Early English Laws

November 21, 2012 10:56 AM

Early English Laws is a project to publish online and in print new editions and translations of all English legal codes, edicts, and treatises produced up to the time of Magna Carta 1215.

For many people the digital editions will be the most interesting part of the project. The texts page is the easiest way to find laws that have been edited; look for "published" in the "Proposal in process or edition accepted" column.

The digital editions have a very nice interface, allowing the user to see a side-by-side comparison of the edited text (both in the original language and translation), commentary, and facsimiles of the original manuscript or early print edition. For example, here is a translation of Æthelberht’s code together with commentary.

There are also some interesting contextual essays, for example "Women and law in the Anglo-Saxon period."

posted by jedicus (7 comments total)

I just sent a link to this post to all my friends who geek out about English legal history. Thanks for posting!
posted by ocherdraco at 12:01 PM on November 21, 2012

Medieval history is a particular interest of mine, and I thank you for this post!
posted by cool breeze at 1:36 PM on November 21, 2012

I wish I'd had this while I was in grad school. It's really before my major period of interest but it would have been a fantastic resource. Thanks for posting it!
posted by immlass at 1:45 PM on November 21, 2012 [1 favorite]

Cool! I was for a time a member of the Selden Society and had a lot of fun looking through volumes of reported cases from the 1200s. Just a really fascinating look into the daily disputes of the time. This looks similarly interesting. Thanks!
posted by bepe at 3:25 PM on November 21, 2012

This is relevent to my interests.
posted by Joe in Australia at 4:52 PM on November 21, 2012

Oh, wow - just in time to lose the entire holiday to reading. Thanks, jedicus!
posted by catlet at 7:02 PM on November 21, 2012

Nice!
posted by snuffleupagus at 9:24 PM on November 21, 2012