Ancient Laws and Institutes of England
Comprising Laws Enacted under the Anglo-Saxon Kings from Aethelbirht to Cnut

This 1840 compendium of the ancient laws of England is a standard source of original-language documentary evidence from the period.

Benjamin Thorpe (Edited by)

9781108045155, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 March 2012

672 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.8 cm, 0.97 kg

Originally published for the Record Commissioners in 1840, this two-volume work remains a standard source for scholars of Anglo-Saxon and early Norman legal history. Benjamin Thorpe (1781?–1870) was a respected and prolific scholar and translator of Old English, whose publications in the field earned him a civil list pension in 1835. Trained in Copenhagen under Rasmus Rask, Thorpe advocated a scientific approach to philology, and this is reflected in the thoroughness of the notes, commentary, and concordance appended to the sources reprinted here. In Volume 2, the ecclesiastical laws from the seventh to the tenth centuries are reproduced in the original languages. There is a parallel translation of the Anglo-Saxon text, although the original sources in Latin remain untranslated. This volume also contains a comprehensive glossary to both parts of the book.

Monumenta Ecclesiastica: 1. Theodori Arch. Cant. Liber Poenitentialis
2. Capitula et Fragmenta Theodori
3. Dialogus Ecgberti, Arch. Ebor.
4. Excerptiones Ecgberti, Arch. Ebor.
5. Confessionale Ecgberti, Arch. Ebor.
6. Poenitentiale Ecgberti, Arch. Ebor.
7. Of ecclesiastical compensations, or 'B?ts'
8. Canons enacted under King Edgar
9. Law of the Northumbrian priests
10. Institutes of polity, civil and ecclesiastical
11. The canons of Aelfric
12. Aelfric's pastoral epistle
13. Aelfric's epistle, entitled 'Quando dividis Chrisma'
14. Ecclesiastical institutes
15. Legum Anglo-Saxonicarum
Versio Antiqua: 16. Leges Aluredi Regis West-Saxonum
17. Leges Inae Regis West-Saxiae
18. Foedus inter Alfredum et Guthrum
19. Leges Regis Edwardi
20. Leges Regum Alfredi et Godrini
21. De weregildis
22. De juramentis
23. De weregildis singularum personarum cum Anglis
24. De eodem in Mercennorum laga
25. De veteri consuetudine promotionum
26. Leges Aethelstani
27. Leges Regis Eadmundi
28. Leges Regis Eadgari
29. Institutiones Aethelredi Regis
30. Senatus consultum de Monticolis Walliae
31. Leges Regis Cnuti
32. Monumentorum Ecclesiasticorum
Versio Antiqua: 33. De emendatione et infractura ordinis
34. De officio episcopi
Index
Glossary.

Subject Areas: British & Irish history [HBJD1]