The present volume agrees in contents with the fifth and last volume of the Corpus juris as it is found arranged in the medieval MSS., except for the omission of the Institutiones, already sufficiently accessible in separate editions, of which no less than fifty were printed in the 15th century, the first of them by Schoeffer himself in 1468.  The first three volumes of the Corpus were occupied by the Digests, the fourth by the Codex lib. i-ix.  The last three books of the Codex relate mainly to public law and having lost much of their importance were transferred to the fifth volume.

That the order of the three parts in the present copy, viz. 1.  Novellae, 2.  Consuetudines, 3.  Codex lib. x-xii, is that intended by the printer, is clear both from the position and from the language of the colophon—­the position because the colophon is attached to the Codex, and the language because it describes the volume as consisting of “the ten Collations and the three books of the Codes.”  The Novellae were usually divided by the commentators into nine Collations, perhaps, as Savigny suggests, to parallel the first nine books of the Codex.  Sometimes, however, as in the present case, the Consuetudines feudorum were joined with them and reckoned as a tenth collation.  Notwithstanding these plain indications, in the copy described by Hain 9623, and in the British Museum copy (as at present, though not as originally, bound), the Codex x-xii is placed between the Novellae and the Consuetudines, thus removing the colophon from its natural place at the end of the volume.  In the first edition of these works, printed by Vitus Puecher, Rome, 1476, they were placed in the order last named, but the colophon was there attached to the Consuetudines.

After the death of his father-in-law and partner Fust, late in 1466 or early in 1467, Schoeffer conducted the press alone until his death in 1502.  After 1478, however, his activity as a printer was much diminished.

The present large and fine copy (leaf 15-3/4 x 11-1/4 in.), with the manuscript signatures still in part preserved, is from the library of Sir John Hayford Thorold (1773-1831) of Syston Park, Lincolnshire, sold in December, 1884.  In the Meerman sale at the Hague, 1824, this same copy, bound as at present in russia gilt, sold for 64 florins.

3.  ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS.  Etymologiarum libri XX. [Strassburg, Johann
    Mentelin, c. 1473.]

Fol. 1, blank. Fol. 2^a:  INCIPIT EPISTOLA ISIDORI IVNIORIS HISPALENSIS EPISCOPI AD BRAVLIONEM CESARAVGVSTANVM EPISCOPVM. [Three other letters to the same and two replies; tabula generalis.] Fol. 3^b, col. 2:  INCIPIVNT CAPITVLA PRIMI LIBRI.  INCIPIT LIBER PRIMVS ETHIMOLOGIARVM ISIDORI HISPALENSIS EPISCOPI.  DE DISCIPLINA ET ARTE. Fol. 27^b, col. 1:  INCIPIVNT CAPITVLA LIBRI QVARTI. Fol. 27^b, col. 2:  PREFACIO. [D]Omino et filio syseputo ysidor_us_.....  INCIPIT LIBER YSIDORI DE RERVM NATVRA AD SISEPVTVM REGEM. Fol. 37^a, col. 2:  INCIPIVNT CAPITVLA LIBRI QVARTI.  INCIPIT LIBER QVARTVS DE MEDICINA. Fol. 142^a, COLOPHON:  EXPLICIT LIBER ETHIMOLOGIARVM ISIDORI HISPALENSIS EPISCOPI.