLmV4dC5leGxpYnJpc2dyb3VwLmNvbSIsImtleSI6IjMyUlVHX0lOU1Qvc3RvcmFnZS9hbG1hLzc3L0I5LzhFLzc3LzBFLzI2L0Q0L0MzLzI4L0M5L0M0L0Y2LzRCLzQ5L0ZBLzhDLzkxMDAwMTExMzI1Nl8yMDIzXzAwMDNfTUEuanBnIiwicmVwX2lkIjoiMTIyNzYzNDc0NzAwMDkxNjEiLCJpbnN0YW5jZSI6ImV1MDYiLCJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbiI6IjMyUlVHX0lOU1QiLCJ3aWR0aCI6bnVsbCwiaGVpZ2h0IjpudWxsLCJ3bUtleSI6bnVsbCwid21XaWR0aCI6bnVsbCwid21IZWlnaHQiOm51bGwsIndtUG9zaXRpb24iOm51bGwsIndtUmVwZWF0IjpmYWxzZX0%3D/full/3527,/0/default.jpg), [fol. [2]v](https://eu-img02.ext.exlibrisgroup.com/iiif/2/eyJyZWdpb24iOiJldS1jZW50cmFsLTEiLCJidWNrZXQiOiJldS1zdDAxLmV4dC5leGxpYnJpc2dyb3VwLmNvbSIsImtleSI6IjMyUlVHX0lOU1Qvc3RvcmFnZS9hbG1hLzc3L0I5LzhFLzc3LzBFLzI2L0Q0L0MzLzI4L0M5L0M0L0Y2LzRCLzQ5L0ZBLzhDLzkxMDAwMTExMzI1Nl8yMDIzXzAwMDRfTUEuanBnIiwicmVwX2lkIjoiMTIyNzYzNDc0NzAwMDkxNjEiLCJpbnN0YW5jZSI6ImV1MDYiLCJpbnN0aXR1dGlvbiI6IjMyUlVHX0lOU1QiLCJ3aWR0aCI6bnVsbCwiaGVpZ2h0IjpudWxsLCJ3bUtleSI6bnVsbCwid21XaWR0aCI6bnVsbCwid21IZWlnaHQiOm51bGwsIndtUG9zaXRpb24iOm51bGwsIndtUmVwZWF0IjpmYWxzZX0%3D/full/3487,/0/default.jpg). Each strip is cut horizontally across a leaf and keeps five or six lines. On each face only an end panel about 2 cm wide has crisp ink: it is the edge of a text column. Square brackets mark what is supplied from the edition; (?) marks an uncertain reading; "|" in the edition column marks the manuscript's line division.
| Fragment | Codex Iustinianus, ed. Krueger | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| fol. [1]r, box 80,230,1000,1080, line ends 2-6: "p(re)fecture sac(?)" / "tulatur iu" / "suscepta ap(?)" / "piam de(?)" / "p(er)(?) hac(?) in(?)" | 7.62.31 pr.: "... uel urbanae praefecturae sac\ | rum auditorium postulatur, iu\ | dex non susceperit uel suscepta ap\ | pellatione apostolorum copiam de\ | negauerit, ad deponendam super hac in\ | iquitate querimoniam ..." |
| fol. [1]v, box 2450,280,3350,1120, line beginnings 2, 4, 5, 6: "[con]cesso(?) ut sacr(?)" / "[ide]m et p(re)ses sit p(?)" / "... iure(?) ordi(?)" / "[audito]rio(?) iudicabi" | 7.62.32.1-1a: "... iure con\ | cesso ut sacri iudices appellationes ac\ | ceperint. Quod si a duce fuerit appellatum, si \ | idem et praeses sit, praefectura neces\ | sario tantum iure ordinario in sacro \ | auditorio iudicabit." |
| fol. [2]r, box 100,100,1100,920, lines 2 and 4: "[art]ibus differ(?)[an]tur(?)" / blank / "eor(um) appell(ati)o(n)e(?)" | 7.65.8: "... callidis debitorum artibus differantur. quamobrem eorum appellatione reiecta ..." |
The only differences seen are of spelling (e for ae). On the recto of strip [1] the pieces fall 25 to 31 letters apart, one line of a column about 7 cm wide; on the verso 35 to 45 letters apart, which with the usual abbreviation of "appellationes", "appellatum" and "praefectura" is the same line. Verso line 3 should begin "ceperint. Quod si a duce"; what is visible there ("...int . h(?) u. a...") does not confirm it, and the Paris 1559 text reads as Krueger does at this point, so no variant explains it. On strip [2] recto the blank between the two pieces is unexplained (an erasure, a flaw in the skin, or a misreading). On strip [2] verso, line 1 is in a larger module ("... eos(?) ex" and a run of minims), four faint cursive lines follow, and line 6 has short abbreviated items separated by points, like the heading of a constitution; none of it was matched to C. 7.62-7.71.
Gloss: on fol. [1]v, beside lines 3-4 of the text, the smaller script has "...nus . ex(?)..." and below it ". spectabil...". In the Paris 1559 edition the Accursian glosses "Et hoc" and "Et praeses sit" on this sentence both contain "spectabilis". The strip's gloss was not read far enough to say it is that gloss.
Editions: P. Krueger, Codex Iustinianus (Berlin, 1877), p. 700 for 7.62.31 and p. 711 for 7.65.8; Corpus iuris civilis (Leipzig, 1831), vol. 2,1, scan 772 for 7.62.32; Codex Dn. Iustiniani ... Accursii commentariis (Paris, 1559), cols. 1715-1716. The Codex is the collection of imperial constitutions issued by Justinian in its second edition of 534; the constitutions here are of Honorius and Theodosius II (7.62.31, dated 423 in Krueger), Theodosius II and Valentinian III (7.62.32) and Arcadius and Honorius (7.65.8, dated 396).
Leaf order and limits
On strip [1] the face labelled recto precedes the verso: 7.62.31 stands in the last 2 cm of a column, with gloss and margin to its right, and 7.62.32 in the first 2 cm of the next column on the other face. That the crisp panel holds line ends on one face and line beginnings on the other is inferred from the smaller, differently spaced script beside it, not measured. Strip [2], if it is C. 7.65.8, comes from a later leaf, roughly six columns on. The modern stamp on fol. [1]v is the library's.
Not claimed: the date and origin of the manuscript, the identity or recension of the gloss, the placement of strip [2] verso, or that the two strips come from one book, which the similar script and format suggest but do not prove.