THEOPHILI ANTECESSORIS PARAPHRASIS INSTITUTIONUM

ediderunt

J.H.A.Lokin, Roos Meijering, B.H.Stolte, N. van der Wal

with a translation by A.F. Murison

Groningen 2010

ISBN/EAN 978-90-76892-19-1

pp. I - LIV; 1 - 1048

price: 295,00 euro

PREFACE

When Professor H.J. Scheltema retired from his chair in Roman Law and its History in 1977, he advised his successor: 'it is important to embark on a long term project and not to allow your scholarly attention to be side-tracked by a multitude of topics, which lead only to a multitude of ephemeral articles.' Encouraged by this suggestion, in close consultation with Scheltema and my colleague Nico van der Wal  -- professor of Roman Law -- with youthfull recklessness I set about making a critical edition of the Greek Paraphrase by Theophilus of the Institutes of Justinian. Being well aware that this daunting work would reach beyond the single power of an inexperienced jurist, while Van der Wal would be able to spend his full time on Theophilus only after the completion of the Basilica, I sought help from the classical scholar and soon to be professor at the Catholic University Brussels, Constantijn Matheeussen, I could thus adress Van der Wal at the conclusion of my inaugural oration on June 20, 1978:

'I hope that our intention to edit the Paraphrase of Theophilus together with our colleague and friend Dr Mattheeussen will be brought to a good conclusion.'

Soon however Matheeussen was swallowed up by other work, and regrettably he died untimely on October 21, 2002. Van der Wal had to work on the Basilica another decade after 1977. New and necessary help was enlisted from Bernard Stolte, later professor of Byzantine Law and at present director of the Royal Netherlands Institute at Rome, and from Dr Roos Meijering. For more than thirty years we worked together closely on this edition. A truly communal, concerted project, it can yet be said without exaggeration that the lion's share of the work through the years was taken up by Roos Meijering. In the final phase of the edition she in fact was its coordinator.

Our heartfelt gratitude is extended to Dr Ludwig Burgmann of the Max Planck-Institut für europäische Rechtsgeschichte in Frankfurt for his advice and for putting at our disposal microfilms of the various manuscripts, to the department of Special Collections of University College London for their affable permission to examine and make use of the Murison Papers, and to our colleague Arjo Vanderjagt for correcting our English.

It is a wondrous experience on the occasion of my official retirement from the chair of Roman Law and its History to be able to declare as completed the Groningen Edition of the Paraphrase of Theophilus, which I announced at my inauguration to that chair.

Groningen, january 25, 2010                                                          Jan H.A. Lokin