THE GREAT LAW BOOKS

During the 1460s Fust and Schoeffer also pioneered the printing of late medieval canon and civil law books. Carried on by Schoeffer (who became a civic judge in 1489), the mass-production of legal texts with commentaries included first editions and several reprints of the Corpus juris canonici, the official compilation of ecclesiastical law, and the Corpus juris civilis, the ancient compilation of Roman civil law. Printed in large editions, these volumes became essential holdings at religious institutions, universities, courtrooms, and legal offices throughout Europe.