[FLORENTINUS libro octauo institutionum. ] §18.1.43.prEa quae commendandi causa in uenditionibus dicuntur, si palam appareant, uenditorem non obligant, ueluti si dicat seruum speciosum, domum bene aedificatam: at si dixerit hominem litteratum uel artificem, praestare debet: nam hoc ipso pluris uendit.
Things which are said in sales for the purpose of commendation, if they are openly apparent, do not bind the seller, as, for example, if he says that a slave is good-looking, or a house is well built; but if he says that a man is literate or an artisan, he must make it good, for by this very fact he sells at a higher price.
§18.1.43.1Quaedam etiam pollicitationes uenditorem non obligant, si ita in promptu res sit, ut eam emptor non ignorauerit, ueluti si quis hominem luminibus effossis emat et de sanitate stipuletur: nam de cetera parte corporis potius stipulatus uidetur, quam de eo, in quo se ipse decipiebat.
Certain promises also do not bind the seller, if the thing is so obvious that the buyer could not have been ignorant of it; as, for example, if someone buys a man whose eyes have been gouged out and stipulates for his soundness; for he is deemed to have stipulated for the other parts of the body, rather than for that in which he was deceiving himself.
§18.1.43.2Dolum malum a se abesse praestare uenditor debet, qui non tantum in eo est, qui fallendi causa obscure loquitur, sed etiam qui insidiose obscure dissimulat.
The seller must warrant that bad faith is absent on his part, which exists not only in one who speaks obscurely for the purpose of deceiving, but also in one who insidiously and obscurely conceals.