Humanitext Reader

Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §31.0.21.pr

Validity of a Legacy Pretexting Repayment of Returned Dowry

Passage 4747 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

On the validity of a legacy of forty to a wife under the pretext of returning a dowry that has already been returned, concluding that the legacy is valid based on the meaning of the word 'to return'.

[IDEM libro uicesimo digestorum. ] §31.0.21.prCum quidam uxori suae dotem reddidisset, quadraginta ei legare uoluisset et quamquam sciret dotem redditam, hoc tamen praetextu usus esset, quasi dotis reddendae nomine cam summam legaret, existimo deberi quadraginta: etenim reddendi uerbum quamquam significationem habet retro dandi, recipit tamen et per se dandi significationem.
[THE SAME, in the twentieth book of his digests.] When a certain man had returned the dowry to his wife, and wished to bequeath forty to her, and although he knew that the dowry had been returned, yet used this pretext, as if he were bequeathing that sum under the name of returning the dowry, I think that the forty is owed; for indeed the word of returning (reddendi), although it has the significance of giving back (retro dandi), nevertheless also admits the significance of giving (dandi) by itself.

Notes

  1. §31.0.21.prcam — Understood as a scribal error for eam (c and e being easily confused), meaning 'that sum' (eam summam).
  2. §31.0.21.prdeberi — Part of the accusative with infinitive (A.C.I.) construction following existimo (I think), where the indeclinable numeral quadraginta functions as the subject accusative.
  3. §31.0.21.prreddendi — Genitive of the gerund, qualifying the noun uerbum to mean 'the word of returning' (genitive of apposition). The subsequent retro dandi and dandi are also gerunds in the genitive.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §31.0.21.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:31.0.21.pr

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