The Digest of Justinian

[GAIUS, Institutes, book 2.]

​The primary division of things is reduced to two classes: for some are of divine law, others of human law. Of divine law are, for example, sacred things and religious things. Holy things also, such as walls and gates, are in a certain sense of divine law. Now, that which is of divine law belongs to no one’s property; but that which is of human law is usually someone’s property, though it can also belong to no one’s property: for inherited property, before some heir exists, belongs to no one’s property. Moreover, those things which are of human law are either public or private. Those which are public are believed to belong to no one’s property, for they are believed to belong to the corporate body itself; but private things are those which belong to individuals.

​Furthermore, some things are corporeal, others incorporeal. Corporeal things are those which can be touched, such as land, a slave, a garment, gold, silver, and in short, countless other things. Incorporeal things are those which cannot be touched, such as those which consist in law, like an inheritance, usufruct, and obligations contracted in any manner. Nor does it matter that corporeal things are contained in an inheritance: for even the fruits gathered from land are corporeal, and that which is owed to us by virtue of some obligation is usually corporeal, such as land, a slave, or money; yet the right of succession itself, and the right of usufruct itself, and the right of obligation itself is incorporeal. In the same category are also the rights of urban and rustic estates, which are also called servitudes.