
The Laws of the Salian Franks
University of Pennsylvania Press
Published on 1. March 1991
Book
Paperback/Softback
272 pages
978-0-8122-1322-5 (ISBN)
Description
Following the collapse of the western Roman Empire, the Franks established in northern Gaul one of the most enduring of the Germanic barbarian kingdoms. They produced a legal code (which they called the Salic law) at approximately the same time that the Visigoths and Burgundians produced theirs, but the Frankish code is the least Romanized and most Germanic of the three. Unlike Roman law, this code does not emphasize marriage and the family, inheritance, gifts, and contracts; rather, Lex Salica is largely devoted to establishing fixed monetary or other penalties for a wide variety of damaging acts such as "killing women and children," "striking a man on the head so that the brain shows," or "skinning a dead horse without the consent of its owner." An important resource for students and scholars of medieval and legal history, made available once again in Katherine Fischer Drew's expert translation, the code contains much information on Frankish judicial procedure.
Drew has here rendered into readable English the Pactus Legis Salicae, generally believed to have been issued by the Frankish King Clovis in the early sixth century and modified by his sons and grandson, Childbert I, Chlotar I, and Chilperic I. In addition, she provides a translation of the Lex Salica Karolina, the code as corrected and reissued some three centuries later by Charlemagne.
Drew has here rendered into readable English the Pactus Legis Salicae, generally believed to have been issued by the Frankish King Clovis in the early sixth century and modified by his sons and grandson, Childbert I, Chlotar I, and Chilperic I. In addition, she provides a translation of the Lex Salica Karolina, the code as corrected and reissued some three centuries later by Charlemagne.
Reviews / Votes
"Makes easily available to legal historians and medievalists alike an important source for social and political no less than legal history."-American Journal of Legal HistoryMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Pennsylvania
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 228 mm
Width: 151 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
391 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8122-1322-5 (9780812213225)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
05/2012
1st Edition
University of Pennsylvania Press
€36.69
Available for download
Person
Katherine Fischer Drew is Lynette S. Autrey Professor of History Emerita at Rice University and is translator of both The Lombard Laws and The Burgundian Code, also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.
Edited and translated