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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §34.2.5.pr

Pearls Bought After Mandator's Death and Legacy of Ornaments

Passage 5164 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This passage presents Atilicinus' view that if commissioned pearls are bought after the woman's death under the mistaken belief that she was alive, they cannot be deemed "prepared for her sake" and thus are not included in her bequest of ornaments.

[AFRICANUS libro secundo quaestionum. ] §34.2.5.prApud Fufidium quaestionum libro secundo ita scriptum est: si mulier mandauerit tibi, ut sibi uniones usus sui causa emeres, si tu post mortem eius, cum putares eam uiuere, emeris, Atilicinus negat esse legatos ei, cui mulier ita legauerit: 'ornamenta, quae mea causa parata sunt eruntue': non enim eius causa uideri parata esse, quae iam mortua ea empta fuerint.
[AFRICANUS, in the second book of Questions.] The following is written in the second book of Fufidius' Questions: if a woman commissioned you to buy pearls for her own use, and you, after her death, thinking she was still alive, bought them, Atilicinus denies that they are bequeathed to the person to whom the woman bequeathed as follows: "the ornaments which have been or shall be prepared for my sake"; for things which were bought when she was already dead cannot be deemed to have been prepared for her sake.

Notes

  1. §34.2.5.prnegat esse legatos — This is an accusative-and-infinitival construction where the omitted subject in the accusative is the aforementioned 'uniones' (pearls, masculine plural accusative of 'unio'). 'legatos' agrees with it in gender, number, and case. 'ei' is the dative of recipient, serving as the antecedent of the following relative clause 'cui mulier...'.
  2. §34.2.5.priam mortua ea — This is an ablative absolute consisting of the pronoun 'ea' (feminine singular ablative) and the adjective 'mortua' (feminine singular ablative), meaning 'she being already dead' or 'after her death'.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §34.2.5.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:34.2.5.pr

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