Halfway Between Byzantium and Serbia: Marriage Provisions of the Second Žiča Charter .

Marking the eight hundred years anniversary of the adoption of the Žiča Charter issued by Stefan Prvovjenčani is more than a good reason to closely examine the provisions of this Charter. If we think about the historical and political context of that time, it becomes clear that the Žiča Charter provides direct information on the formative processes of the Serbian state and church. Žiča was not only the seat of the new Serbian archdiocese, but also had a central role in building the cult of the Nemanjić dynasty and especially of Stefan Prvovjenčani as its first king. The Žiča Charter, one of the oldest Serbian legal monuments, represents the determination of the first Serbian king to create a powerful Serbian state and strengthen the Serbian Orthodox Church, which would be the base of the political and legal program not only for Stefan Prvovjenčani, but also for his successors. This is reminiscent of the „symphony doctrine” that was copied from Byzantium, and in that copying, no branch of law, including marriage law, was spared. The most important part of this Charter are definitely the norms dedicated to marital law, which show that general political tendencies had a huge impact on private law too. Many legal transplants such as the prohibition of arbitrary divorce, the prohibition of kidnaping as a way of separating spouses or dowry institutions have caused radical changes in Serbian marital law; however, they were not immune to transformations under the influence of customary law and attitudes of the society of medieval Serbia. It once again proves the thesis of professor Alan Watson who claimed that legal transplants have their own, independent life in the law system that accepted them. When it comes to Serbian medieval law, that life started very early. The influence of Roman-Byzantine and canon law was already felt in the Nomokanon of Sveti Sava, and then in the Žiča Charter; in later regulations of Serbian medieval law this influence becomes quite obvious. The main topic of this paper will be the process of legal transplantation in marital law from the Byzantine Empire to Serbia and the author will also try to discover and explain certain regularities and deviations in that process. Тhe analysis of the marital provisions of the Žiča Charter is naturally imposed here as a starting point.

Illuminated English Law Books

Illuminated books of the English legal tradition follow distinct iconographic patterns depending on the nature of the legal material included. The article explores correlations and dissonance between image and text as well as the symbolism associated with the imagery (in both initials and the margins) and its connection to political, legal and social discourses. It evaluates what the images reveal about key concepts of medieval law and justice, including kingship and good governance, the role of parliament and the church in endorsing these, as well as how these aspects might be undermined (or paradoxically confirmed) by medieval society’s penchant for role reversal, transgression and misrule.

Die Handschrift des Digestum vetus aus der Bibliothek in Kórnik (BK 824). Vom ikonographischen Programm der mittelalterlichen Künstler zur Hypothese über die Unterrichtsmethode

The collection of the Kórnik Library includes the digestum vestus manuscript, the uniqueness of which is emphasized by art historians. There are two main reasons why it is unique. Firstly, because of the number of illuminations in the legal manuscript. Secondly, because of the confirmed fact that relevant part of illuminations was implementing an illustrative program. The paper starts with presenting the history of the manuscript. The main part of the paper focuses on the issues if and how the illustrative program has reflected the medieval teaching method based on the first 24 books of Justinian’s Digest (digestum vetus). The analysis of allocating the illuminations and links between illuminations and specific legal issues give rise to recognizing the main features of this method: central role of the tort (aquilian) liability, semi-systemic approach to the formation and performance of contract and marginal role of the texts related to legal method and general concepts of law at the beginning of the Digest. This hypothesis formulated on the basis of one, unique manuscript should inspire further debate about the fragmentary pragmatic nature of medieval law teaching based on the Digest.

The Printing of Twelfth-Century English Historiography, and the Integration of Law with History

Chapter 10 opens with the first printing in the 1590s of several of the great works of twelfth-century English historical writing: Lord William Howard’s edition of John of Worcester (1592); and Henry Savile’s of William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, Roger of Howden, and (purporting to be twelfth-century) Pseudo-Ingulf’s Historia Croylandensis (1596). It then proceeds to the editing and publication of works of Norman historiography which encompassed the Conquest: William of Jumièges, William of Poitiers, and Orderic Vitalis. It pays a great deal of attention to William Camden and Robert Cotton. The chapter culminates with a discussion of John Selden’s edition of Eadmer’s Historia novorum. This is shown to combine the two strands of antiquarian interest examined in preceding chapters: medieval historical writing, and medieval law. In terms both of choice of text and focus of editorial attention, it reveals that by the reign of James VI and I, the Conquest had again become the key issue in English medieval history. The chapter also discusses chorographical history as espoused by William Lambarde and William Camden, and the beginnings of scholarly investigation of Domesday Book. It ends by looking forward to the central role which controversy about the Conquest would play in political arguments of the seventeenth century.

THE CONTENT OF THE CONCEPT OF «WINE» IN THE SOURCES OF RUSSIAN LAW XI-XVII CENTURIES

Аннотация. В статье рассматривается возникновение и развитие института вины в русском средневековом праве. Автор приходит к выводу о том, что в русском законодательстве XI-XVII вв. понятие «вина» имело полисемантичное значение. Преобладало понимание вины в значении запрещенного деяния, в результате которого был причинен вред лицу или его имуществу и за которое обидчик (правонарушитель) обязан понести наказание. В русском средневековом обществе понимание вины постепенно эволюционировало в направлении от запрещенного деяния, причинившего вред, в область внутреннего отношения субъекта к содеянному и его последствиям. Annotation. The article discusses the emergence and development of the institution of guilt in Russian medieval law. The author comes to the conclusion that in the Russian legislation of the XI-XVII centurie the concept of «guilt» had a polysemantic meaning. The prevailing understanding of guilt in the meaning of a prohibited act, which resulted in harm to a person or his property and for which the offender (offender) is required to be punished. In Russian medieval society, the concept of guilt gradually evolved in the direction from the prohibited act that caused harm to the area of the subject's internal relationship to the deed and its consequences.