Del derecho a la literatura: Boccaccio y la (re)codificación de la novela

The relationship between law and literature takes various forms, but the way in which law contributed to the formation of the modern novel is rarely mentioned. As this essay shows, this was possible because Justinian’s codification of Roman law was appropriated by Boccaccio, who, in turn, codified the novel. Coding allowed him to gather a heterogeneous set of stories under a powerful articulating framework. But in addition, as will be shown in these pages, the very term “novel” also comes from Justinian, since that is how he titled his legislative work after his Constitutions.