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

The first critical edition of Alfred the Great's domboc ('book of laws') in over a century.

Stefan Jurasinski (Author), Lisi Oliver (Author)

9781108840903, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 May 2021

320 pages
15 x 23 x 3.5 cm, 0.88 kg

'This book will transform the field of early English law. Jurasinski and Oliver's excellent critical edition provides faithful, readable translations in modern English alongside meticulously researched contextual essays. The Laws of Alfred makes the complete ninth-century text newly accessible to specialists and students alike.' Nicole Marafioti, Trinity University

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.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Preface
Part I.: 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
7. Alfred's prologue
8. The laws of Alfred
9. The laws of Ine
Appendix I: handlist of prior editions
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Legal history [LAZ], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], British & Irish history [HBJD1]