[AFRICANUS libro secundo quaestionum. ] §34.2.2.prQui tibi mandauerat, ut ornamenta in usum uxoris suae emeres, eidem uxori uti adsolet legauit quae eius causa parata erunt: tu deinde post mortem mandatoris ignorans eum decessisse emisti.
[AFRICANUS, in the second book of Questions.] A person who had commissioned you to buy ornaments for the use of his wife bequeathed to the same wife, as is customary, what should be provided for her sake. You then, after the death of the mandator, not knowing that he had deceased, bought them.
non debebuntur mulieri, quoniam ea uerba ad mortis tempus referuntur.
They will not be owed to the woman, since those words refer to the time of death.
at si uiuente testatore, muliere autem mortua emeris, non ineleganter dicetur inefficax hoc legatum esse, quando non possit uere dici eius causa paratum uideri, quae prius decessit.
But if, while the testator was living but the woman was dead, you bought them, it will not be inelegantly said that this legacy is ineffective, since it cannot truly be said to seem to have been provided for the sake of her who died before.
eadem dicenda erunt et si uiuat quidem mulier, sed diuerterit et quaeratur, an post empta ei debeantur, quasi non uideantur uxoris causa parata.
The same things must be said also if the woman indeed lives but has divorced, and the question is asked whether things bought afterwards are owed to her, as if they do not seem to have been provided for the sake of a wife.