Amalfi was a coastal city. Like Pisa, it had once been a trade-based republic, until a massive tsunami in 1343 nearly destroyed the entire city.
Then the great plague of 1348 wiped out a large portion of its population. From then on, the city declined, and now it was no more than a small town.
Yet during the Crusades, it had been an exceptionally prosperous city. As a result, it possessed Europe's earliest manuscript of the Digest.
This manuscript version was known as the "original." It was kept in Amalfi before the twelfth century, while its "copy" appeared in southern Italy and became known in northern Italy several years later.
It could be said that without this book, Roman Law would not have been revived in medieval Europe. This Digest was also the only book through which law students in the Middle Ages could obtain Roman Law.
Many surviving copies of the Digest were the Bologna Manuscript and the Florence Manuscript. Both versions contained omissions and abridgments. The Florence version consisted of two volumes, while the Bologna version had three.
There was a saying in Bologna at the time: whatever was not recognized by annotation was not recognized by the courts either.
There was also the Great Gloss, which every judge at the time needed to have. Thus, that version was called the "Vulgate," and it contained many annotations.
Even after the invention of printing, Florentines still preferred handwritten books. Their bindings were finer and their illustrations more plentiful. Compared with the "Vulgate," they were more suitable as Christmas gifts for girls.
In truth, Georgiana preferred "beginner-level" reading such as the Institutes over the Problem Book. Besides, the so-called "Florence Manuscript" should actually have been called the "Pisa Manuscript." It was Florence's spoils of war after conquering Pisa in 1406,