In 1890, F. E. PEISER published in his thesis _Iurisprudentiae
Babylonicae quae supersunt_ (Cöthen, P. Schettler’s Erben) a number of
fragments of Babylonian Codes of Laws, and aptly illustrated them by
relevant legal documents. In 1902, BR. MEISSNER published what proved to
be some fragments of the Code of Hammurabi, from copies made for
Ashurbanipal’s Library at Nineveh, now preserved in the British Museum.
These appeared in the Third Volume of the _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_
(Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1898), under the title _Altbabylonische Gesetze_
(pp. 473-523), and were commented upon by FR. DELITZSCH in the next
volume (pp. 78-87) in an article entitled _Zur juristischen Litteratur
Babyloniens_ and regarded as _Bruchstücke eines altbabylonischen
bürgerlichen Gesetzbuchs_. Judging from the early forms of words and the
old Babylonian measures used in these texts the writer called the laws
the Code Hammourabi (1902). In his lecture before the German Emperor,
which created so much stir in theological circles and excited such
general interest in Germany and then over the whole world, FR. DELITZSCH
stated that Hammurabi, after his conquest of Elam and expulsion of the
Elamite power from Babylonia, was able to promulgate a great
_Gesetzessammlung_, which should unify the civilizations of the united
kingdom and fix the _bürgerliche Recht_ in all essential points. _Babel
und Bibel_ (Leipzig, Hinrichs, p. 25, 1902: delivered Jan. 13).