Digest

A compilation arranged in an orderly manner. The name is given to a great variety of topical compilations, abridgments, and analytical indices of reports, statutes, etc. When reference is made to "Digest," the Pandects of Justinian are intended, they being the authoritative compilation of the civil law. As to this Digest, and the mode of citing it, see "Pandects." Other digests are referred to by their distinctive names. For some account of digests of the civil and canon law, and those of Indian law, see "Civil Law," "Code," and "Canon Law." The digests of English and American law are for the most part deemed not authorities, but simply manuals of reference, by which the reader may find his way to the original cases which are authorities.

1 Burrows, 364; 2 Wils. 1, 2.

Some of them, however, which have been the careful work of scholarly lawyers, possess an independent value as original repositories of the law. Bacon's Abridgment, which has long been deservedly popular in this country, and Comyn's Digest, also often cited, are examples of these.