Fragments of a lost ancient Roman law text have been rediscovered in the scrap paper used to bind other books.

用来捆扎书籍的纸条，而后却被人发现上面记载着失传的古罗马法律条文。

The Codex Gregorianus, or Gregorian Code, was compiled by an otherwise unknown man named Gregori us at the end of the third century A.D. It started a centuries-long tradition of collecting Roman emperors' laws in a single manu.

 “格利哥里安手稿”，也叫“格利哥里安法典”，于公元3世纪末由一个名叫格利高里的人编撰的。由此开启了长达一个世纪的传统——使用同一种字体抄录罗马君王的法律。

The Codex Gregorian us covered the laws of Hadrian, who ruled from A.D. 117 to 138, to those of Diocletian, ruler from A.D. 284 to305.

格利哥里安手稿取代了哈德良法律，形成了戴克里法律。哈德良是公元117至138年的罗马皇帝，后者系公元284至305年。

Later codices excerpted the laws that were still relevant and added new ones, so only parts of the first codex survived as passages in other editions. All copies of the original collection of laws were thought to have been lost.

后来的手稿还是涉及和添加了新的条款，仅仅只有第一份手稿的部分保留了部分章节。人们以为所有原始的手稿复件都失传了。

Luckily, in the 16th century it was common to use scraps of paper to reinforce the bindings of new books.

幸运的是，在16世纪人们习惯用碎纸条来加固一捆一捆的新书。

Seventeen such fragments—each smaller than 2 square inches (13 square centimeters)—were recovered from a set of books decades ago. The scraps were eventually acquired by a private owner, who recently loaned them to Roman-law experts at University College London.

几十年前，每一份面积小于2平方英寸的残片在一堆书里被发现。这些残片最终落入一个私人收藏家手里，此人近日将这些珍贵的文物暂时借给了伦敦大学。

A preservation librarian who examined the scraps told the researchers that the shapes of the pieces and the patterns of wear suggest the ancient papers had been wrapped around cords that went over the books' spines.

一位图书保管员在检察了这些残片之后，告诉研究人员这些纸条的形状和磨损的花纹说明，它们是用来包裹装订书籍的绳索的。

"We saw a couple key phrases and realized this was a kind of legal text," said study leader Benet Sal way. "We matched it against the database of legal pronouncements we had, and found it didn't match anything."

 “我们看见了几个关键的词组，意识到这是一种法律文本，”研究小组组长本内特·萨尔维。“我们把它同手头现有的法律公告数据相对照，结果毫无结果。”

But a few of the phrases matched passages in the Justinian Code, compiled in the sixth century, leading the team to conclude that the unfamiliar sections were from a source text: the Codex Gregorian us.

 The paper fragments themselves are not from the original codex, but they could be from a copy that dates back as far as A.D.400, the researchers said.

不过其中几条与16世纪编撰的“查士丁尼法典”的某些段落匹配，于是研究小组提出一个结论：另外不为人了解的部分来自“格利哥里安手稿”。研究小组认为，这些残片本身并非来自原始文档，而可能是来自一份公元400年的复制件。

Well-Used Codex

Only the fragments containing text that overlaps with known parts of the Justinian Code could be translated, and that text deals with appeals and the statute of limitations for an unknown matter.

残片中的文字仅仅只有与“格利哥里安手稿”相重合的部分可翻译，这段文字与上诉和诉讼时效有关，具体事宜不详。

But the fragments were annotated between the lines in Greek, a commonly spoken language by the end of the fifth century, implying that this particular copy of the Codex Gregorian us was used heavily, Salway said.

"The language of the law was Latin, but a lot of users of this text [would have been] Greek speakers, and they'd need to be able to understand it."

但是这些残片是用来作为希腊文行与行之间的注释的，希腊文在15世纪末是常用口语。这暗示这份“格利哥里安手稿”的特别复印件曾经受到频繁使用。萨尔维说：“纸条上是拉丁语，但是使用它的人大多可能是讲希腊语的，他们必须学会拉丁语。”

Since the pieces were found inside an unrelated book, the find doesn't increase the researchers' chances of locating the rest of the Codex Gregorian us. But "what I would hope is that it raises awareness of the possibility of this still being out there," Sal way said.

虽然人们在其它一些无关书籍里发现了这些古老的文件，却并没有给人们更多机会寻找到“格利哥里安手稿”的其它部分。但是萨尔维说，“我满心希望的是，人们对找到剩余的部分增加了信心。”

"I'm not advocating that all[16th-century] books' bindings be ripped off—though we might find all sorts of interesting things in there—but when these books are conserved, care should betaken to see what is inside."

“我不主张把所有（16世纪）的书籍全部解开——尽管我们可能会在当中发现一些有趣的东西——但是在完整保存书籍的前提下，我们应该留意一下里面。”