1. When a person shall make bond (_nexum_) and conveyance
(_mancipium_), according as he has specified with [his] tongue, so
shall be the law (_ita ius esto_).
2. Both conveyance (_mancipatio_) and surrender in court (_in iure
cessio_) are confirmed.
3. Articles which have been sold and delivered are not acquired by the
buyer otherwise than if he has paid the price to the seller or has
satisfied him in some other way, that is, by providing a guarantor
(_expromissor_) or a security (_pignus_).
4. It shall be sufficient to make good those [faults] which have been
named by [one's] tongue, [while] for those [flaws] which he (the
vendor) has denied expressly [, when asked about these,] he (the
vendor) shall undergo a penalty of double [damages].[24]
5. For a loyal person and for a person restored to allegiance there
shall be the same right (_ius_) of bond (_nexum_) and of conveyance
(_mancipium_) with the Roman people.[25]
6. Against an alien (_hostis_) title of ownership (_auctoritas_) shall
be [valid] forever.[26]
7. A prescriptive title (_usucapio_) of movable things is completed by
one year's [possession], but [a prescriptive title] of an estate and
of buildings [is completed] by two years' [possession].
8. A person [who had been a slave and] who has been declared to be a
free man [in a will on some condition], if he shall have given 10,000
[_asses_] to the heir, although he (the slave) has been alienated by
the heir, by giving the money to the purchaser shall enter into his
freedom.
9. If any woman [not married by _confarreatio_[27] or by
_co-emptio_[28]] be unwilling to be subjected in this manner [by
_usus_ (possession)] to the hand of her husband (_in manum mariti_),
she shall be absent [from his house] for three successive nights in
every year and by this means shall interrupt the _usus_ (possession)
of each year.[29]
10. If the (the parties) join [their] hands [on the disputed property
when pleading] in court (_in iure_), [the actual possessor shall
retain provisional possession; but, when it is a case of personal
freedom, the magistrate] shall grant the right of claim (_vindicia_)
[provisionally to the party] asserting [the person's] freedom.
11. [If he find that another has used his timber (_tignum_)[30] in
building a house or in supporting vines,] a person shall not dislodge
from the framework the timber fixed in buildings in vineyard; [but he
shall have the right of action] for double [damages] against him who
has been convicted of fixing [such timber].
12. Whenever [the vines] have been pruned, until fruit shall have been
gathered [therefrom, the owner shall not recover the timber].