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Excerpta de libris Romanorum et Francorum ‘Excerpts from books of the Romans and Franks’

  • Latin
  • prose
  • Breton texts, Canon law collection
An early legal Latin collection of well over 60 chapters dealing with matters of criminal law in northwestern France. Its date and provenance are both uncertain, but Breton origins are often assumed, partly on the basis of Old Breton glosses in the earliest manuscript witnesses. It is considered to be a principal source for the relationship between Bretons (the Britons in Armorica) and Franks as it prevailed in the very early middle ages.
Title
Excerpta de libris Romanorum et Francorum
‘Excerpts from books of the Romans and Franks’
The collection was formerly known as Canones Wallici, a title still occasionally used even though its Welsh associations date from a later period. The now generally preferred title Excerpta de libris Romanorum et Francorum is attested for the A version.
Manuscripts
Language
  • Latin
Form
prose (primary)

Classification

Breton textsBreton texts
...
Canon law collectionCanon law collection
...

Sources

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] [tr.] Bieler, Ludwig [ed.], and D. A. Binchy [appendix], The Irish penitentials, Scriptores Latini Hiberniae, 5, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1963.
136–148
[ed.] Elliot, Michael D., “Excerpta de libris Romanorum et Francorum (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton, 42)”, Abigail Firey [project director], Carolingian canon law project, Online: Collaboratory for Research in Computing for Humanities, University of Kentucky, 2011–. URL: <http://ccl.rch.uky.edu/node/6096>.
Transcription from MS Hatton 42
[ed.] Haddan, A. W., and W. Stubbs, Councils and ecclesiastical documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland, 3 vols, vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1869.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>
127–137 (Appendix A)
[ed.] Wasserschleben, F. W. H., Die Bussordnungen der abendländischen Kirche: nebst einer rechtsgeschichtlichen Einleitung, Halle: Ch. Graeger, 1851.
Internet Archive: <link>
124–136 (appendix b)
[ed.] Migne, Jacques-Paul (ed.), Sanctorum Hildefonsi, Leodegarii, Juliani, Toletani, Augustodunensis et iterum Toletani episcoporum opera omnia, Patrologia Latina, 96, Paris, 1851.
Gallica – 1851: <link> Internet Archive – 1862 version.: <link>
cols 1320–1324

Secondary sources (select)

Coumert, Magali, “Existe-t-il une ‘Ancienne loi des Bretons d’Armorique’? Identités ethniques et tradition manuscrite au haut Moyen Âge”, La Bretagne Linguistique 18 (2014): 227–264.
Coumert, Magali, “Des lois bretonnes du Haut Moyen Âge? Les Extraits des livres des Romains et des Francs”, in: Jean-Christophe Cassard, Pierre-Yves Lambert, and Bertrand Yeurc'h (eds), Mélanges offerts au professeur Bernard Merdrignac, 17, Landévennec, 2013. 109–120.
Charles-Edwards, T. M., “6. Rome and the Britons, 400–664”, in: T. M. Charles-Edwards, Wales and the Britons, 350–1064, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. 220–241.
228–230; 238 [‘The sixth century’]
Grazia, Michele, “I Canones Wallici: uno statuto rurale europeo. L’eclettismo giuridico di una compilazione normativa altomedievale”, I quaderni del MAES 11 (2008): 141–178.
Owen, Morfydd E., “The Excerpta de libris Romanorum et Francorum and Cyfraith Hywel”, in: T. M. Charles-Edwards, and Paul Russell (eds), Tair colofn cyfraith: The three columns of law in medieval Wales: homicide, theft and fire, 5, Bangor: The Welsh Legal History Society, 2007. 171–195.
Kernéis, Soazick, “L’ancienne loi des Bretons d’Armorique. Contribution à l’étude du droit vulgaire”, Revue d'histoire du droit français et étranger 73 (1995): 175–199.
Le Duc, Gwenaël, “Notes sur les anciennes lois bretonnes (Canones Wallici)”, in: Gwennolé Le Menn, and Jean-Yves Le Moing (eds), Bretagne et pays celtiques: langues, histoire, civilisation. Mélanges offerts à la mémoire de Léon Fleuriot (1923–1987), Saint-Brieuc, Rennes, 1992. 101–109.
Fleuriot, Léon, “Les très anciennes lois bretonnes: leur date, leur texte”, in: Marc Simon (ed.), Landévennec et le monachisme breton dans le haut Moyen Âge: actes du colloque du 15e centenaire de l’abbaye de Landévennec, 25-26-27 avril 1985, Association Landévennec 485–1985, Landévennec: Association Landévennec, 1986. 66–84.
Dumville, David N., “On the dating of the early Breton lawcodes”, Études Celtiques 21 (1984): 207–221.  
abstract:
Examen des critères permettant de déterminer l'origine et la date des Excerpta de Libris Romanorum et Francorum, texte de loi séculier breton. L’origine semble bien être armoricaine, comme le propose L. Fleuriot. Mais la date est difficile à préciser : les emprunts à la Lex Salica, définis par Ludwig Bieler, ne permettent pas une datation précise. Quant aux passages parallèles avec la Collectio Canonum Hibernensis, il est difficile de préciser le sens de l’emprunt (l’emprunt semble avoir été plutôt le fait de l’auteur des Excerpta). Il serait donc prudent de renoncer à la date 520 x 560 proposée par L. Fleuriot et de ranger provisoirement les Excerpta dans le VIIIe siècle.
Persée – Études Celtiques, vol. 21, 1984: <link>
Fleuriot, Léon, “Un fragment en Latin de très anciennes lois bretonnes armoricaines du VIe siècle”, Annales de Bretagne 78 (1971): 601–660.
Bieler, Ludwig, “Towards an interpretation of the so-called Canones Wallici”, in: J. A. Watt, J. B. Morrall, and F. X. Martin (eds), Medieval studies presented to Aubrey Gwynn, S. J., Dublin: The Three Candles, 1961. 387–392.
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
September 2014, last updated: January 2024
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