[Novellae constitutiones]

Regarding instruments of a house or land and the belongings of the household.

Regarding the publication which happens for various causes.

Regarding the Emperor's authority.

Regarding vacant goods and the treasury's right to them.

Regarding informers delatores.

Regarding the Emperor's order.

With the animals and fruits, and with all its right, so that those things which pertain to the equipment of the property or the house are handed over.

¶ When the Emperor acts.

Through its publication, by reason of law, something must be added to our property, rite duly and solemnly by the Count of Private Affairs. Then, the incorporation should be fulfilled by the accountants residing in each province, and a diligent record should be made, writing everything down piece by piece. Titles, by the addition of which lands are to be consecrated to our holdings, should not be set forth except by public certification, under the most severe penalties of law for those who have attempted anything of this kind by their own usurpation.

The Emperor.

We order the vacant goods of the dead to be brought to the treasury if the deceased left behind no legitimate heir by any line of blood or legal title, being intestate.

The Emperor.

Let goods that have devolved to the treasury in any other way be prohibited [from being claimed by others]. Let certain palatines palatini - imperial officials, bound by oath, be sent so that at their instance, the governor of the province, with the patron of the treasury present, may diligently inquire whose estate is vacant and falling away.

They should determine how much or what kind it is, so that, with an opportunity for claiming provided, and once it is established by the report of that person and by the faith of public monuments that it is not held or sold by right, the treasury may occupy the vacant or other goods in our name. This form should also be observed in part of the goods, or for one thing, or for one or more actions. For if anything has been admitted through fraud to the detriment of the treasury, the sent executors will not avoid our indignation. The governor will be fined half of his faculties, and the patron of the treasury will be forced to repair the detriment that is brought to the treasury by his vice.

Regarding informers.

It is known that if a tacit trust fideicommissum is left, the informer ceases to have a claim. For they are prohibited from leaving tacitly that which they cannot receive when left openly.

The Emperor.

By the solicitude of the office, by our order, through the procurator...