Medieval Law

By Sara M. Butler; posted 17 April 2020; last updated 12 July 2023.

This is intended to be a list of primary sources in print for students who are writing history papers, for professors who are trying to find sources for their students, and for those who are simply interested in reading some original documents.

The goal of this page is accessibility: therefore, almost all of these texts are ones that have been translated into English.

Roman Law

Birks, P. and G. McLeod, eds. and trans. Justinian’s Institutes. London: Duckworth, 1987. Worldcat.

Gordon, W.M. and O.F. Robinson, eds. and trans. The Institutes of Gaius. London: Duckworth, 1988. Worldcat.

Kolbert, C.F., ed. and trans. The Digest of Roman Law: Theft, Rapine, Damage and Insult. Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1979. Worldcat.

Scott, Samuel P., ed. and trans. The Novels of Justinian. Cinncinati: The Central Trust Company, 1932. Online.

The Institutes of Gaius (c. 170 A.D.). The Latin Library. Online.

Watson, Alan, ed. and trans. The Digest of Justinian, 4 vols. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009-2011.  Available through Project Muse ebooks.

Canon Law

Bullard, John and Chalmer Bell, eds., Lyndwood’s Provinciale: The Text of the Canons Therin Contained, Reprinted from the Translation made in 1534. London: Faith Press, 1929. Worldcat.

Cowdrey, H.E.J. The Register of Pope Gregory VII 1073-1085: An English Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Worldcat.

Gilchrist, John, ed. The Collection in Seventy-Four Titles: A Canon Law Manual of the Gregorian Reform. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1980. Worldcat.

Gratian, The Treatise on Laws (Decretum DD. 1-20) with the Ordinary Gloss, trans. Augustine Thompson and James Gordley, introduction by Katherine Christensen. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1993. Worldcat.

Flechner, Roy, ed. and trans. The Hibernensis: Book Two: Translation, Commentary and Indexes. Washington D.C. The Catholic University of America Press, 2019. Worldcat.

Larson, Atria, ed. and trans. Gratian’s Tractatus de Penitentia. Washington, DC. The Catholic University of America Press, 2016. Worldcat.

Powicke, Frederick and Christopher Cheney, eds, Councils and Synods: With Other Documents relating to the English Church, 2 vols. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964. Worldcat.

Raymond of Penyafort, Summa on Marriage, trans. by Pierre Payer. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2005. Worldcat.

Regino of Prüm, Two Books on Synodal Causes and Ecclesiastical Disciplines, trans. Guilio Silano. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2021. Worldcat.

Schroeder, H.J., ed. and trans. Disciplinary Decrees of the General Councils: Text, Translation, and Commentary. St Louis: B. Herder Book Company, 1937. Internet Archive.

Somerville, Robert and Bruce C. Brasington, eds., and trans., Prefaces to Canon Law Books in Latin Christianity. Selected Translations, 500-1317. Second edition. Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Press of America, 2020. Worldcat.

Tanner, Norman P., ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. Volume One: Nicaea I to Lateran V. London: Sheed & Ward, 1990. Worldcat.

Early Medieval

Drew, Katherine F., ed., and trans. The Burgundian Code: Book or Constitutions of Law of Gundobad. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972. Available through Project Muse ebooks. Worldcat.

Drew, Katherine F., ed., and trans. The Laws of the Salian Franks. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991. Available through Project Muse ebooks. Worldcat.

Drew, Katherine F., ed., and trans. The Lombard Laws. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1971. Available through Project Muse ebooks. Worldcat.

Scott, Samuel P., ed. and trans. The Visigothic Law Code (Forum Judicum). The Library of Iberian Resources Online. Online.

Eastern European

Vernadsky, George, ed. and trans. Medieval Russian Laws. New York: Columbia University Press, 1947. Worldcat.

Bak, János M., ed. and trans. The Laws of the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary. Utah State University, Digital Commons, 2019. Available online.

Northern European

Collinson, Lisa, and Torgeir Landro, Bertil Nilsson, eds. and trans. The Borgarthing Law and the Eidsivathing Law: The Laws of Eastern Norway. New York and London: Routledge, 2020. Available through Taylor and Francis EBA. Worldcat.

Lindkvist, Thomas, ed. and trans. The Västgöta Laws. New York and London: Routledge, 2021. Available through Taylor and Francis EBA. Worldcat.

Peel, Christine, ed. and trans. Guta Lag and Guta Saga: The Law and History of the Gotlanders. New York and London: Routledge, 2015. Worldcat.

Simensen, Erik, ed. and trans. The Older Gulathing Law. New York and London: Routledge, 2021. Available through Taylor and Francis EBA. Worldcat.

Tamm, Ditlev, ed. and trans. The Liber legis Scaniae: The Latin Text with Introduction, Translation and Commentaries. New York and London: Routledge, 2018. Available through Taylor and Francis EBA. Worldcat.

Tamm, Ditlev, and Helle Vögt, eds. and trans. The Danish Medieval Laws: the Laws of Scania, Zealand and Jutland. New York and London: Routledge, 2016. Worldcat.

Western European

Akehurst, Frank R.P., ed. and trans. The Etablissements de Saint Louis: Thirteenth-Century Law Texts from Tours, Orleans, and Paris. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996. Available through Project Muse ebooks, and Ebsco. Worldcat.

Akehurst, Frank R.P., ed. and trans. The ‘Costuma de Agen’: A Thirteenth-Century Customary Compilation in Old Occitan. Turnhout: Brepols, 2010. Worldcat.

Beaumanoir, Philippe de. Coutumes de Beauvaisis, edited and translated by Frank R.P. Akehurst. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992. Available through Project Muse ebooks. Worldcat.

Dobozy, Maria, ed. and trans., The Saxon Mirror: A ‘Sachsenspiegel’ of the Fourteenth Century. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014. Available through Project Muse ebooks. Worldcat.

Kagay, Donald J., ed. and trans. The Utsages of Barcelona: The Fundamental Law of Catalonia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995. Available online.

Scott, Samuel Parsons and Robert I. Burns, eds. and trans. Las Siete Partidas, 5 vols. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012. Available through Project Muse ebooks.

Celtic

Crooks, Peter, ed. and trans., “‘Magna Carta Hiberniae’: The Destroyed Manuscript Witness from the Red Book of the Irish exchequer – Text and Translation.” In Law and the Idea of Liberty in Ireland from Magna Carta to the Present, ed. Peter Crooks and Thomas Mohr, 198-216. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2023. Worldcat.

Davies, J.R., ed. and trans., with introduction by A. Taylor. Regiam Majestatem: The Earliest Known Version. The Stair Society, vol. 68, 2022. Worldcat.

Frankot, Edda, and  Anna Havinga, Claire Hawes, William Hepburn, Wim Peters, Jackson Armstrong, Phil Astley, Andrew Mackillop, Andrew Simpson, Adam Wyner, eds. Aberdeen Registers Online: 1398-1511. Aberdeen: University of Aberdeen, 2019.

Jenkins, Dafydd, ed. and trans. The Law of Hywel Dda: Law Texts from Medieval Wales. Dyfed: Gomer Press, 1986. Worldcat.

Meyer, Kuno, ed., and trans. Cáin Adamnan: An Old-Irish Treatise on the Law of Adamnan. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905. At Hathitrust.

Roberts, Sara Elin, ed. and trans. The Legal Triads of Medieval Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007. Worldcat.

England

Early English

Attenborough, Frederick L., ed. The Laws of the Earliest English Kings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922. Reprinted 2019. At Hathitrust.

Downer, Leslie J., ed. and trans. Leges Henrici Primi. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972. Worldcat.

Monk, Chris, ed. and trans. Textus Roffensis. Rochester Cathedral Research Guild. Online.

O’Brien, Bruce, ed., God’s Peace and King’s Peace: The Laws of Edward the Confessor. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999. Worldcat.

Oliver, Lisi, ed. and trans. The Beginnings of English Law. Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press, 2002. Worldcat.

Robertson, Agnes J., ed. and trans. The Laws of the Kings of England from Edmund to Henry I. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1925. Reprinted 2009. Worldcat.

Winters, Jane, and Bruce O’Brien, et al., eds. Early English Laws. Institute of Historical Research at the University of London. Online.

Calendars

Calendar of Close Rolls, 1273-1485. 45 vols. London: HMSO, 1911-63. (Available with a subscription to British History Online). See also.

Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1272-1461. 19 vols. London: HMSO, 1911-39. Online.

Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous, 1216-1422. 7 vols. London: HMSO, 1916-69. At archive.org: vol. 1, vol. 2; At Hathitrust: vol. 3, vol. 4, vol. 5, vol. 6, vol. 7.

Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem. 26 vols. London: HMSO, 1898-2009. Available through British History Online. Also here.

Calendar of Patent Rolls, 1216-1509. 55 vols. London: HMSO, 1891-1916. Searchable index online. Also here.

Pugh, Ralph, ed. and trans. Calendar of London Trailbaston Trials under Commissions of 1305 and 1306. London: H.M.S.O., 1975.

Church Courts

McSheffrey, Shannon, ed. Consistory: Testimony in the Late Medieval London Consistory Court. Montreal: Concordia University.

Poos, Lawrence R., ed. Lower Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in Late-medieval England: The Courts of the Dean and Chapter of Lincoln, 1336-1349, and the Deanery of Wisbech, 1458-1484. Records of Social and Economic History, n.s. 32 (2001). Worldcat.

Common Law Courts

Boatwright, Lesley, ed. and trans. Inquests and Indictments from Late Fourteenth Century Buckinghamshire. Buckinghamshire Archaeological Society, vol. 29, 1994. Worldcat.

Brand, Paul A. ed. The Earliest English Law Reports. Selden Society, vol. 111, 112, 122 and 123, 1995-2005. Available through HEINONLINE

Cam, Helen M., ed. and trans. The Eyre of London, 14 Edward II (1321), 2 vols. Selden Society, vols. 85 and 86, 1968-69. Available through HEINONLINE.

Chew, Helena M., and Martin Weinbaum, eds. and trans. The London Eyre of 1244. London: London Record Society, 1970. Available online through: British History Online.

Clanchy, M.T., ed. and trans. Civil Pleas of the Wiltshire Eyre 1249. Wiltshire Record Society, vol. 26, 1971. Worldcat.

Drinkwater, Rev. C.H., ed. “Records of Proceedings before the Coroners of Salop (temp. Edward I, 1295 to 1306.” Shropshire Archaeological & Natural History Society, 3^rd ser., 5 (1905): 149-87. At Hathitrust.

Gross, Charles, ed. and trans. Select Cases from the Coroners’ Rolls. Selden Society, vol. 9, 1895. Accessible through HEINONLINE. Also at Hathitrust.

Harding, Alan, ed. and trans. The Shropshire Eyre Roll of 1256. Selden Society, vol. 96, 1980. Accessible through HEINONLINE.

Hershey, Andrew H., ed. The 1258-9 Special Eyre of Surrey and Kent. Surrey Record Society, vol. 38, 2004.

Hopkinson, Aileen, ed. and trans. The Rolls of the 1281 Derbyshire Eyre. Derbyshire Record Society, vol. 27, 2000. Worldcat.

Hunnisett, Roy F., ed. Bedfordshire Coroners’ Rolls. Bedfordshire Historical Record Society, vol. 61, 1960.

Leadam, Isaac S. ed. Select Cases before the King’s Council in the Star Chamber, Commonly called the Court of Star Chamber A.D. 1477-1509, 2 vols. Selden Society, vol. 16 and vol. 25, 1903-11. Available through HEINONLINE. Also, at Hathitrust: vol. 1, vol. 2.

Maitland, Frederic W., ed. Bracton’s Note Book: A Collection of Cases decided in the King’s Courts during the Reign of Henry the Third. London: C.J. Clay and Sons, 1887. At Hathitrust.

Maitland, Frederic W., ed. and trans., Select Pleas of the Crown. Selden Society, vol. 1, 1887. Available through HEINONLINE. Also, at Hathitrust.

Maitland, Frederic W., ed. Pleas of the Crown for the County of Gloucester. London: Macmillan, 1884. At Hathitrust.

Meekings, Cecil A. F., ed. Crown Pleas of the Wiltshire Eyre, 1249. Devizes: Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Society, Records Branch, 1960. Worldcat.

Pugh, Ralph, ed. and trans. Wiltshire Gaol Delivery and Trailbaston Trials 1275-1306. Wiltshire Record Society, vol. 33, 1978. Worldcat.

Sayles, George O., ed. and trans. Select Cases in the Court of King’s Bench under Edward I, 7 vols. Selden Society, vols. 55-58, 74, 76, 82, 88, 1936-1971. Accessible through HEINONLINE.

Sharpe, Reginald R., ed. and trans. Calendar of Coroners Rolls of the City of London A.D. 1300-1378. London: Richard Clay & Sons, 1913.  Available through archive.org.

 Stenton, Doris M., ed. Rolls of the Justices in Eyre being the Rolls of Pleas and Assizes for Gloucestershire, Warwickshire and Staffordshire, 1221, 1222. Selden Society, vol. 59, 1940. Available through HEINONLINE. Worldcat.

Stenton, Doris M., ed. Rolls of the Justices in Eyre being the Rolls of Pleas and Assizes for Lincolnshire 1218-19 and Worcestershire 1221. Selden Society, vol. 53, 1934. Available through HEINONLINE. Worldcat.

Sutherland, Donald W., ed. The Eyre of Northamptonshire, 3-4 Edward III (1329-1330). 2 vols. Selden Society, vols. 97 and 98, 1983. Available through HEINONLINE. Worldcat.

Weinbaum, Martin, ed. and trans. The London Eyre of 1276. London: London Record Society, 1976. Freely available online through British History Online.

Woolgar, Christopher M., ed. “A Lincolnshire Coroner’s Roll.” Lincolnshire History and Archaeology 16 (1981): 13-17.

English Common Law Treatises and Parliamentary Legislation

Bracton, Henri de. On the Laws and Customs of England, ed. and trans. George Woodbine and Samuel Thorne, 4 vols. 1968. Available online at Bracton Online

Fitzherbert, Anthony.  La Graunde Abridgement. London: John Rastell and Wynkyn de Worde, 1516. In French.

Fortescue, John. De Laudibus Legum Angliae. Ed. S.B. Chrimes. 2^nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.  1825 edition at Hathitrust.

Given-Wilson, Chris, et al., eds. Parliament Rolls of Medieval England. 16 vols. Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2005. Available by subscription through British History Online.

Hall, G.D.G., ed. The Treatise on the Laws and Customs of the Realm of England Commonly Called Glanvill. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993. Worldcat.

Henderson, Ernest, ed. “The Dialogue concerning the Exchequer, circa 1180.” In Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, 20-134. London: George Bell and Sons, 1910. Worldcat.

Kaye, J.M., ed. and trans. Placita Corone, or La Corone Pledee devant les Justices. Selden Society, supplementary series no. 4, 1966. Available through HEINONLINE. Worldcat.

Luders, Alexander, et. al, eds. and trans. Statutes of the Realm, vols. 1 and 2. London: HMSO.  Available through HEINONLINE. Also, at Hathitrust: vol. 1, vol. 2.

Richardson, H.G., and G.O. Sayles, eds. Fleta. Selden Society, vols. 72, 89, 99, 1953-83. Available through HEINONLINE

Nichols, Francis M., ed. and trans. Britton: An English Translation and Notes. 2 vols. Washington, DC: John Byrne and Co., 1901. At Hathitrust.

Whittaker, William J., ed. and trans. The Mirror of Justices. Selden Society, vol. 7, 1893. Available through HEINONLINE. Also at Hathitrust.

English Local Courts

Baigent, Francis, ed. A History of the Ancient Town and Manor of Basingstoke in the County of Southampton. Basingstoke: C.J. Jacob, 1889. At Hathitrust.

Bateson, Mary, ed. Records of the Borough of Leicester. 4 vols. London: Clay & Sons, 1899-At Hathitrust: vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3, vol. 4.

Chanter, J.R., and Thomas Wainwright, eds. Reprint of the Barnstaple Records. 2 vols. Barnstaple: A.E. Barnes, 1900. At Hathitrust.

Harris, Mary Dormer, ed. The Coventry Leet Book: Or Mayor’s Register: Containing the Records of the City Court Leet or View of Frankpledge, A.D. 1420-1555, with Divers other Matters. 2 parts. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, Co., Ltd., 1908. At Hathitrust.

Hudson, William, and John C. Tingey, eds. The Records of the City of Norwich. 2 vols. Norwich:Jarrold & Sons, 1906-10. At Hathitrust: vol. 1, vol. 2.

Jeayes, Isaac Herbert, ed. Court Rolls of the Borough of Colchester. 3 vols. Colchester: Town Council of the Borough of Colchester, 1921-41. At Hathitrust: vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3.

Lock, Ray, ed. and trans. The Court Rolls of Walsham Le Willows, 1303-1350. Woodbridge: Boydell, 1998. Worldcat.

Lock, Ray, ed. and trans. The Court Rolls of Walsham le Willows, 1351-1399. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2002. Worldcat.

Maitland, F.W., ed. Select Pleas in Manorial and Other Seigniorial Courts. Selden Society, vol. 2, 1888. Google Books.

Records of the Borough of Nottingham. 6 vols. London: Quaritch, 1882-85. At Hathitrust: vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3, vol. 4, vol. 5, vol. 6.

Riley, Henry T., ed. Chronicles of the Mayors and Sheriffs of London: 1188-1274. London: Trübner, 1863. At Hathitrust.

Riley, Henry T. ed. Liber Albus: The White Book of the City of London. London: Richard Griffith & Co., 1861. At Hathitrust.

Rogers, J.E., ed. Oxford City Documents, 1268-1665. Oxford Historical Society, vol. 18, 1891. At Hathitrust.

Salter, H.E., ed. Records of Mediaeval Oxford: Coroners’ Inquests, the Walls of Oxford, etc. Oxford: Oxford Chronicle Co., Ltd., 1912. At Hathitrust.

Sharpe, Reginald R., ed. Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of London, A-L (1275-1497). 11 vols. London: John Edward Francis, 1899-1912. At Hathitrust.

Thomas, A.H., ed. Calendar of Plea and Memoranda Rolls of the City of London, 1413-1437. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1943. Available through British History Online.

Thomas, A.H., ed. Calendar of Early Mayor’s Court Rolls of the City of London. A.D. 1298-Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1924. Available through British History Online.

Please also see: Kowaleski, Maryanne. “Appendix: An Annotated List of Printed or Online Transcriptions and Translations of Medieval Town Courts in Britain to 1500.” In Town Courts and Urban Society in Late Medieval England, 1250-1500, edited by Richard Goddard and Teresa Phipps, 220-35. Woodbridge: Boydell, 2019. Worldcat.

English Year Books

Seipp, David J., ed. Medieval English Legal History: An Index and Paraphrase of Printed Year Book Reports, 1268-1535. Boston: Boston University Law School. Online.

General

Baker, John and S.F.C. Milsom, eds. Sources of English Legal History: Private Law to 1750. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019. Worldcat.

Halsall, Paul, ed. “Internet Medieval Sourcebook: Medieval Legal History.”

Kiralfy, Alfred K.R. ed. Source Book of English Law. London: Sweet and Maxwell Limited, 1957. Worldcat.

Musson, Anthony, with Edward Powell, eds. Crime, Law, and Society in the Later Middle Ages: Selected Sources. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009. Worldcat.

 Jewish Law, or European Laws about the Jews

Halsall, Paul, ed. “Internet Jewish History Sourcebook.”

Kisch, Guido, ed. and trans. Jewry-Law in Medieval Germany: Laws and Court Decisions Concerning Jews. New York: American Academy of Jewish Research, 1949. Worldcat.

Linder, Amnon, ed. and trans. The Jews in the Legal Sources of the Early Middle Ages. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1997. Worldcat.

Linder, Amnon, ed. and trans. The Jews in Roman Imperial Legislation. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1987. Worldcat.

 Law in Literature

Ohlgren, Thomas, ed. and trans. Medieval Outlaws: Ten Tales in Modern English. Stroud: Sutton, 1998. Worldcat.

Medieval Readers that include some Legal Material

Rampton, Martha, ed. and trans. European Magic and Witchcraft: A Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018. Worldcat.

Smail, Daniel Lord, and Kelly Gibson, eds. and trans. Vengeance in Medieval Europe: A Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009. Accessible through Ebscohost. Worldcat.

Smelyansky, Eugene, ed. and trans. The Intolerant Middle Ages: A Reader. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2020. Worldcat.

Is there a primary source in print that you think should be added to this list? Why not email me the citation?  butler.960@osu.edu

Image:

The Court of Common Pleas at work. The image shows pleaders and clients standing in front of seven Justices, and below them, their clerks. Public Domain. Wikipedia.