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Visigothic Code
The Visigothic Code (Latin: Forum Iudicum, Liber
Iudiciorum, or Book of the Judgements; Spanish: Fuero
Juzgo), also called Lex Visigothorum (English: Law of the
Visigoths), is a set of laws first promulgated by king
Chindasuinth (642–653 AD) of the Visigothic Kingdom in his
second year of rule (642–643) that survives only in fragments.
In 654 his son, king Recceswinth (649–672), published the
enlarged law code, which was the first law code that applied
equally to the conquering Goths and the general population, of
which the majority had Roman roots, and had lived under
Roman laws.

The code abolished the old tradition of having different laws for
Romans (leges romanae) and Visigoths (leges barbarorum),
and under it all the subjects of the Visigothic kingdom would
stop being romani and gothi instead becoming hispani. In this
way, all subjects of the kingdom were gathered under the same
jurisdiction, eliminating social and legal differences, and
The cover of an edition of the Liber
allowing greater assimilation of the populations.[1] As such, the Iudiciorum from 1600.
Code marks the transition from the Roman law to Germanic
law and is one of the best surviving examples of leges
barbarorum. It combines elements of the Roman law, Catholic law and Germanic tribal customary
law.

The first law codes

During the first centuries of Visigothic rule, Romans were ruled by different laws than Goths were.
The earliest known Visigothic laws are the Code of Euric, which were compiled by roughly 480
A.D. The first written laws of the Visigothic kingdom were compiled during the rule of king Alaric
II and were meant to regulate the lives of Romans, who made up the majority of the kingdom and
were based on the existing Roman imperial laws and their interpretations. The Breviarium
(Breviary of Alaric) was promulgated during the meeting of Visigothic nobles in Toulouse on
February 2, 506.[2]

During the reign of king Leovigild an attempt was made to unite the laws regulating the lives of
Goths and Romans into a revised law code, Codex Revisus. In 589, at the Third Council of Toledo,
the ruling Visigoths and Suebi, who had been Arian Christians, accepted Roman Christianity (what
became modern Catholicism). Now that the formerly Roman population and the Goths shared the
same faith King Reccared issued laws that equally applied to both populations.[3]

Visigothic code
The code of 654 was enlarged by the novel legislation of Recceswinth (for which reason it is
sometimes called the Code of Recceswinth) and later kings Wamba, Erwig, Egica, and perhaps
Wittiza. Recceswinth's code was edited by Braulio of Zaragoza, since Chindasuinth's original code
had been hastily written and promulgated.[5]

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During the Twelfth Council of Toledo in 681, King Erwig asked

that the law code be clarified and revised. Some new laws were
added, out of which 28 dealt with Jews.[6]

The laws were far-reaching and long in effect: in 10th-century

Galicia, monastic charters make reference to the Code.[7] The
laws govern and sanction family life and by extension political
life: marriage, the transmission of property to heirs,
safeguarding the rights of widows and orphans. Particularly
with the Visigoth's Law Codes, women could inherit land and
title, were allowed to manage land independently from their
husbands or male relations, dispose of their property in legal
wills if they had no heirs, could represent themselves and bear
witness in court by age 14 and arrange for their own marriages
by age 20.[8]

The laws combined the Catholic Church's Canon law, and as

such have a strongly theocratic tone.

The code is known to have been preserved by the Moors, as

Fragment of an 11th-century Liber Christians were permitted the use of their own laws, where they
Judiciorum translation to the old did not conflict with those of the conquerors, upon the regular
[4]
Occitan language. Guarded at payment of jizya tribute. Thus it may be presumed that it was
Santa Maria of Montserrat Abbey on the recognized legal authority of Christian magistrates while
the Montserrat mountain, Spain. the Iberian Peninsula remained under Muslim control. When
Ferdinand III of Castile took Córdoba in the thirteenth century,
he ordered that the code be adopted and observed by his
subjects, and had it translated, albeit inaccurately, into the Spanish language, as the Fuero Juzgo.
The Occitan language translation of this document, Llibre Jutge, is among the oldest literary texts
in that language (c. 1050). In 1910 an English translation of the code by Samuel Parsons Scott was
published,[9] but it received severe criticism.[10]

Contents
The following is a list of the books and titles which form the Visigothic Code.

Book I: Concerning Legal Agencies

Title I: The Lawmaker
Title II: The Law
Book II: Concerning the Conduct of Causes
Title I: Concerning Judges, and Matters to be Decided in Court
Title II: Concerning Causes
Title III: Concerning Constituents and Commissions
Title IV: Concerning Witnesses and Evidence
Title V: Concerning Valid and Invalid Documents and How Wills Should be Drawn Up
Book III: Concerning Marriage
Title I: Concerning Nuptial Contracts
Title II: Concerning Unlawful Marriages
Title III: Concerning the Rape of Virgins, or Widows
Title IV: Concerning Adultery

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Title V: Concerning Incest, Apostasy, and Pederasty

Title VI: Concerning Divorce, and the Separation of Persons who have been Betrothed
Book IV: Concerning Natural Lineage
Title I: Concerning the Degrees of Relationship
Title II: Concerning the Laws of Inheritance
Title III: Concerning Wards and Their Guardians
Title IV: Concerning Foundlings
Title V: Concerning Such Property as is Vested by the Laws of Nature
Book V: Concerning Business Transactions
Title I: Ecclesiastical Affairs
Title II: Concerning Donations in General
Title III: Concerning the Gifts of Patrons
Title IV: Concerning Exchanges and Sales
Title V: Concerning Property Committed to the Charge of, or Loaned to, Another
Title VI: Concerning Pledges and Debts
Title VII: Concerning the Liberation of Slaves, and Freedmen
Book VI: Concerning Crimes and Tortures
Title I: Concerning the Accusers of Criminals
Title II: Concerning Malefactors and their Advisors, and Poisoners
Title III: Concerning Abortion
Title IV: Concerning Injuries, Wounds, and Mutilations, Inflicted upon Men
Title V: Concerning Homicide
Book VII: Concerning Theft and Fraud
Title I: Concerning Informers of Theft
Title II: Concerning Thieves and Stolen Property
Title III: Concerning Appropriators and Kidnappers of Slaves
Title IV: Concerning Custody and Sentencing
Title V: Concerning Forgers of Documents
Title VI: Concerning Counterfeiters of Metals
Book VIII: Concerning Acts of Violence and Injuries
Title I: Concerning Attacks, and Plunder of Property
Title II: Concerning Arson and Incendiaries
Title III: Concerning injuries to Trees, Gardens, or Growing Crops of any Description
Title IV: Concerning Injury to Animals, and Other Property
Title V: Concerning the Pasturage of Hogs and Concerning Strays
Title VI: Concerning Bees, and the Damage They Cause
Book IX: Concerning Fugitives and Refugees
Title I: Concerning Fugitives, and Those who Conceal, and Assist Them in Their Flight
Title II: Concerning Those who Refuse to go to War, and Deserters
Title III: Concerning Those who Seek Sanctuary in a Church
Book X: Concerning Partition, Limitation, and Boundaries
Title I: Concerning Partition, and Lands Conveyed by Contract
Title II: Concerning the Limitations of Fifty and Thirty Years
Title III: Concerning Boundaries and Landmarks
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Book XI: Concerning the Sick and the Dead and Merchants who Come from Beyond
Title I: Concerning Physicians and Sick Persons
Title II: Concerning Those who Disturb Sepulchres
Title III: Concerning Merchants who Come from Beyond Seas
Book XII: Concerning the Prevention of Official Oppression, and the Thorough Extinction of
Heretical Sects
Title I: Concerning the Exercise of Moderation in Judicial Decisions, and the Avoiding of
Oppression by Those Invested with Authority
Title II: Concerning the Eradication of the Errors of all Heretics and Jews
Title III: Concerning New Laws against the Jews, in which Old Ones are Confirmed, and
New Ones are Added

See also
Code of Euric
Early Germanic law
Fuero Juzgo
Salic law
Code (law)

Notes
1. O'Callaghan, Joseph (1975). A History of Medieval Spain (https://archive.org/details/historyofm
edieva00ocal). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. p. 49 (https://archive.org/details/historyof
medieva00ocal/page/49). ISBN 9780801492648.
2. Visigothic Spain 409–711 (https://books.google.com/books?id=WlSu_iWzA9AC&q=breviarium
&pg=PA230)
3. Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom (https://books.google.com/books?id=imzdcbp_5wo
C&dq=visigothic+code&pg=PA19)
4. "11th century Occitan translation of the Liber Iudiciorum" (http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra
-visor/fragment-duna-versio-catalana-del-liber-iudiciorum-visigotic-manuscrit-forum-iudicum--0/
html/). www.cervantesvirtual.com.
5. King, 148–149.
6. Law and Society in the Visigothic Kingdom (https://books.google.com/books?id=imzdcbp_5wo
C&dq=visigothic+code&pg=PA19)
7. Fletcher 1984, ch. 1, note 56
8. Klapisch-Zuber, Christine; A History of Women: Book II Silences of the Middle Ages, The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London, England.
1992, 2000 (5th printing). Chapter 6, "Women in the Fifth to the Tenth Century" by Suzanne
Fonay Wemple, pg 74. According to Wemple, Visigothic women of the Iberian Peninsula and
the Aquitaine could inherit land and title and manage it independently of their husbands, and
dispose of it as they saw fit if they had no heirs, and represent themselves in court, appear as
witnesses (by the age of 14), and arrange their own marriages by the age of twenty
9. The Visigothic Code (Forum Judicum (1910) available at
http://libro.uca.edu/vcode/visigoths.htm

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10. Kearley, Timothy (1975). Roman Law, Classical Education, and Limits on Classical
Participation in America into the Twentieth Century. Fort Collins, CO: Veterrimus Publishing.
ISBN 978-1-7361312-1-3., pages 168-172.

Sources
King, P. D. "King Chindasvind and the First Territorial Law-code of the Visigothic Kingdom." in
Visigothic Spain: New Approaches (https://archive.org/details/visigothicspainn0000unse). ed.
Edward James. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980. pp 131–157.
Lear, Floyd Seyward (1951). "The Public Law of the Visigothic Code" (https://www.jstor.org/sta
ble/2852081). Speculum. 26 (1): 1–23. doi:10.2307/2852081 (https://doi.org/10.2307%2F2852
081). ISSN 0038-7134 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0038-7134).

External links
Lex Visigothorum (http://mdz1.bib-bvb.de/~db/bsb00000852/images/index.html?id=00000852&
nativeno=3) - Latin text
Visigothic Code - Forum Iudicum. 1908 English Translation of Full Text (http://libro.uca.edu/vco
de/visigoths.htm) by Samuel Parsons Scott
R. A. Fletcher, 1984. Saint James's Catapult: The Life and Times of Diego Gelmírez of
Santiago de Compostela (Oxford University Press) (on-line text (http://libro.uca.edu/sjc/sjc1.ht
m))
Information on the Visigothic Code as part of the leges Visigothorum and its manuscript
tradition on the Bibliotheca legum regni Francorum manuscripta website (http://www.leges.uni-
koeln.de/en/lex/leges-visigothorum/), A database on Carolingian secular law texts (Karl Ubl,
Cologne University, Germany, 2012).
Visigothic Symposia 1 'Law and Theology' - New research on the Visigothic Code (https://visig
othicsymposia.org/symposia)

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