"Dowry in Jewish and Roman Law", B. Cohen, "Annuaire de l'Inst. de Phil. et d'Hist. Orient. et Slaves", XIII, 1953 : [recenzja]

514 JOURNAL OF JURISTIC PAPYROLOGY

t o her a f t e r t h e t e r m i n a t i o n of the marriage. Besides t h e φερνή a n d t h e παράφερνα Greek marriage contracts contain provisions for ad-ditional gifts (προσφορά). As f a r as t h e origin of t h e παράφερνα is concerned t h e y correspond to t h e t h i n g s for women to he f o u n d i n D e m o t i c contracts a n d the a u t h o r assumes t h a t t h e y were t a k e n over f r o m these contracts t o t h e Greek ones.

H . J . W o l f f , Zur Geschichte der Parapherna (Sav.Z. L X X I I [1955] 335—347).

I n this article, being a t t h e same t i m e a criticism of t h e work of E . G e r n e r , the a u t h o r tries t o explain how it came to t h e par-t i c u l a r cuspar-tom of granpar-ting par-t h e h u s b a n d — besides par-the real, espar-ti- esti-m a t e d d o w r y — still another " e x t r a - d o w r y " which at least prin-cipally was n o t e s t i m a t e d . I t consisted of the same kind of objects designed for t h e personal use of t h e wife a n of household f u r n i -t u r e and was ascribed or -to -t h e one mass or -t o -t h e o-ther and even distributed among t h e t w o masses in t h e same d o c u m e n t . T h e a u t h o r comes t o t h e conclusion t h a t t h e legally little sharp con-ception of p a r a p h e r n a arose f r o m t h e p a r t i c u l a r conditions set b y t h e development of the Hellenistic marriage law.

B . C o h e n , Dowry in Jewish and Roman Law (repr. f r o m : An-nuaire de Vinet, de Phil, et d'Hist. Orient, et Slaves X I I I [1953] =

= Mélanges I. Levy, p. 47—85).

The s t u d y of comparisons b e t w e e n Jewish a n d B o m a n law is o f t e n complicated b y the f a c t t h a t in T a l m u d i c law, civil and re-ligious law are f r e q u e n t l y i n e x t r i c a b l y i n t e r t w i n e d , and t h e r a b b i s were in t h e h a b i t of transferring legal principles t h a t were f i r s t developed in civil law into t h e realm of t h e r i t u a l a n d vice ver-sa. However, dowry is an element of h u m a n situation where we m i g h t n a t u r a l l y expect a n u m b e r of spontaneous resemblances in t h e Jewish a n d B o m a n legal systems. I n b o t h systems, d o w r y was originally c u s t o m a r y a n d v o l u n t a r y , a n d in t h e course of t i m e it b e c a m e a sort of legal obligation. T h e concept of onera matri-monii is f o u n d is b o t h systems. On t h e other h a n d , J u s t i n i a n ' s donatio propter nuptias b e t r a y s Jewish influence. E v e n more evident f a m i l i a r i t y w i t h Hellenistic law is b e t r a y e d b y t h e rabbis where t h e y employ such Greek t e r m s as φερνή, παράφερνα a n d γαμικόν.