Author Description

A comprehensive reference that includes a useful English-Latin law glossary and an extensive bibliography (centered on English-language publications) that covers all of the dictionary's topics. A formidable research tool. Originally published: Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, [1953] (Transactions of the American Philosophical Society; New Series, Volume 43, Part 2, 1953). [ii], 333-808 pp. "This dictionary is intended to meet the needs of the student with little or no knowledge of Roman law or indeed of Latin. It seeks to provide a brief picture of Roman legal institutions and sources as a sort of first introduction to them. A very large number of brief-usually very brief-entries provide explanations of Roman legal terms, civil and criminal, and summary accounts of the sources. This is a formidable task to undertake single-handed, and Dr. Berger is to be congratulated on the great learning and thoroughness with which he has carried it through.... The work ends with a remarkable general bibliography listing some fifteen hundred works under headings ranging from the main divisions of the law to 'Christianity and Roman Law' and 'Roman law in non-juristic sources.' This last is particularly valuable."--BARRY NICHOLAS 44 Journal of Roman Studies 160 (1954) "The publication of Mr. Adolf Berger's encyclopedic dictionary of Roman law is a very important accomplishment in the recent history of American legal scholarship. The American legal world owes him homage for putting at its disposal the scholarship of twentieth-century European Romanism, or indicating the entrances thereto." --MITCHELL FRANKLIN 28 Tulane Law Review 412 (1953-1954)