Interpolations in the Justinians’ ‘Digest’. Historical and Methodological Remarks
The aim of the paper is to present the history of the research of Justinian’s Digest’s interpolations as a methodological issue. The emperor admitted that his dependents were also to make necessary ‘amendments’ in classical jurists’ texts when drafting the ‘Digest.’ When it was rediscovered in the 11th century, it was dealt with like the Bible. That is why no critical attempts were possible. Only the scholars of mos gallicus docendi made such ones. The situation changed during the 19th century, mainly due to the works of Otto Gradenwitz: to find any possible interpolation became the most important duty of Romanists. In effect, too many propositions of conjectures actually replaced any fair interpretation. That led to a profound crisis of confidence to the foundation text of Roman law research. The interpolationism was generally criticized in the 1920’s and 1930’s, but the question of its role in interpretations of Roman law sources is still not without influence on contemporary legal research in Roman law.
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