Abstract
A text of the scholar Festus, which is famous among Latinists and lawyers alike, reads:
Tignum non solum in aedificiis, quo utuntur, appellatur, sed etiam in vineis, ut est in XII: "Tignum iunctum aedibus vineave et concapit ne solvito".
For the quotation from the XII Tables, the manuscripts showsome variation for 'vineave': 'victum' in W, 'vineaque' in V and 'minerve' in X. But these we can happily leave aside and com to the crux of the text, 'concapit', which appears in all the manuscripts. "'Concapit', a corrupt word, and difficult of explanation" say Lewis and Short! And the emendations proposed are numerous and lacking in general approval. J.J. Scaliger suggested 'e concapi', Cuiacius 'et concapit', Mommsen 'e compage', Gotz 'e concapidine', Muller 'e concapte', but Schoell reverts to 'e concapi' and Huschke has 'sei concapit'. Riccobono excises the words altogether. To show that the age of invention is not over I wish to propose and defend yet another emendation which will have its own particular virtues, legal and linguistic.
Repository Citation
Alan Watson,
Tignum Iunctum: The XII Tables and a Lost Word
(1974),
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/fac_artchop/393
Revue Internationale des Droits de l'Antiquite, Ser. 3, Vol. 21 (1974), pp. 337-342