Littera Florentina

The Littera Florentina (TM 66369 ) is a parchment codex in Florence with a textcritically very important and early (probably 6th century) copy of the Digest, a collection of laws promulgated by the emperor Justinian in 533. The codex was written in Byzantium, but found its way to southern Italy, allegedly Amalfi, and Pisa before it ended up in Florence in 1406. Scholarly access was limited, as the Florentine government wanted to protect the precious manuscript after it started showing signs of wear and tear. It was kept in the Sala della Guardaroba (the 'hall of the wardrobe') at the Palazzo dei Priori for some time, where it survived a fire. It was finally transferred to the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, where it is still kept today.