[PAULUS libro nono quaestionum. ] §34.4.26.prSi, seruo cum libertate dato legato, et alienato adimatur libertas, quamuis alieno inutiliter adimatur, tamen legatum ad emptorem non peruenturum: et merito: constitit enim ademptio, quia possit redimi, sicut datio, cum in eum confertur, qui testamenti faciendi tempore fuit testatoris, deinde alienato codicillis libertas datur.
[PAULUS in the ninth book of Questions.] If, a slave having been bequeathed together with his freedom, and then alienated, his freedom is revoked, although it is ineffectually revoked from one who belongs to another, nevertheless the legacy will not go to the purchaser; and rightly so: for the revocation is valid, because he can be ransomed, just like the granting of freedom, when it is directed toward one who was the testator's at the time the will was made, and then, after he has been alienated, freedom is given to him by a codicil.
§34.4.26.1Quid ergo, si eum, quem liberum esse quis iusserat, manumiserat uiuus, deinde codicillis libertatem ei ademerit? uideamus, an perdiderit legatum uana ademptio libertatis.
What then, if someone had manumitted during his lifetime a slave whom he had ordered to be free, and subsequently by a codicil revoked his freedom? Let us see whether the pointless revocation of freedom has destroyed the legacy.
quod quidam putant: sed superuacua scriptura non nocet legato.
Some think so; but superfluous writing does not prejudice a legacy.