The Laws of Alfred: The Domboc and the Making of Anglo-Saxon Law

Author: Stefan Jurasinski; Lisi Oliver
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9781108840903

Published In: May 2021
Format: Hardback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Paperback Edition ISBN: 9781108744379

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Description
Contents

Details

Alfred the Great's domboc ('book of laws') is the longest and most ambitious legal text of the Anglo-Saxon period. Alfred places his own laws, dealing with everything from sanctuary to feuding to the theft of bees, between a lengthy translation of legal passages from the Bible and the legislation of the West-Saxon King Ine (r. 688–726), which rival his own in length and scope. This book is the first critical edition of the domboc published in over a century, as well as a new translation. Five introductory chapters offer fresh insights into the laws of Alfred and Ine, considering their backgrounds, their relationship to early medieval legal culture, their manuscript evidence and their reception in later centuries. Rather than a haphazard accumulation of ordinances, the domboc is shown to issue from deep reflection on the nature of law itself, whose effects would permanently alter the development of early English legislation.

The first scholarly edition of the laws of Alfred and Ine in over a century
Allows readers to see this text in relationship with other legal materials from England and elsewhere
Offers a fresh assessment of questions fundamental to understanding Alfred's domboc, such as the role of the ordeal, the purpose of its use of biblical law, and the nature of manuscript evidence

List of Figures

List of Tables

Acknowledgments

Preface

Part I Backgrounds

1. The emergence of written law in early England

2. Legal erudition in seventh- and ninth-century Wessex

3. Reshaping tradition: oaths, ordeals, and the 'innovations' of the domboc

4. The transmission of the domboc: old English manuscripts and other early witnesses

5. Reception, editorial history, and interpretative legacies

Part II Editions

6. Rubrics in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MSS 173 and 383