57. Paulus Manutius. Liber de legibus (1557)

In 1557, at the strong encouragement of friends and colleagues, Paulus printed his De legibus, a treatise dealing with Roman law, and in so doing provided his contemporaries with the first in a series of four works dedicated to the study of Roman antiquities. With this publication Paulus demonstrated that, aside from his celebrated skills as a printer and editor, he was equally capable of primary and independent scholarship. Following De legibus, the press published his De senatu in 1581, and De comitiis and De civitate romana in 1585. Together, these works cover a vast range of subjects and form an important contribution to the study of Roman antiquities.