Corpus Juris Civilis Collection
Soon after his accession in 518, Justinian appointed a commission to collect and codify existing Roman law. A second commission, headed by the jurist Tribonian, was appointed in 530 to select matter of permanent value from the works of the jurists, to edit it and to arrange it into 50 books. In 533 this commission produced the Digesta.
The four books of the Institutiones were also published in 533. They are an introductory textbook of Roman law. In 534 the Commission published the Codex Justiniani, a compilation of material from imperial decisions and enactments. These three works, along with the Novellae, a collection of laws promulgated after the Codex, constitute the Corpus juris civilis, the source of law and judicial reasoning for much of Europe from the twelfth century onwards.
The Law Library has almost 400 separate printed editions of the Corpus juris civilis and its sections.