II. GAMS'S INSTITUTES. A tractate upon the Roman law, ascribed to Caius or Gaius.
Of the personal history of this jurist noth ing is known. Even the spelling of his narod is matter of controversy, and he is known by no other title than Gaius, or Caius. He is believed to have lived in the reign of Marcus Aurelius. The history of Gaius's In stitutes is remarkable. In 1816, Niebuhr was sent to Rome by the king of Prussia. On his way thither, he spent two days in the cathedral library of Verona, and at this time discovered these Institutes, which had been lost to the jurists of the middle ages. In 1817, the Royal Academy of Berlin charg ed Goeschen, Bekker, and Hollweg with the duty of transcribing the discovered manu script. In 1819, Goeschen gave the first corn pleted edition, as far as the manuscript could be deciphered, to his fellow-jurists. It created an unusual sensation, and be came a fruitful source of comment. It form ed a new era in the study of Roman law. It gave- the modern jurist the signal advan tage of studying the source of the Institutes of Justinian. It is believed by the best mod ern scholars that Gaius was the first origi nal tractate of the kind, not being compiled from former publications. The language of Gains is clear, terse, and technical,—evi dently written by a master of law and a master of the Latin tongue. The Institutes
were unquestionably practical. There is no attempt at criticism or philosophical discus sion: the disciple of Sabinus is content to teach law as he finds it. Its arrangement is solid and logical, and Justinian follows it with an almost servile' imitation.
The best editions of Gains are Goeschen's 2d ed., Berlin, 1824, in which the text was again collated by Bluhme, and the 3d ed. of Goeschen, Berlin, 1842, edited by Lachman from a critical revision by Goeschen which had been interrupted by his death. Gneist's edition (1857) is a recension of all the Ger man editions prior to that date. In France, Gains attracted equal attention, and we have three editions and translations : Boulet, Paris, 1827; Demangeat, 1866 ; and Pellat, 1870.
In 1859, Francesco Lisi, a learned Italian scholar, published, at Bologna, a new edition of the first book of Gains, with an Italian translation en regard. The edition is ac companied and enriched by many valuable notes, printed in both Latin and Italian.
See also Abdy & Walker ; S. F. Harris ; Muirhead; T. L. Mears, Gaius, Poste's translation, 1890.