Which Roman legal texts were studied in medieval universities as part of legal education?

• A. The Twelve Tables
• B. Justinian's Novels
• C. Digest and Institutes
• D. Code of Hammurabi

Answer: (C)

The texts used in medieval university study of Roman law are the Digest and the Institutes. The Institutes functioned as a clear, introductory textbook that laid out the basic principles and structure of Roman law, making it ideal for teaching beginners. The Digest is a massive compilation of juristic writings that organized and systematized existing legal opinions, providing the depth and breadth students needed to learn how Roman law worked in practice. Together, they offered a coherent curriculum that could be taught, studied, and commented upon by scholars, and they became the cornerstone of civil-law education in medieval Europe, especially before later glosses and commentaries expanded the field.

The other options don’t fit as the central teaching texts. The Twelve Tables are an early, foundational set of Roman laws but were not the focus of medieval university curricula. The Code of Hammurabi comes from Mesopotamia and falls outside Roman law, so it wasn’t used in this context. Justinian’s Novels are later additions to the corpus and, while part of the wider Justinian compilation, were not the primary teaching texts in the medieval classroom; the Institutes and Digest were the standard starting points for learning Roman law.