The
title page of
Digestorum seu Pandectarum libri quinquaginta ex Florentinis Pandectis repraesentati (
The Digest or Fifty Books of the Pandects, represented from the Florentine Pandects), a version of the Pandects
(sense 1) published in
Florence,
Italy, by
Lawrence Torrentinus in 1553
Sense 3 (“comprehensive treatise”) is fromLatinpandectēs(“book that contains everything, encyclopedia”), fromAncient Greekπανδέκτης(pandéktēs,“encyclopedia”, literally“all-receiver”), fromπαν-(pan-,prefix meaning ‘all’) (fromπᾶς(pâs,“all”)) +δέκτης(déktēs,“receiver, recipient”) (fromδέχομαι(dékhomai,“to receive”) (fromProto-Indo-European*deḱ-(“to take; to perceive”)) +-της(-tēs,suffix formingagent nouns)).[1][2]
Sense 1 (“compendium of writings on Roman law”) in the plural formPandects is fromLate Latinpandectae(“the Pandects”), theplural ofpandectēs, modelled after (Byzantine)Ancient Greekπανδέκται(pandéktai,“the Pandects”), the plural ofπανδέκτης(pandéktēs):see further above.[1]
pandect (pluralpandects)
- (Ancient Rome, law, historical)Usually in the plural formPandects: acompendium ordigest ofwritings onRomanlawdivided in 50books,compiled in the 6thcenturyC.E. byorder of theEastern RomanemperorJustinian I (c. 482–565).
1734,John Ayliffe, “[Dedication]”, inA New Pandect of Roman Civil Law, […], London: Printed forTho[mas] Osborne, […],→OCLC:After upwards of Thirty Years Study, and a painful Induſtry, in compilingA NewPandect orComplete Body of theRomanCivil Law; the Firſt Volume of this Undertaking craves Leave to appear in the World under the Patronage and Protection of your Lordſhip, [...]
1750 January, “We See in a Monthly Book Published at Paris, with the Royal License, an Advertisement with a New Print of a Remarkable and Famous Hermaphrodite,[...]”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym;Edward Cave], editor,The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume XX, London: Printed by Edw[ard] Cave, […], published January 1755,→OCLC,page20, column 2:And altho' there are many relations of perfect hermaphrodites, creatures that poſſeſſed the power of both ſexes, and could both beget and conceive children, yet theſe relations are treated as fabulous, notwithſtanding ſome laws concerning them are found both in theRoman andGallicpandect.
1824 June, [Walter Scott], “Letter II. Alan Fairford to Darsie Latimer.”, inRedgauntlet, […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] forArchibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co.,→OCLC,page27:And now, upon this third morning after your departure, things are but little better; for though the lamp burns in my den, and Voet on thePandects hath his wisdom spread open before me, yet as I only use him as a reading-desk on which to scribble this sheet of nonsense to Darsie Latimer, it is probable the vicinity will be of little furtherance to my studies.
- (by extension, rare)Also in the plural formpandects: acomprehensivecollection of laws; specifically, thewholebody of law of acountry; alegal code.
- Synonym:digest
1611, [Miles Smith], “The Translators to the Reader”, inThe Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […],→OCLC:In a word, it [Scripture] is aPanary of holeſome foode, againſtfenowed traditions; a Phyſions-ſhop (SaintBaſill calleth it) of preſeruatiues against poiſoned hereſies; aPandect of profitable lawes, againſt rebellious ſpirits; a treaſurie of moſt coſtly iewels, againſt beggarly rudiments; Finally, a fountaine of moſt pure water ſpringing vp vnto euerlaſting life.
1682,Thomas Flatman, “The Review. Pindaric Ode to Dr. W. S.”, inPoems and Songs, 3rd edition, London: Printed for Benjamin Tooke, […],→OCLC, stanza IX,page21:Give me thePandects of the Law Divine, / Such was the Law madeMoſes face to ſhine.
- (by extension, also figuratively) Atreatise or similarwork that iscomprehensive as to a particulartopic; specifically(Christianity) amanuscript of the entireBible.
1750 November, “Art. XV. The Œconomy of Human Life, Translated from an Indian Manuscript, Written by an Ancient Bramin; to which is Prefixed an Account of the Manner in which the Said Manuscript was Discovered. […] [book review]”, inThe Monthly Review; or, New Literary Journal. […], volume IV, London: Printed forR[alph] Griffiths, […],→OCLC,page64:The table of contents which we inſert here will give a juſt idea of the method with which this ſmallpandect of morality is compoſed.
2003, Carmella Vircillo Franklin, “Bilingual Philology inBede’s Exegesis”, in Richard F. Gyug, editor,Medieval Cultures in Contact (Fordham Series in Medieval Studies; 1), New York, N.Y.:Fordham University Press,→ISBN,→ISSN,page 3:During a visit to Rome in 679–80, the Anglo-Saxon monkCeolfrith from Northumbria acquired a magnificentpandect, an entire Bible bound as one volume, and brought it back to England with him, to his monastery of Wearmouth-Jarrow. We now know that the book that Ceolfrith bought in Rome was the so-calledCodex Grandior, apandect written under the supervision ofCassiodorus, the scholar-monk founder of Vivarium, in Calabria in the sixth century.
2006, Francis Cairns, “The Nomenclature of the Tiber in Virgil’sAeneid”, in Joan Booth, Robert Maltby, editors,What’s in a Name?: The Significance of Proper Names in Classical Latin Literature, Swansea: The Classical Press of Wales,→ISBN,page68:At 8.330–2, which will be treated again below,Virgil seems to be offering some guidance about part of this tangle of 'problems' (although he was at the same time apandect when it came to the Tiber and its nomenclature).
2006, Mary Dove, “The Middle Ages”, in John F. A. Sawyer, editor,The Blackwell Companion to the Bible and Culture (Blackwell Companions to Religion), Oxford:Blackwell Publishing,→ISBN; republished Oxford:Wiley-Blackwell,2012,→ISBN,page39:Pandects, manuscript-volumes containing all the books of the Old and New Testaments, were enormous and very rare.
compendium of writings on Roman law
comprehensive collection of laws
treatise or work comprehensive as to a particular topic
, Oxford:Oxford University Press, March 2005.
Digest (Roman law) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia