On February 1, 1935, Vatican City issued a set of six stamps commemorating the 1934 meeting of the International Judicial Congress in Rome. The issue included two different designs. Three stamps feature an engraving of the jurist Tribonian presenting law codes to Emperor Justinian the Great, who ruled 527-565; three other stamps feature an engraving of the promulgation of Decretals, or letters relative to Canon Law, written by Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241). Frescoes by Raphael inspired the engravings. Although Gregory IX promulgated the Decretals, Raphael's painting actually depicts Pope Julius II (1503-1513), the pope who commissioned the fresco.
Renaissance painters often used artistic license of this kind.
The set, which is vertically oriented, consists of 5-centessimi (orange), 10-cent (violet), and 25-cent (green) stamps for the Tribonian/Justinian issues, and 75-cent (carmine), 80-cent (brown), and 1.25-lire (blue) values for the Gregory IX issues.
"CONGRESSUS JURIDICUS INTERNATIONALIS ROMAE 1934" (International Juridical Congress Rome) appears at the top of the stamp. The three Tribonian/Justinian stamps include the inscription "XIV SAEC. CODICE JUSTINIANO PROMULGATO" (Fourteenth Century of Promulgation of the Code Justinian). The three Gregory IX stamps include the inscription "VII SAEC. A DECRETALIBUS GREGORII IX PROMULGATIS" (Seventh Century of Promulgation of the Decretals of Gregory IX). Poste Vaticane and the postal value indicia appear at the bottom of each stamp.
The Corpus Juris Civilis (the Body of Civil Law) is a collection of laws and legal opinion compiled during Emperor Justinian's reign. The Code Justinian consists of four sections: Codex Constitutionum, Digesta or Pandectae, Instituiones, and Novellae Constitutiones Post Codicem. This compilation is a reference work of past laws and judicial opinions, an outline of the law, and new laws issued by Justinian. The jurist Tribonian (ca. 500-547) served as president of a group of lawyers who, in 530-533, compiled the Pandectae (Opinions of Jurists).
Pope Gregory IX directed the Dominican monk St. Raymund of Penafort (1185-1275) to compile a new collection of canon laws, the Decretals Gregorii IX, which he promulgated on September 5, 1234. The decretals drew upon codes of previous centuries, more recently those by the mid-twelfth century Camaldolese monk Gratian at the University of Bologna, the great center for medieval legal studies. St. Raymund of Pennafort's collection served as the compendium of canon law for 700 years.
The stamps measure 2.3 x 3.5 cm and are perforated 14 x 14, with no watermark. E. Federici designed the stamps, which Italian State Printing Works, Rome, produced using the photogravure process. It printed approximately 200,000 sets, which the Vatican withdrew from sale on December 31, 1940.
References:
"Vatikanstaat." Michel Europa Katalog, Band 3, Sudeuropa, Unterschleissheim. Germany: Schwanberger Verlag GMBH, 2008.
"Vatican City." Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue, Part 8, Italy and Switzerland, 7th Edition. Stanley Gibbons Ltd: Ringwood, Hampshire, England, 2010.
R. H. Barrow, "The Romans." Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1949, Chapter 11.
"Justinian Code," The Encyclopedia Britannica. 15th edition, Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., volume 6, 1987, pp. 665-666.
Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John, "St. Raymund of Penafort," The Penguin Dictionary of Saints. 3rd edition, London: Penguin Books, 1995.
"Pope Gregory IX" and "Corpus Juris Canonici," The Catholic Encyclopedia. 1914 edition. Accessed online
