Sourcebook on Byzantine Law

Daphne Penna, Ph.D. (2012), University of Groningen, is Assistant Professor of Legal History at that university. Her interests are Romanand Byzantine law, and particularly their influence on the European legal tradition; she has published extensively on this area.Roos Meijering, Ph.D. (1987), University of Groningen, was Assistant Professor of Legal History at that same university until her retirement in 2017. Meijering’s publications include articles on Byzantine law, commentaries and critical editions of Byzantine legal sources.

• PrefaceList of Figures and MapsAbbreviationsGeneral Note on the Bibliography1 The Sources of Law before the Time of Justinian1 Introduction2 A Brief Summary of the Sources of Roman Law3 Teaching Law before the time of Justinian4 Select Bibliography2 The Time of Justinian1 Justinian’s Legislation2 Teaching Law in the Time of Justinian3 Contemporary Writings for More Practical Purposes3 From the End of the Sixth Century up to and including the Iconoclastic Period1 End of the Sixth Century: the scholastikoi2 Athanasios of Emessa3 Theodoros of Hermoupolis4 ‘The Seventh Century’: ‘The Anonymos Junior’5 ‘The Seventh Century’: Early Legal Treatises—De actionibus and Rhopai6 The Ecloga7 The Farmer’s Law and the Military Law8 The Rhodian Sea Law9 Select Bibliography4 Macedonian Renaissance1 Introduction2 The Prochiron and the Eisagoge3 The Basilica Puzzle4 The Novels of Leo VI the Wise5 The Prefect’s Book (Eparchikon biblion)6 The ‘Old’ Basilica Scholia7 The Synopsis maior Basilicorum and the Legal Lexica8 Select Bibliography5 From the Eleventh Century up To 14531 The ‘New’ Basilica Scholia2 Recognising ‘Old’ and ‘New’ Basilica Scholia3 The Ponema Nomikon, Tipoukeitos and the Synopsis legum4 The Peira5 The Ecloga Basilicorum6 The Novel of Manuel on Procedure7 The Decisions and Statements of Chomatenos8 The Hexabiblos by Harmenopoulos9 Select Bibliography6 Canon Law1 A Brief Outline of Byzantine Canon Law and Some Basic Terms2 A Scheme of Canon Law: The Sources of Byzantine Canon Law until the Twelfth Century3 The Canonists of the Twelfth Century4 Byzantine Civil and Canon Law concerning Interest on Debts5 Select BibliographyAppendix: A Schematic Approach to the Sources of Byzantine Law and Their Relations to Roman LawIndex of SourcesIndex of Personal NamesIndex of Place namesIndex of Terms

'...the sourcebook on Byzantine law by Penna and Meijering fills a huge gap as an accessible introduction to Byzantine legal literature, supplemented by concise and accurate translations of source texts into English. The authors are to be congratulated on a major achievement: with this sourcebook, aspiring instructors might be tempted to add their own institutions to the select list of universities where Byzantine law is taught.'Zachary Chitwood (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) in The Byzantine Review 05.2023.022 (doi: 10.17879/byzrev-2023-5117)"Daphne Penna and Roos Meijering have done the field a great service with this book and have filled a significant gap in the literature. [...] This field has a well-earned reputation for obscurity and inaccessibility, but Penna and Meijering have done much to help overturn that reputation. Their clear presentation and explanation of the sources open the subject to a much wider audience; the book deserves to become a standard text in the teaching of Byzantine law."James Morton (Chinese University of Hong Kong) in Speculum, Vol. 100, No. 2 (2025), pp. 578-579"...Les commentaires des auteurs du livre sur les sources présentées et traduites sont concis et précis. [...] Le langage clair du livre et les traductions pertinentes des sources réussissent à les rendre compréhensibles et, par conséquent, d’ouvrir une fenêtre sur le droit byzantin même à un public de non-initiés. [...] Le livre sera donc un complément nécessaire pour l’enseignement du droit byzantin à toute faculté et professeur d’histoire du droit, qui voudrait inclure dans son enseignement des cours sur cette partie intégrale de l’histoire européenne du droit, parmi les plus importantes, riches en culture juridique et pourtant moins connues et familières aux juristes occidentaux. Il servira aussi comme guide d’introduction à la recherche, rassemblant toutes les informations pratiques pour s’initier et aborder l’étude des sources juridiques byzantines, rendues accessibles et familières d’une manière globale et compréhensive..."Athina Dimopoulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) in Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtsgeschichte: Romanistische Abteilung, 141/1 (2024), pp. 628-633