Novellae constitutiones … — Geneva 1558

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Ἀυτοκράτορων Ἰουστινιανοῦ, Ἰουστίνου, Λέοντος νεαραὶ διατάξεις. Ἰουστινιανοῦ ἔδικτα. Impp. Iustiniani, Iustini, Leonis novellae constitutiones. Iustiniani edicta. Ex bibliothca illustris viri Huldrici Fuggeri […] commoditati dicantur. Iustiniani quidem opus antea editum, sed nunc primum ex vetustis exemplaribus studio & diligentia Henrici Scrimgeri Scoti restitutum atque emendatum, & vigintitribus Constitutionibus, quae desiderabantur, auctum. Cui & Edicta eiusdem imperatoris, non prius edita, tamquam corollarium, accesserunt. Iustini autem & Leonis Constitutiones […] nunquam antea in lucem prolatae. — Anno M.D.LVIII Excudebat Henricus Stephanus Huldrici Fuggeri typographus. [Geneva, H. Stephanus II, 1558].

Parte editio princeps

Folio (338 x 224 mm). **¹⁰, A-Z⁸ Aa-Klz(i. e. Kk)⁸ Ll⁴: (10) leaves, 529 pp., (3) leaves. Contemporary vellum.

Title-page a bit dusty; a very few spots to the very outer margin of a small number of leaves. The binding with some flaws to the edges; the upper hinge loosening (see photo), but a fine, unsophisticated copy. – Adams J 682; Hoffmann II 500; Renouard 117 1.

Provenance: Mich. Richey. 1728 on title-page. Michael Richey (1678-1761), scholar and poet; his poems were published in three volumes: Hamburg 1764-1766.  Taught Greek at the Akademisches Gymnasium in Hamburg. Meusel (Historisch-litterarisch-bibliographisches Magazin, Band 1, Zürich 1788, pp. 15ff.) has written a few nice pages about Richey and his library.

¶ Source of Heinrich Scrimger’s edition is the Palatino-Vaticanus, a manuscript copied in the early sixteenth century from the Marcianus, a 12th century manuscript.

Friedrich August Biener (Geschichte der Novellen Justinian’s, Berlin, Dümmler, 1824, pp. 367-372) has detailed descriptions of the edition, and registers what is new in Scrimger’s edition compared to Haloander’s edition of 1531 and the followings ones. For The Creation and Transmission of Justinian’s Novels see T. G. Kearley’s homonymous article in the Law Library Journal vol. 102 3, p. 377-397.

In his foreword to the reader Scrimger states that because of its beauty the edition may join the Littera Florentina, the magnificent manuscript of the Pandects, and continues in writing that unfortunately only few copies could have been printed.

The edition is printed in the grec du roi, and financed by Ulrich Fugger, who is the addressee of Scrimgers epistola dedicatoria. Henri Estienne II had the financial support of Fugger between 1558 and 1568. For this reason he calls himself „Printer of Ulrich Fugger“ on the title-page. The Novellae is the first book of Estienne with the financial backing of Fugger, and consequentially the first with the addendum Ulrich Fuggeri typographus after Henricus Stephanus.

The signature „Kk“ at the end of the volume is printed as „Klz“. It looks like the printer ran out of the little „k“.