All Scholars
BERGER, Adolf
- Date of Birth: March 1, 1882
- Born City: Lemberg
- Born State/Country: Austria (now Lviv), Ukraine.
- Date of Death: April 8, 1962
- Death City: Bronx
- Death State/Country: NY
- Married: Malva Sterenyi, July 12, 1938.
- Education:
Doctor utriusque juris (classics and law), Lviv, 1907; legal studies at Berlin, 1908-9.
- Professional Experience:
Libero docente, La Sapienza U. (Rome), 1914-16; Austrian Army, 1917-18; Austrian Armistice Commission, 1918; Polish cultural attaché, Vienna, 1919-38; professor, École libres des hautes études (later the French University of New York) 1942-57; prof. law. 1957-62; fellow, Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, 1948; vis. prof. CCNY, 1952-62; corr. memb., Accademia dei Lincei, 1954.
- Publications:
Dotis dictio in römischen Recht (Weimar: Böhlaus, 1909; Polish edition, Krakow: NakŁadem Akademii Umiejętności,1910); articles on Roman law in RE (1911-39); Die strafklauseln in den papyrusurkunden; ein beitrag zum gräko-ägyptischen obligationenrecht (Leipzig & Berlin: B.G. Teubner, 1911) Zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Teilungsklagen im klassischen römischen Recht (Weimar: H. Böhlaus, 1912); Wohnungsmiete und Verwandtes in den grako-agyptischen Papyri (Stuttgart: Erike, 1913); In tema di derelizione : osservazioni critico-esegetiche (Rome: Istituto di diritto Romano, 1915) “Minores,” RE 30: 1860-89; “La citazione della legge delle XII Tavole in Dig. XXVI,4,1 Pr.,” BID 43 (1935) 195-208; “Le XII Tavole e la codificazione giustinianea,” in Atti del Congresso internazionale di diritto romano, Bologne e Roma 1933 (Padua: Fusi, 1934-5) 37-69; “Dig. IX,2,4,1 und das endoplorato der Zwölftafeln,” in A Volume of Studies on the History of Mathematics and the History of Science Presented to D. E. Smith on his 76th Birthday (Bruges: Impr. Ste. Catherine, 1936) 379-98; “Contributi alla storia delle fonti e della giurisprudenza romana,” BIDR 44 (1936-7) 91-130; “Note critiche ed esegetiche in tema di plagio,” BIDR 45 (1938) 267-92; “Pourquoi ius graeco-romanum ? Autour d'une terminologie,” in Annuaire de l’Institut de Philologie et d’Histoire Orientales et Slaves de l’Université Libre de Bruxelles7 (1939-44) 357-68; Some Remarks on Cattle-Stealing in Roman Law,” Seminar 2 (1944) 23-40; “One or Two Leontii, Legal Scholars in Beirut? A Contribution to the History of Byzantine Legal Science,” Byzantion 17 (1944-5) 1-15; “The Emperor Justinian's Ban upon Commentaries to the Digest,” Bulletin of the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences in America 3 (1945) 656-96; Bibliography of Anglo-American Studies in Roman, Greek and Greco-Egyptian Law and Related Sciences, I: 1939-1945 with A.A. Schiller (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America, 1945); “Miscellanea papyrological,” Journal of Juristic Papyrology (1946) 10-13; “Note on Gellius, N. A. I,6,” AJP 67 (1946) 320-8; “Note on the ‘Missing’ Constitutions in Cod. Just. VI 61,” Byzantina-Metabyzantina 1 (1946) 33-7; “C. C. C. A Contribution to the Latin Terminology concerning collegia,” Epigraphica 9 (1947) 44-55; “A Labor Contract of A.D. 164. CIL, III, P. 948, Nᵒ x,” CP 43 (1948) 231-42; “On the So-Called tractatus de peculiis,” in Scritti in onore di C. Ferrini pubblicati in occasione della sua beatificazione (Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1947-9) 174-210; “Ex post facto in Roman Sources and ex post facto laws in Modern Juristic Terminology,” Seminar 7 (1949) 49-68; “L'operis novi nuntiatio ed il concetto di ius publicum di Ulpiano,” Iura 1 (1950) 102-23; “Pourquoi ius Graeco-Romanum? Autour d'une terminologie,” BIDR 55-56 (1951) 290-301; “Pro-Canon. Note on a Rare Term in the Scholia of the Basilica,” in Festschrift für F. Schulz (Weimar: Böhlau, 1951) 9-20; “Some Remarks on D. 1.2.1 and CIL 6.10298,” Iura 2 (1951) 102-15; “The Emperor Justinian's Ban upon Commentaries to the Digest,” BIDR 55-56 (1951) 124-69; “Tipoukeitos: The Origin of a Name. A Contribution to the History of Byzantine Legal Science,” BIDR 55-56 (1951) 277-89; “Á propos d'une édition de Gaius,” Latomus 10 (1951) 333-8; “Miscellanea papyrological,” BIDR 55-56 (1951) 98-123; “Nochmals CCC,” ZRG 68 (1951) 468-90; “One or Two Leontii, Legal Scholars in Beirut? A Contribution to the History of Byzantine Legal Science,” BIDR 55-56 (1951) 259-76; “Studies in the Basilica: I: Το κατα πόδας,” BIDR 55-56 (1952) 65-184; “Bonam copiam iurare,” in Studi in onore di V. Arangio-Ruiz nel XLV anno del suo insegnamento (Naples: Jovene, 1952-3) 117-29; “Actes de vente latins de l'époque vandale découverts en Algérie,” Latomus 12 (1953) 192-205; Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Roman Law (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1953); “Thalelaeus and the To kata podas, Once Again,” Iura 4 (1953) 227-34; “Studi sui Basilici: III: An Additional To-kata-podas Text,” RIFD 59-60 (1954) 47-53; “Studi sui Basilici: IV: La legislazione di Giustiniano e i Basilici,” Iura 5 (1954) 87-110; “Studi sui Basilici: V: Di nuovo su procanon,” Iura 5 (1954) 110-25; “La concezione di eretico nelle fonti giustinianee,” NSA 10, ser. 8 (1955) 353-68; “Studi sui Basilici: VI: Bas. 21.1.45 e CI.1.5.21,” Iura 6 (1955) 104-16; “Studi sui Basilici: VII: Noterella paleografica intorno ad uno scolio ai Bas. 11.2.25,” Iura 6 (1955) 116-19; “Studi sui Basilici, Interdicta noxalia,” Eos 48 (1956) 395-414; “Nota minima sul servus vicarious,” Iura 8 (1957) 122-5; “Some Remarks on Caracalla's Rescript CI. 1.9.1. and Its universitas Iudaeorum,” Iura 8 (1957) 75-86; “Sull'iscrizione detta di Nazareth,” Labeo 3 (1957) 221-7; “Zu Justinians Verbot der Digestenkommentierung,” Labeo 4 (1958) 66-74; “CTh. 2, 1, 10 and CI. 1, 9, 8 pr. A Perfect Example of an Interpolation through Cancellation of a non,” Iura 10 (1959) 13-23; “The Jewish Synagogue and the aedes sacrae in Roman Law,” in Studi in onore di B. Biondi (Milan: Giuffrè, 1965) 143-63.
- Notes:
Berger was born to a Jewish family of Polish heritage. An extraordinary student, he took two degrees with such honors that he received a ring from the Austrian emperor along with the citation promotio sub summis auspiciis Imperatoris. His study at Berlin was funded by a scholarship from the Austrian Ministry of Education, where he worked under legal historian and papyrologist Paul M. Meyer (1865-1935) and legal historian Bernhard Kübler (1859-1940). Upon his return to Lviv he bypassed a legal career and pursued his interest in the Roman law of obligation with an edition of the Dotis Dictio along with numerous subsequent monographs and articles on Roman law.
His religion prevented academic employment in Lviv, so he accepted a lectureship in Rome for two years until Italy entered the war in 1915 and Berger returned to Austria, where he served in the army from 1917 to 1918. With Poland now independent, he served in the diplomatic corps, holding various positions in the Polish embassy in Austria, all the while maintaining a rigorous research program, including numerous articles on Roman law for Pauly-Wissowa’s encyclopedia between 1911 and 1939. Following the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938, Berger and his new wife fled first to France, and finally, in 1942 to America where he had relatives.
Like many academic refugees, he turned to the New School of Social Research, under whose auspices French and Belgian immigrants had in 1942 founded a university where Berger could teach (in French, de rigueur) his scholarly interests in Roman law and papyrology. In 1952 he was named a visiting professor of law at CCNY.
His lifelong interest lay in the explanation of Roman law both to the specialist and non-specialist. His magnum opus was his Encyclopedic Dictionary of Roman Law, in which he wrote every entry in its over 475 pages himself, in addition to compiling a bibliography of over 1500 items. His interest, beginning with the numerous articles he contributed to the RE over 27 years continued with his work on the Oxford Classical Dictionary (1949), the Oxford History of Legal Science (1950) and the Encyclopedia Americana (1955-60). As might be expected in a single-authored compendium, the entries in his dictionary are sometimes uneven, ranging from simple definitions of some terms to lengthy articles (e.g., “Jurisprudence”) with multiple cross-references and sub-headings. Nevertheless, it remains an indispensable work of reference.
- Sources:
Matthew M. Fryde, “Adolf Berger 1882-1962,” The Polish Review 7,3 (Summer 1962) 3-15; Max Kyser, “In memoriam Adolf Berger,” Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung für Rechtgeschichte. Romantische Abteilung 79 (1963) 526-31; Joseph Modrejewski, “In memoriam Adolf Berger (1882-1962),” JJP 14 (1962) 207-11; Iura 13 (1962) 207-11.
- Author: Ward Briggs
