Editing Jacques Cujas (section)

== Works ==
The life of Cujas was altogether that of a scholar and teacher. In the religious wars which filled all the thoughts of his contemporaries he steadfastly refused to take any part. ''Nihil hoc ad edictum praetoris'', "this has nothing to do with the edict of the praetor," was his usual answer to those who spoke to him on the subject. His claim as a jurisconsult consisted in the fact that he turned from  whom he considered the "ignorant" commentators on [[Roman law]] to the Roman law itself. He consulted a very large number of manuscripts, of which he had collected more than 500 in his own library; but he left orders in his will that his library should be divided among a number of purchasers, and so his collection was scattered and in great part lost.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=614}}

His emendations, of which a large number were published under the title of ''Observationes et emendationes'', were not confined to lawbooks, but extended to many of the Latin and Greek classical authors. In jurisprudence his study was far from being devoted solely to Justinian; he recovered part of the Theodosian Code, with explanations and he procured the manuscript of the ''[[Basilika]]''.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|pp=614–615}}

He also composed a commentary on the ''Consuetudines Feudorum'', and on some books of the ''Decretals''. In the ''Paratitla'', or summaries which he made of the ''Digest'', and particularly of the [[Code of Justinian]], he condensed into short axioms the elementary principles of law, and gave definitions remarkable for their clarity and precision.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=615}}

In his lifetime Cujas published an edition of his works (Neville, 1577). It is incomplete. The edition of Colombet (1634) is also incomplete. [[Charles Annibal Fabrot]], however, collected the complete works of Cujas in the edition which he published at Paris (1658), Naples and Venice.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=615}}