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.
Author(s): Stefan Jurasinski, Lisi Oliver
Series: Studies in Legal History
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 320
City: Cambridge
01.0_pp_i_vi_Frontmatter
02.0_pp_vii_viii_Frontmatter
03.0_pp_ix_x_Contents
04.0_pp_xi_xi_List_of_Figures
05.0_pp_xii_xii_List_of_Tables
06.0_pp_xiii_xix_Preface
07.0_pp_xx_xxii_Acknowledgments
08.0_pp_1_2_Backgrounds
08.1_pp_3_41_The_Emergence_of_Written_Law_in_Early_England
08.2_pp_42_77_Legal_Erudition_in_Seventh-_and_Ninth-century_Wessex
08.3_pp_78_112_Reshaping_Tradition_Oaths_Ordeals_and_the_Innovations_of_the_Domboc
08.4_pp_113_145_The_Transmission_of_the_Domboc_Old_English_Manuscripts_and_Other_Early_Witnesses
08.5_pp_146_174_Reception_Editorial_History_and_Interpretative_Legacies
09.0_pp_175_176_Editions
09.1_pp_177_180_Editorial_Procedure
9.1.1_pp_181_219_Rubrics_Edition_and_Translation
9.1.2_pp_220_273_Alfreds_Prologue
9.1.3_pp_274_363_The_Laws_of_Alfred
9.1.4_pp_364_437_The_Laws_of_Ine
10.0_pp_438_442_Appendix_Handlist_of_Prior_Editions
11.0_pp_443_466_Bibliography
12.0_pp_467_469_Topical_Index_to_the_Laws_of_Alfred_and_Ine
13.0_pp_470_472_Index_Nominum_et_Rerum
