Basilicas

This article covers the collection of Byzantine law known as basilicas. For the structures designated as basilicas, see basilica (building type) .

The basilicas ( Greek : τὰ βασιλικὰ [νόμιμα or βιβλία] = the imperial [laws or books]) are a Greek-language collection of Byzantine law in 60 books. The collection of laws (the designation of which as basilicas can only be traced back to the 11th century, imperial constitutions were previously called novellae ) was started under the Byzantine emperor Basil I and his son Leon VI. - probably 888 - completed. After that of Leon VI. The purpose of the work was a clearer compilation of the legal material contained in the Corpus iuris civilis , while eliminating everything superfluous.

The four parts of the Justinian Codification are therefore almost exclusive sources of the basilicas , but the institutions only to a very limited extent, because they were replaced by their own introductory textbook (the Eisagoge tu nomu , later the Procheiros nomos ). For the Latin texts of the Digest and the Codex Iustinianus , the compilers of the basilicas resorted to Greek translations by law teachers from the time of Emperor Justinian .

The 60 books are divided into titles, which are arranged according to subject matter and regularly structured in such a way that the relevant chapters (κεφάλαια) from the digests are followed by those from the Codex Iustinianus and these in turn by those from Justinian's novellae . Many of the books in the basilicas are only contained in one manuscript, some are handwritten at all and can only be partially restituted - for example through the Eisagoge aucta , the Synopsis maior , the Peira , the Tipukeitos and the commentary by Theodoros Balsamon . In the middle of the 11th century, the work was revised under the direction of Ioannes Xiphilinos and provided with a catenary comment, as was customary in Byzantine theology . It consisted for the most part of so-called "old scholias" (excerpts from the writings of law teachers) and to a small extent of young or younger (or new ) scholias (individual commentaries mainly from the 11th century).

literature

• Charles Annibal Fabrot: Τῶν Βασιλικῶν Βιβλία Ξ΄. Βασιλικῶν libri LX , 7 volumes, Paris 1647 (1st edition with Latin translation)
• Jan Dirk Harke : Roman law. From the classical period to the modern codifications . Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57405-4 ( floor plans of the law ), § 2 no. 3 (p. 21).
• Karl Wilhelm Ernst Heimbach : Basilicorum libri LX , 5 volumes, Leipzig 1833–1850 (2nd edition with Latin translation).
• Karl Wilhelm Ernst Heimbach: Prolegomena et manuale Basilicorum , Leipzig 1870.
• Wolfgang Kunkel / Martin Schermaier : Roman legal history , 14th edition. UTB, Cologne / Vienna 2005, § 11 ( The afterlife of Roman law ), pp. 223–244 (here 226–228).
• Karl Eduard Zachariae von Lingenthal : Supplementum editionis Basilicorum Heimbachianae , Leipzig 1846
• PE Pieler, Νομικὴ φιλολογία, in: Herbert Hunger , Βυζαντινὴ λογοτεχνία (Ἡ λόγια κοσμικὴ γραμματεία τῶν Βυζ–αντιν.ν) , Athens 1994 (443).
• Herman Jan Scheltema, Nicolaas van der Wal, Douwe Holwerda: Basilicorum libri LX , A: Textus, 8 volumes, B: Scholia, 9 volumes, Groningen 1953–1988 (3rd, now authoritative edition).
• Herman Jan Scheltema: Opera minora ad iuris historiam pertinentia , Groningen 2004 (reprint of articles from the years 1933–1980, several of which concern the basilicas ).
• Andreas Schminck : Studies on Middle Byzantine Law Books , Frankfurt am Main 1986, 17–54, etc. (149) (Edition and German translation of the proof with commentary on the entire text).
• Andreas Schminck: "Piety adorn the work" - On the dating of the 60 books of Leon VI., In: Subseciva Groningana III (1989) 79–114.
• Nicolaas van der Wal: Problems with the restitution of lost basilica books , in: Subseciva Groningana III (1989) 143–154.
• SN Troianos : Οι πηγές του βυζαντινού δικαίου , 3rd edition, Athens / Komotini 2011, 252–263 u.ö. (467).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jan Dirk Harke : Roman law. From the classical period to the modern codifications . Beck, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-406-57405-4 ( floor plans of the law ), § 2 no. 3 (p. 21).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Wolfgang Kunkel / Martin Schermaier : Römische Rechtsgeschichte , 14th edition. UTB, Cologne / Vienna 2005, § 11 ( The afterlife of Roman law ), pp. 223–244 (here 226–228).