pandect (pandekt)

[Usually in plural pan dects, Therefore, by Faith's pure rayes illumined, These sacred Pandects I desire to read. Sylvester, tr. of Du Bartas's Weeks, i. 1. Thus thou, by means which th' ancients never took, A pandect mak'st, and universal book. Donne, On Coryat's Crudities. Specifically-2. pl. [ cap.] A collection of Roman civil law made by the emperor Just in i an in the sixth century, containing decisions or judgments of lawyers, to which the emperor gave the force and authority of law. This compilation, the most important of the body of Roman civil law, consists of fifty books. Also called the Digest. pandemia (pan-dē'mi-ä), n. [NL.,