FRAGMENTA VATICANA. - This was the name given to a collection of pre-Justinian law discovered by Card. A. Mai in the palimpsest Vat. lat. 5766, and published by him with the assistance of Bluhme in 1823. Its author is uncertain; the collection has not come down complete, but lacks several parts: it consists of a mixture of doctrine and legislation, the latter being almost entirely from the Diocletian period and perhaps drawn from the Gregorian and Hermogenian Codes.
The collection, dealing solely with civil law, treats princi-
pally of sale and purchase, usufruct, the various forms of dowry, guardianship, and donations. Chapters 173 and 174 report certain cases of exemption from guardianship for those who entered the priesthood. The F. V. were published by A. Mai in Juris civilis anteiustiniani reliquiae (Rome, 1823); the most recent edition is that of A. Baviera, in Fontes iuris Romani anteiustinianei, II, Florence, 1940, pp. 460-540.