[Theophilus] FABROT, CHARLES ANNIBAL, "Θεοφίλου του Αντικήνσωρος Ινστιτούτον Βιβλία Δ. / Theophili Antecessoris Institutionum libri IV

/ Carolus Annibal Fabrotus Antecessor Aquisextiensis ex tribus mss. codd Biblioth Regiae recensuit, & scholiis Graecis auxit. Idemque Iacobi Curtii Latinam interpretationem emandavit, & notas adjecit”, Parisiis, Sumptibus Mathurini Du Puis, via Iacobaea, sub signo Coronae, 1638. In-4 ° (243x175 mm), pp. [32], 916. Full vellum, binding in full rigid parchment, spine with five nerves and handwritten title in brown ink in the upper compartment. Title page in red and black with typographic vignette at the bottom. Text printed as three parallel columns; Greek text with Latin translation and Latin commentary either side, with beautiful woodcut friezes and initials. Ex libris label on front cover’s interior and ex libris relief on first three sheets.

The text of the Institutiones by Teophilus called Antecessor, one of the compilers in charge of the work by Justinian in person. In the same period in which the reorganization of the law in the Pandettes (compendium of writings on Roman law) had begun, Justinian in fact asked the Tribonian, Theophilus and Dorotheus jurists to create a manual that summarized the Roman law for use by the students of the empire. This text, the Institutiones in fact, remained over the centuries a point of reference for the material of great clarity, and was therefore used by scholars as a skeleton on which to structure their comments.

Charles Annibal Fabrot (1580-1659), French jurist, scholar of canon law and civil law, paraphrases here the institutions of Theophilus proposing the original Greek text (or the version considered the most philologically correct of it) with the Latin translation in the column at front.

Theophilus (called Antecessor) was a Byzantine jurist who lived around the 6th century. His fame is linked to the compilation of the Institutiones for Justinian, which he probably set up by tracing the Institutiones of Gaius and the Paraphrase that drew the work. His writings were widely distributed at the advent of the press, published together with the Corpus Iuris Civilis or with the Paratitla.

RARE and very good copy with light foxing.