G. I. Borisov Lexical changes in Lex Salica Karolina (pp. 89–99)

Author

G. I. Borisov (Lomonosov Moscow State University)

Pages\n 89–99

Summary\n

This paper will discuss the changing of the vocabulary and text structure in Lex Salica Karolina, made in its last edition, which was written by the order of Charlemagne, approximately in 802 AD. This source, which is the most well-known and wide-spread legal text of Early Middle Ages (contains in approximately 60 manuscripts from 9th-10th centuries) remain at the same time least developed in historiography. There is an edition by K.A. Eckhardt in Monumenta Germaniae Historica, but it includes just about a half of all the mentioned manuscripts. However, his study allows me to compare the text structure and the arrangement of chapters, as well as the vocabulary of the recension I use with the earlier and better developed “A”, “C”, “D”, “E”. This paper deal with the poorly known manuscript, which Eckhardt didn’t include in his edition – the codex Lat. O.v.II no. 11 from the National library of Russia in Saint-Petersburg. Compared with the earlier editions, this text (which is also known under the title “K”edition) is remarkable for its good Latin. The most important feature of Lex Salica Karolina is the lack of so called “Malberg glosses” – the phrases in Old High German, describing different legal cases. Study of the “K” recension (consisting of 70 chapters) shows that it was based mainly on the recensions “A” and “C” (consisting of 65 chapters), while the longer and younger “D” and “E” recensions (consisting of 99 and 100 chapters) were used as additional ones. Approximately a third part of all the chapters was improved by codifiers: they reformulated phrases and titles, described the meaning of the chapters more particularly, added legal formulas, which were known from the late antic texts (“Codex Theodosianus”, the acts of the Synods and the Church Fathers’ works). As for the vocabulary changes, there were only few ones. The codifiers corrected grammatically wrong phrases and other errors of Merovingian Latin without changing the essence of the law. Thus, the corrections and additions regarding the vocabulary and the structure of the text influenced mostly the language but not the contents of the law.

Keywords\n

Charlemagne, Salic law, legal formulas, Lex Salica Karolina, Leges-reforms

References\n

1. Sankt-Peterburg, OR RNB, Lat. Q.v. II, no. 11 [Saint-Petersburg, the Manuscripts Department of the National Library of Russia Lat. Q.v. II, no. 11]. (In Russ.).
2. V.F. Semenov Salicheskaya pravda [Salic law]. N. P. Gratsiansky (transl.). M., 1950. (In Russ.).
3. Eckhardt K. A. Pactus legis Salicae, vol. IV. P. 1. (MGH, LL nat. Germ., 4). München, 1962.
4. Fridh A. Cassiodorus Uariarum libri duodecim. (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 96). Turnhout, 1973.
5. de Clercq C. Concilia Galliae 511–695. (Corpus Christianorum Series Latina, 148A). Turnhout, 1963.
6. Iohannes Cassianus De institutis coenobiorum et de octo principalium uitiorum remediis. Patrologia Latina, vol. 49. Turnhout, 1967.
7. Redepenning E. P. Origenes. De principiis interprete Rufino. Lipsiae, 1836.
8. Mommsen T., Meyer P. Theodosiani libri XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes. Berlin, 1905.
9. Aurenheimer B. Die Sprachplanung der Karolingischen Bildungsreform im Spiegel von Heiligenviten. München u. a., 2003.
10. Banniard M. Viva voce. Communication écrite et communication orale du IVe au IXe siècle en Occident latin. Paris, 1992.
11. Beckmann G. A. Aus den letzten Jahrzehnten des Vulgärlateins in Frankreich. Ein parodistischer Zusatz zur Lex Salica und eine Schreiberklage. Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie des Mittelalters, 1963, Bd. 79, H. 3, pp. 305–334.
12. Ducange Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, Unveränderter Nachdruck der Ausgabe von 1883–1887. Graz, 1954, vol. 2.
13. Gaul K.W. Romanische Elemente in dem Latein der Lex Salica. Giessen, 1886.
14. Kern F. Recht und Verfassung im Mittelalter. Historische Zeitschrift, 1919, no. 120, pp. 1–79.
15. Eckhardt K. A. Lex Salica T. IV, pp. 2. (MGH, LL nat. Germ., 4). München, 1969.
16. Löfstedt B. Studien über die Sprache der langobardischen Gesetze. Beiträge zur frühmittelalterlichen Latinität (Studia latina Upsaliensia, 1). Stockholm-Göteborg-Uppsala, 1961, pp. 10–276.
17. McKitterick R. The Carolingians and the Written Word. Cambridge, 1989.
18. Mazhuga V. Über die Herkunft und die Verbreitung der dem griechischen Alpha gleichen Form von a. Urkundenschrift und Buchschrift im frühmittelalterlichen Europa (vom 7. bis zum Anfang des 9.s Jahrhunderts). O.Kresten, F. Lackner (éd.). Régionalisme et internationalisme. Wien, 2005, pp. 1–11.
19. Mordek H. Bibliotheca capitularium regum Francorum manuscripta. Überlieferung und Traditionzusammenhang der fränkischen Herrschererlasse. München, 1995 (MGH, Hilfsmittel, 15), pp. 702–705.
20. Patzold S. Die Veränderung frühmittelalterlichen Rechts im Spiegel der ‚Leges‘-Reformen Karls des Großen und Ludwigs des Frommen. Rechtsveränderung im politischen und sozialen Kontext mittelalterlicher Rechtsvielfalt. S. Esders, C. Reinle (Hrsg.). (Neue Aspekte der europäischen Mittelalterforschung, 5). Münster, 2005, pp. 63–99.
21. Schmidt-Wiegand R. Die volkssprachigen Wörter der leges barbarorum als Ausdruck sprachlicher Interferenz. Frühmittelalterliche Studien. Bd. 13. Berlin; N.Y., 1979, pp. 56–87.
22. Ubl K. Die erste Leges-Reform Karls des Großen. Das Gesetz – The Law – La Loi. G. Guldentops, A. Speer (Hrsg.). (Miscellanea Mediaevalia 38). Berlin; New York, 2014, pp. 75–92;
23. Verdo R. La Reconfiguration du latin mérovingien sous les carolingiens. Étude sociolinguistique des diplômes royaux et des réécritures hagiographiques (VIIe-IXe siècle). Thèse pour le diplôme d’archiviste paléographe. Paris, 2010.