Three volumes with 2,198 pages, covering some 60 years of solid and excellent scholarship. How should one evaluate this monumental achievement? S.’s Rechtshistorische Schriften encompass 64 articles and studies in the first two volumes and 36 critical reviews in the third. Evidently, it is infeasible to discuss every contribution separately, but a number of important observations can and even should be made nevertheless. In this, the book’s preface proves to be an indispensable aid. For the preface makes abundantly clear that the Rechtshistorische Schriften are far more than a straightforward reprint of articles and studies published in the past. Many individual contributions have been provided with a short or more extensive commentary indicating developments following their original publication, in order to respond to criticism or to indicate a change in S.’s point of view.
The preface also mentions the silent rectification of minor errors of content or grammar, whereas major adaptations occur in separate notes. In some cases, an elaborate refashioning of an entire contribution proved inevitable. More recent secondary literature pertaining to the various themes was also added, mostly without comment. Quotations from superseded text editions were converted to their counterparts in the new critical editions. The preface also indicates (p. xii) how the additions made by S., whether in the main text of the individual contributions or in the footnotes or at the very end of the contributions, are rendered: provided with a date (2023, 2024 or 2025) in bold, between square brackets, and in italics. In all this, Neye, the editor of the Rechtshistorische Schriften, who also compiled all the indexes of the book, bore the brunt of the work: she managed to produce and finalise the complicated layout of the new edition of S.’s legal-historical writings and therefore deserves considerable credit. The Rechtshistorische Schriften can be regarded as a complete new edition of S.’s writings, and one could argue that because of this the original publications have become obsolete.
The Rechtshistorische Schriften are subdivided into four main sections. Within each section, the individual studies have been provided with numbers. In cross-references these numbers are preceded by their overall section number. Section I, ‘Editionen und Exegesen’, covers volumes 1 and 2 and contains 64 studies, including a lengthy, hitherto unpublished one, I.63 ‘Kyrillos, Patrikios und die Heroen’.
The studies in this section range from (Late) Antiquity to the Late Byzantine period and deal with numerous themes and subjects. From the perspective of Byzantine law, the studies on the antecessor Thalelaios – one of Justinian’s professors of law – deserve special mention (I.4–7), as do many critical editions of minor legal texts, for example the leges fiscales (I.16, in collaboration with L. Burgmann), the Eklogadion and Ecloga privata aucta (I.20, in collaboration with S. Troianos), the Greek index of the Novels of the antecessor Julian (I.21, in collaboration with S. Troianos and G. Weiβ), the EPA Sinaitica (I.27, in collaboration with S. Troianos), a Synopsis of the Novels of the Emperor Justinian (I.28, in collaboration with A. Schminck) and the Tractatus de peculiis (I.55, in collaboration with M.T. Fögen). Attention should also be drawn to studies on Byzantine legal manuscripts (I.11; I.12; I.22): these studies also relate to the important Frankfurt research project on Byzantine legal manuscripts, the Repertory (L. Burgmann, M.T. Fögen, A. Schminck, D. Simon [edd.], Repertorium der Handschriften des byzantinischen Rechts. Teil I: Die Handschriften des weltlichen Rechts (Nr. 1–327) [1995]). There are two more volumes covering the manuscripts of canon law. See III.7: ‘Das Repertorium (RHBR)’.
A fourth category of articles in Section I which ought to be mentioned here comprises studies relating to the major text-critical editions prepared by S. in close collaboration with other eminent scholars: the Syntagma of Justinian’s Novels (D. Simon and S. Troianos [edd.], Das Novellensyntagma des Athanasios von Emesa [1989]) and the Peira (D. Simon and D.R. Reinsch [edd.], Ἡ Πεῖρα – Die Peira. Ein juristisches Lehrbuch des 11. Jahrhunderts aus Konstantinopel – Text, Übersetzung, Kommentar, Glossar [2023]), which is closely associated with the work of the tenth-eleventh-century judge Eustathios Rhomaios. For Athanasios, reference can be made to I.24; I.34; I.37; I.43 and I.44; regarding the Peira and Eustathios Rhomaios, see I.10; I.40; I.46; I.56; I.59 and I.60.
Volume 3 contains Section II, ‘Besprechungen und Bewertungen’: II.1–36; Section III, ‘Ziele und Methoden’: III.1–9; and Section IV, ‘Erinnerung und Lebensläufe’: IV.1–18. The appendix comprises five lists and indexes: sources and literature; list of general abbreviations; index of quoted authors; index of jurists and nomotribumenoi; and finally a list containing the place and year of all original publications included in the Rechtshistorische Schriften. Under the heading ‘Aufgegebenes und Verworfenes’ is a list of articles that did not find a place in the collection.
From the perspective of Byzantine law, special mention should be made of a separate series of articles, as they contain general reflections by S. on Byzantine law and on its importance and value. These include I.48: ‘Die Epochen der byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte’; I.50: ‘Vom Wert des byzantinischen Rechts’; I.57: ‘Anfang und Ende der byzantinischen Rechtsgeschichte’; III.8: ‘Über einige Motive byzantinische Rechtsgeschichte zu studieren’; and IV.4: ‘Europa und das byzantinische Recht’.
S.’s Rechtshistorische Schriften can be characterised as an extremely important collection of studies, multifaceted and very rich in content. The articles and studies incorporated into the collection cover some 60 years of solid research and excellent scholarship. The greatest value of the collection lies in the fact that all articles and studies previously published in a wide variety of places have now been gathered into this one collection and are therefore easily accessible. Moreover, the collection essentially constitutes a new edition of the incorporated contributions, which renders the original publications nothing short of redundant: this greatly enhances the importance of the collection. The Rechtshistorische Schriften are an indispensable research tool for any (legal) scholar or Byzantinist who endeavours to study Byzantine law. The collection of S.’s legal-historical writings deserves a place in every university library.
