The Text of Visigothic Law in Practice

Abstract

This essay is a case study in the textual transmission of the Visigothic law code or Book of Judgements (Liber Iudiciorum). Rather than relying solely on manuscript copies, I draw on charters as sources for the text, and by tracking the citation of treason law across the corpus of documentation from early medieval Asturias-León and Navarra, I identify three new witnesses. On the basis of this methodology and its results, I then propose a new approach to reading the code through its use in practice which should be taken into account in the revision of the standard Monumenta Germaniae Historica edition.