A Manuscript was recently discovered in the Worcester Chapter library,
which is believed to be unique in this country--at least there is
no record of any similar one having ever been found here--it is
Vacarius's Epitome of the Roman law. A description of this valuable
manuscript was recently published in the "Legal Examiner" by Mr.
Hastings, barrister-at-law, of Worcester. Vacarius was a celebrated
Italian doctor of law, a native of Lombardy, who it is supposed was
brought to this country by Theobald, Archbishop of Canterbury, and
became professor of law at Oxford, in the reign of Stephen. There he
introduced the study of the Roman law, just then reviving throughout
Europe, after the discovery of the Pandects at Amalfi; there also he
wrote his famous work, comprising an epitome of the whole Roman law,
for the use of his very numerous pupils. At length, either through
jealousy or Papal influence, he was forbidden to lecture, was banished
from the University, and his books ordered to be destroyed. It is
supposed that he himself took holy orders and retired to a monastery.
Although his numerous pupils, on leaving Oxford, had each, no doubt,
for the most part secured a copy for themselves, no record exists of
one having ever been found in England during the seven centuries which
succeeded, so effectual was the royal mandate for their destruction.
The only instance in which Vacarius is known to be mentioned by any
of our legal writers is by Blackstone, who merely states the fact of
the introduction of the civil law into England by such a personage,
and for a long time Vacarius was thought to be nothing more than a
mythological embodiment of the introduction of Roman law into this
country. On the continent the only four copies of his work known to
be in existence are deposited in the libraries of Konigsberg, Prague,
and Bruges, and one in the possession of the Emperor of Russia.
Great search has been made in our public libraries, and those of the
cathedrals especially, as it was thought that had any copies survived
the order for their destruction, they would have been stored in the
monasteries, and from thence been transferred to our cathedrals at the
Reformation; but the inquiry was entirely unsuccessful until a few
months ago, when a copy was found in the Worcester Chapter library,
concealed under the name of the "Code of Justinian." Every reasonable
proof of its identity has been given, although the title is missing.
It is otherwise in good preservation, and beautifully written and
illuminated. It need not be added how valuable the manuscript is as a
monument of the first introduction of the Roman law into England after
the Norman Conquest. The manuscript should be preserved, newly bound,
and the missing portions supplied by copying from one of the other
existing manuscripts. Then some enterprising publisher should give it
to the world in English (as Mr. Bohn has done for the Norman and Saxon
Chronicles).
ABINGTON'S MANUSCRIPT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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