"In the history of a civil law system the adoption of a civil code is an event second to none in importance. The effects are profound, since the code mark a new beginning . . . Just as in precodified civil law systems the existence of the Corpus juris naturally dominated the shaping of private law, so that role is now played by the civil code. Some of the effects of these civil codes are more or less universal and seem well-nigh inevitable, although great differences in substance and approach exist between individual civil law systems." (Alan Watson, The Making of the Civil Law (1981) pp. 131).

This collection of civil codes of the nineteenth and early twentieth century depicts the history and development of the civil codes and its revisions until 1923. This collection allows to research the codification movement worldwide, the structure that they adopted, the framers of the codes and influences between them. These codes represent a time in the history of the civil law tradition.