Which 11th-century legal compilation, rediscovered and studied at Bologna, helped revive Roman law in medieval Europe?

The story behind the answer

Compiled in the 6th century for the Byzantine emperor, this codification was rediscovered in 11th‑century Bologna, where jurists like Irnerius dissected and taught it, sparking a continent‑wide revival of Roman law. Its systematic, comprehensive nature made it ideal for university study and for unifying diverse local customs, unlike earlier late‑antique summaries or Germanic law codes, which lacked comparable scope and coherence.

Comprising the Code, Digest (Pandects), Institutes, and Novels, it became the backbone of the ius commune—an academic legal culture that blended civil and canon law. The glossators’ marginal notes and later commentators shaped legal reasoning across medieval Europe and laid foundations for modern civil law systems, influencing everything from municipal statutes in Italian communes to later national codifications such as the Napoleonic Code.