Das syrisch-römische Rechtsbuch

The edition of the Syro-Roman Lawbook by Karl-Georg Bruns and Eduard Sachau which came out in 1880 substantially promoted research into the law of Late Antiquity. Later on further versions of this source were published. However, until now all the editions of the Syriac text have merely reproduced the respective manuscript in a diplomatic manner, without any attempt being made to establish a critical edition. The present work is intended to remedy this deficiency which has considerably hindered the work of the legal historian. In its first volume the history of scholarly research on the Lawbook is summarized and the previously debatable question as to which of the different versions has preserved the original sequence of the paragraphs is given a definitive answer. In addition, extensive data on manuscripts, editions, translations, quotations in other works as well as the sources in the Arabic, Armenian and Georgian are provided. It also contains lists of concordances of the variable enumerations of paragraphs in the different versions together with a Syriac-German glossary. The second volume contains the critical edition of the Syriac text together with a German translation. For the present edition it has been possible to consult a number of important manuscripts for the first time. The third volume contains the historical and legal commentary. Following a general survey each paragraph is commented upon in detail.