; next there came into use the title
[Greek: he hexekontabiblos], derived from the division of the work into
sixty books; and finally, before the conclusion of the 10th century, the
code came to be designated [Greek: ho basilikos], or [Greek: ta basilika],
being elliptical forms of [Greek: ho basilikos nomos] and [Greek: ta
basilika nomima], namely the Imperial Law or the Imperial Constitutions.
This explanation of the term "Basilica" is more probable than the
derivation of it from the name of the father of the emperor Leo, inasmuch
as the Byzantine jurists of the 11th and 12th centuries ignored altogether
the part which the emperor Basil had taken in initiating the legal reforms,
which were completed by his son; besides the name of the father of the
emperor Leo was written [Greek: basileios], from which substantive,
according to the genius of [v.03 p.0478] the ancient Greek language, the
adjective [Greek: basilikos] could not well be derived.

No perfect MS. has been preserved of the text of the Basilica, and the
existence of any portion of the code seems to have been ignored by the
jurists of western Europe, until the important bearing of it upon the study
of the Roman law was brought to their attention by Viglius Zuichemus, in
his preface to his edition of the Greek _Paraphrase of Theophilus_,
published in 1533. A century, however, elapsed before an edition of the
sixty books of the Basilica, as far as the MSS. then known to exist
supplied materials, was published in seven volumes, by Charles Annibal
Fabrot, under the patronage of Louis XIII. of France, who assigned an
annual stipend of two thousand livres to the editor during its publication,
and placed at his disposal the royal printing-press. This edition, although
it was a great undertaking and a work of considerable merit, was a very
imperfect representation of the original code. A newly-restored and far
more complete text of the sixty books of the Basilica was published at
Leipzig in six volumes (1833-1870), edited by K. W. E. Heimbach and G. E.
Heimbach. It may seem strange that so important a body of law as the
Basilica should not have come down to us in its integrity, but a letter has
been preserved, which was addressed by Mark the patriarch of Alexandria to
Theodoras Balsamon, from which it appears that copies of the Basilica were
in the 12th century very scarce, as the patriarch was unable to procure a
copy of the work. The great bulk of the code was an obst