"Max Weber was born in 1864, the son of a wealthy family with connections in the upper levels of German business, political, and academic circles. Like his father Weber studied law, and wrote his doctoral dissertation on medieval trading companies (Weber 1889) under a family friend, Professor Levin Goldschmidt. That gave him the title Dr. phil. and qualified him in German law. He then decided to qualify in Roman law as well, a most unusual course, and embarked on a study under another family friend, Theodor Mommsen, Europe's leading Romanist. The result was the present work (Weber 1891), which was his Habilitationsschrift and as such entitled him to teach in any German university."--Jacket.