Issued between 529 and 534 by the Byzantine emperor Justinian I, the Corpus Iuris Civilis (Body of Civil Law or Codex Justinianus) was an extremely influential work in European jurisprudence from the 11th through the 19th centuries. Unfortunately, according to Radding (history, Michigan State U.) and Ciaralli (Latin paleography and diplomatics, U. of Perugia, Italy), historical treatment of the texts and their reception have generally failed to take into account paleographic studies of the transmission of the manuscripts of the Corpus that undermine the evidence upon which those histories are premised. They take stock of these paleographic issues and consider their implications for historians writing about the Corpus. Their focus is on the three works of the Justinian codification--the Institutes, the Code, the Digest--with less attention given to the Novels. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)