1927–31, 1937–39, and 1945–47. He also became a Mason. Translation efforts In 1919, while developing his library, he learned that there was no English translation of either the Theodosian Code or the "Code of Justinian" (Codex Justinianus). Of this discovery he wrote: "So, ruminating on the subject, I wondered if I might not be able to add my little mite to the culture of the world by translating at least one of these Codes. Here was the germ of the thought of the translation of the Justinian Code, although I did not realize at the time the difficulties that lay ahead." Blume appears to have begun translating the Codex Justinianus into English in 1920. After being appointed to the court, he continued to work on the translation in his spare time. He noted in his correspondence that he "...devoted to it substantially every evening until eleven o'clock at night or later, and every Saturday afternoon and Sunday with few exceptions." Blume appears to have completed his first draft of the translation in 1923 or 1924, but he continued to study Roman law, revise his translation, and to annotate it extensively. The typed manuscripts of his Annotated Justinian Code and of his Novels translation together amount to more than 4,500 pages. While he worked on his translation, Justice Blume also taught Roman law at the Northwestern University Law School (at the invitation of its dean, John Henry Wigmore ), wrote scholarly articles about Roman law and used Roman law in his judicial opinions. According to one study, he wrote some 700 opinions in the course of his judicial career, and in 19 cases he cited Roman law 79 times and made reference to Roman law or history in 12 other cases. It apparently was these activities that brought him to the attention of Clyde Pharr, a professor of Greek and Latin at Vanderbilt University. In 1933, Pharr wrote to Blume the first of what would be many letters. Pharr asked the justice to join Pharr's "Project for a Variorum Translation into English of the Entire Body of Roman Law," with Blume's translation of the Code to be used as the basis for the project's version of that document. Pharr indicated the project would translate into English: "1) Brunes, "Fontes Iuris Romani"; 2) other inscriptional material; 3) the pre-Justinian collections of Roman jurisprudence; 4) the Theodosian Code and novels; 5) other pre-Jusinian