Joël Emanuel Goudsmit - [manuscript] Justiniani Institutionum - Liber Tertius - 1875-1876

The Third Book, Justinian's Institutes, interpreted by Joel Emmanuel Goudsmit, Doctor and Professor of Both Laws, at the University of Leiden (Leiden University). In the years 1875 and 1876.

The Justinian Institutes are a textbook on the fundamental principles of Roman law, compiled on behalf of Emperor Justinian I. The Institutes are based on the eponymous Institutes of the jurist Gaius and served as a textbook for law students. In 533, the Institutes, together with the Digest or Pandects (the old rules), the Codex Justinianus (imperial decrees), and the Novels (new decrees), formed the legal code "Corpus Iuris Civilis." Since the late Middle Ages, no book has exerted as much formative influence on law and society as the Corpus Iuris Civilis after the Bible. For hundreds of years, the legislation of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian (527-565) has had an all-encompassing influence on European law in the broadest sense: on judiciary, on the formation of administrative norms, and on the structure of civil law legislations that were established in the 18th and 19th centuries.

The unique manuscript I am offering here is a handwritten Dutch interpretation of the third book (liber tertius) of "Justiniani Institutionum" by Joël Emanuel Goudsmit (1813–1882), professor of Roman law in Leiden. Goudsmit is considered one of the greatest jurists of modern times.

The "Institutiones" compiled by Emperor Justinian consists of four books. Each book covers a specific part of Roman law. It is presumed that there are also interpretations written by Goudsmit of the first, second, and fourth books, but I cannot find any further information about this.



Here is an exceptional opportunity to acquire a handwritten book from an influential person of the 19th century who, through his in-depth research and studies in Roman Law, made a very significant contribution to elucidating its various aspects and which are still embedded in the Dutch legal system today.

Cover with signs of wear. Content in excellent condition. Binding excellent. A few pages have writing on one side. Approximately 204 pages are written on. There is an index at the back. The rest is blank. On the spine, it is printed in gold letters: GOUDSMIT INSTITUTEN 3. Equipped with a fine (foldable) woodcut portrait of Goudsmit from around 1890.

Approx. 22.6 x 15.3 x 3.7 cm

Weight (without packaging): 1.0 kg


Delivered: A printed 34-page very fine "Sketch of the Life of Mr. J. E. Goudsmit. By Mr. A. A. De Pinto". Originating from the Yearbook of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) / Huygens Institute in Amsterdam. The author of this biography was a colleague of Goudsmit and he regards Goudsmit as one of the greatest legal scholars produced by the Leiden University. According to Mr. A. A. De Pinto, Goudsmit can absolutely be mentioned alongside Hugues Doneau, or Hugo Donellus.




GOUDSMIT, Joël Emanuel (Leiden, June 13, 1813 – there, March 17, 1882) was a Dutch legal scholar and professor at Leiden University. He was rector magnificus at that institution for a time. Goudsmit was the first Jew to become a professor in the Netherlands.

Joël Emanuel Goudsmit was born in Leiden into a strict Jewish family as the son of Emanuel Levie Goudsmit and Aleida Joseph van Raalte. During his youth, he was instructed in the classical humanities. In 1829, he enrolled as a student at the University of Leiden. Initially, he studied classical languages and the Talmud and aimed to become a rabbi. He also obtained the qualification exam in the humanities. Afterwards, he continued his studies but focused on law, which led to his promotion in 1842 in Roman law with a dissertation on the work of jurists Aemilius Papinianus and Domitius Ulpianus.

After his doctoral promotion, Goudsmit established himself as a lawyer in his hometown. In 1858, he succeeded Cornelis Jacobus van Assen as Professor at the University of Leiden with a teaching focus on Roman law. The following year, he delivered his inaugural speech. In 1861, he became a city councilor in Leiden and the next year, he became a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also a member of the Academy of Jurisprudence in Madrid from 1862. He was the first chairman of the Dutch Jurists' Association, which he co-founded in 1870. Actively involved in local and national Jewish affairs, he served for many years as chairman of the Society for the Promotion of the Welfare of the Jews in the Netherlands. He publicly protested against anti-Semitic publications in the Netherlands and advocated for the rights of Jews in Romania.

As a scientist, he gained fame and recognition through his Pandecten System (1866), which was translated into several languages. The English translation printed in London in 1873 bears the impressive title:

The Pandects: A Treatise on the Roman Law and Its Connection with Modern Legislation

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Jewish Historical Museum, the Netherlands Institute for Art History in The Hague, and the University of Leiden possess one or more portraits of J.E. Goudsmit.